Before you go out and purchase your Domain Name, consider how important it is to think about the consumers’ ability to remember it, and search engine optimisation. Both of these factors are extremely important components of your internet success but there are other considerations as well.
The world’s largest search engine, Google, gives a great deal of weight to the domain name itself when ranking a website page.
The three most important factors in a domain name relate to branding, ranking, and linking. Let’s take a look at each of these individually.
Branding
Your company’s brand is one of the most recognisable factors to consumers and it should be chosen with care. This also applies to the way it is utilised in your domain name.
Stay away from hyphenated names if possible for your main site. They are very hard for the average consumer to remember. Plus, they tend to link two or more keywords.
Consider the domain name of ‘search-engine-optimisation.com’. Right away, it seems to indicate that the site, and its content, is of little or no value other than to attract search engine crawlers. And it does a poor job of that, as well.
Conversely, just because you came up with a really cute name for your business does not mean it is the best to use it as all, or part, of your Domain Name. For instance, if your company is named Kraczinski’s Krawlers, would you really expect anyone to remember, let alone be able to spell, kraczinskiskrawlers.com? And when a search engine spider crawls that domain name, does the name indicate what category that business might be in?
Go with the happy medium between obvious keyword stuffing and a reliance on a difficult to remember name in your URL for the best results.
Search Engine Ranking
There is a value to using keywords in your domain name, and search engines do rank your page higher if it includes at least part of an applicable keyword(s).
One easy way to do this, without being obvious about stuffing, is to use a keyword and then add another word or term. Think of Travelocity, for instance. They used the very popular keyword ‘travel’ and combined it with another set of letters to make a new term. This ties in nicely with the above considerations for branding, thereby killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Of course, the first step in successfully creating a domain name in this manner is to determine what keywords are most popular for your type of business or industry. Chances are the plain old domain name of keyword.com will already be taken.
Should My Domain Name Be A .com?
The dot com website name might be considered most relevant but it’s not always available. You might consider using your preferred keyword and another term with an alternate ending to the more popular dot com.
A URL ending in .net, org, or even .biz can be effective, and cost quite a bit less. If the .com is available, it’s most often advisable to go with it. You might also consider your local extension as well such as .com.au, .ca, or .co.uk.
Linking
No matter what domain name you choose, make sure that it is easily linked to, and that the URL is not inadvertently transposed or changed to a competitor’s. Nothing could be worse than giving your marketing efforts away to the competition.
URL
Beyond the Domain Name, consider the way you name your pages. Your page names, used in your naming convention will add more SEO weight to your pages as well. For instance, instead of using yourname.com/123.html, consider using something like: yourname.com/buy_widgets_online.htm.
Before you go blindly into the process of buying a domain name because it appeals to you personally, consider all of these factors for memorability and maximum SEO potential.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Google does not favor any of the many tld’s (except country code domains when searched from a country specific Google site like google.co.uk). So the .com does not do anything for your SEO, it only makes it easier for your readers to remember your name since the .com tld is the most recognized.
I would totally agree, the dot com does not help with SEO, but is recognized as the preferred type of domain name by most people.
So good extra information Sean.
I try to get .com for a domain name but like you say it always available. I will try for a variation on the term and .com as my 2nd preference before looking at other extensions. The next option I look for are .net. I have a few .nets and they seem to work out ok
Hi Sean,
The thing I’ve found is that sometimes the domain I want is available but it’s offered as a premium domain name. Sometimes it can cost $1000 to get the domain I want. Is it worth paying this money or should I keep looking?
So far I haven’t spent the money but I wondered that if it costs so much more maybe it would be more valuable in the long run. It would naturally bring me greater levels of traffic.
Buying the domain you want can be beneficial for sure Jazz. I would only suggest doing so if you have a business plan for the site in question and you plan on putting in a lot of effort and time into making that domain successful. The domain in itself will not bring success by itself no matter how much it costs.
Hi Sean
This article is giving me many things to consider. It is not wise to just rush in and use a domain name just because it sounds trendy or your grandfather whispered it to you as he was dying. There are three factors to consider and they are branding, ranking, and linking.
I find this article is a good solid guide to adhere to. It makes sense to me to do my research or ‘due dilligence’ as we are advised in the YOTA forum. I will be looking for domain names for my LCM sites and will be able to put this information to use.
Thankyou Sean.
As I said in the last post, I have just purchased a domain name. It took me all day to decide what to call it after doing keyword research on the topic so I hope I have chosen a great one. I bought moneyinvestinginfo.com We were going to set it up with the Robert Kiyosaki products as my husband has done his coaching course etc but just found out they no longer have affiliates. Back to the drawing board.