When launching a new website, an essential step is choosing a good domain name. A common question regarding this topic is whether the choice of a domain name or its management can affect SEO. The most simple answer to the question is – yes. It’s the domain itself that is valued and indexed in search engines.
SEO is about relevance and creating a good experience for users, and this should also be reflected in the domain. In other words, your domain management can affect which position you get in the search results. These are things you should keep in mind when trying to find the best domain for your new website.
To help you along the way, below we discuss what to consider when selecting the perfect SEO-friendly domain name.
Branded Domain Names
The first rule when it comes to choosing an SEO-friendly domain name is that you should pick a name based on your brand as this will help users find, remember, identify and share your business online.
Generally, you should select a domain name around the same time you choose the name of your business. The main aspect of creating an SEO-strong domain name is branding. This is why you should use your business name as your domain name too as you won’t need further keyword-stuffing in the domain name. Having a recognizable online brand means that users will be more inclined to click, read, and link to your website. The more users remember your brand, the more they’ll revisit you and boost your website’s credibility and trust value. This will ultimately lead to your website having higher Google rankings.
For this reason, use your brand name as your domain name if the brand is already established and unique and if you’ve already started brand promotion and brand awareness.
Another important tip is to look up a domain registrar where you will buy the domain name. This search feature will show you which domain names are taken and which ones are available. There are many options to choose from and luckily you can find a cheap domain name through reputable registrars.
Keyword Domains
When you’re in the process of researching SEO and how to select a good domain name, you might think that a keyword-optimized domain name would be the best option. Keywords are an essential part of SEO strategies but when it comes to domains, it’s a little different. An example of a keyword-driven name includes services and location, for instance, miamihairstylist.com. However, this type of domain does not include the business name, they only tell the user what service they provide and where they are located.
Yes, keywords are essential but Google doesn’t give great value to keyword domains as it does to brand domains. Therefore, if you want to use keywords in your domain, amalgamate them with your brand so you can get both cases covered.
Domain Name Length
Theoretically speaking, the length of your website’s domain name does not contribute greatly to ranking factors. You are just as likely to appear in SERPs as everyone else. However, if you have a long domain that is time-consuming and difficult to remember, chances are small that you will get direct website traffic.
Location-Targeted Domain Extensions
Top-level country domains such as .us, .nl, and .ca are the sole domain extensions that impact your search rankings. As you might anticipate, such extensions will significantly impact your visibility in SERPs across different countries.
If, for instance, you opt for the .ca domain, you shouldn’t expect great organic search traffic from the UK. In essence, you’re telling the search engines that your website is targeted at a specific country, so it won’t be shown to users, at least not in that location.
Standard Domain Extensions
When it comes to domains with alternative extensions to recognizable domains like .org, .com, or .gov, they don’t impact your ranking although there is an element of user preference that you should consider.
How reliable do you think a website that ends in, for instance, .info or .biz is? If users see your domain as spam, they’re not going to click on it and visit your website. This is something to think about before choosing a domain name.
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Final Thoughts
Choosing an SEO-friendly domain name can be easy as long as you focus on branding and don’t overcomplicate things. Remember that your domain name is just a small part of what should be a comprehensive and complex SEO strategy.
The domain name is not the decisive factor when it comes to high search rankings and it’s a small building block to a good website. Therefore, when choosing a domain name for your website, don’t get too hung up on it.
ARYAN says:
Thank you for sharing this excellent knowledge with us. I thoughtly enjoy the reading. I will forward this link to my acquisition
Archana K says:
When we were starting our website, our search for a relevant domain name wasn’t too long at all, since we had a very specific brand name and naming it anything else would be useless.