The question, ‘What Is In a Name?’ is one that has been taxing business owners for many years, especially when it comes to choosing a domain for their new website. Often their hands are tied as the only option they have is to use the brand name of their business.
For SEO purposes that may limit them somewhat, but there are other aspects of a domain name that can be considered with regards to SEO, and if you are at the point of choosing a domain for your SEO strategy, here are some of them.
Exact Match Domain Names
There are probably more SEO arguments over whether exact match domain names still carry any weight than any other subject. As it stands, they certainly seem to, albeit maybe not as much as they used to.
Getting an exact match domain that is the same for your main keyword is often difficult as lots of them have already been taken, but if you were a mechanic in Albany, then albanymechanics.com could be an excellent exact match domain to own…and at the time of writing, it is available.
Top Level Domains
While the impact may not be huge, Google does regard the top-level domains in a more favourable light than many of the countless new domain suffixes that are now available.
While it gets more difficult to find one that has not already been taken, a ‘dot com’ domain should be your first choice. After that, you should look for either a ‘dot net’ or a ‘dot org’ domain.
Use Country Domains
At the local level, country suffixes are also regarded as being good domains so if none of the top-level ones is available you might want to try a ‘.com.au’ domain.
While ‘mybusiness.com.au’ might not roll of the tongue as well as ‘mybusiness.com’, the fact you are a business in Australia and targeting customers in Australia, means that your ranking should not be adversely affected. This might not be the case if you were a global business though.
Have Your Main Keyword In The Domain Name
If you cannot get an exact match domain, then the next best option is to buy a domain that at least has your main keyword in it, and preferably the first word.
For example, if you had a new business called ‘The Guitar Man’ the ‘theguitarman.com’ has long since been taken. However, if your business was selling discounted guitars, then the word guitar could be the first word in your domain name, with ‘guitardiscountstore.com’ or ‘guitarmarketplace.com’ possible options.
Length Of Registration
if your business is going to be a long-term concern for many years to come then there is some advantage in you buying the domain for a 5-year registration versus just for 1 year.
Google sees longer registrations as a signal that the business owner is not a merely ‘passing through’ and building nothing more than a spammy site. Instead, they are more likely to be building a legitimate business which goes towards how Google score your website when ranking it.
