Search Engine Optimization

Are you launching a new online business or website? If so, one of the first things you have to do is decide on a domain name. A great domain name will help you rank better in the search engines and attract more traffic to your site. Factors to consider when you choose a domain name include its brand image, SEO-friendliness, and linkability. Here are a few steps to take when deciding on an appropriate domain name.

Brainstorm Keywords

When it comes to SEO-friendliness, your domain name should contain your target keywords because a keyword-rich domain name will help you rank better in the search engines. Brainstorm keywords until you come up with the five best terms or phrases, but only use one of those terms or phrase in your domain. The last thing you want is a domain that looks like this:

www.babysitting-service-in-new-york.com

An overly hyphenated domain name that’s stuffed with keywords looks spammy, doesn’t have any branding value, lacks credibility, and is hard to remember. It’s difficult to get a domain like this to be taken seriously, much less linked to.

Get a .com domain

Although it’s fine to use a .net or .org domain name, you should own the .com extension as well and use a 301 redirect because many people who aren’t tech-savvy still assume that only the .com extension exists. Plus, more people will type “.com” when they guess your site’s domain.

Make It Memorable

Make your domain name as catchy and memorable as possible. It should be concise, easy to spell, and easy to recall. If your domain name isn’t easy to remember, people are far less likely to share it with their friends and colleagues!

You should also make sure that your domain name is unique. If your domain name is too similar to that of a website that’s already in existence, it will constantly be confused with the other website and fail in terms of branding.

Make It Easy for People to Guess What Is on Your Site

Create a domain name that makes it easy for people to guess what kind of content is on your site. For example, a site like Travelocity.com does this far more effectively than Amazon.com.

Use a Generic Term plus a Target Keyword

A great approach for domain name creation is to combine a generic term with one of your target keywords. For example, sites like Travelzoo.com and Coffeegeek.com do a good job of this. This method will allow you to create a brand-worthy domain that’s still generic enough to rank well for the target keyword.

Having a domain name that contains the exact target keyword will give your website a boost in the search engines. Matt Cutts of Google recently announced, however, that Google would be making some changes to their algorithm so that keywords in the domain aren’t given so much weight.

To prevent your keyword-rich domain from getting buried in the results after this algorithm change, make sure that your website looks like a legitimate business with a strong brand image. Some ways you can do this are by building a strong presence on social media sites and varying the anchor text of incoming links, so it isn’t obvious that you’re trying to push certain keywords. If all of your incoming links have the same anchor text and match your domain name exactly, your site will look less like a “brand” in Google’s eyes and ultimately, your rankings will suffer.