Selecting a Domain Name

[Ian C]

I keep running across the question of domain name selection so I thought I’d put in my 2 cents about what a good domain name is (and isn’t):

Good domain names are memorable – domain names that cannot be easily remembered are easily forgotten

Good domain names are .com – forget about .tv, .ws and all the rest of that junk… .com domain names are superior because Joe and Jane Q. Public think of the internet in terms of .com. If you go out and buy www.abc.tv and your competitor has www.abc.com, I’d bet the cup of coffee that I’m drinking that about half of your marketing efforts will wind up driving business to your competitor’s site. ‘Dot com’ may not have any technical differences like .edu or .gov, but it is huge in terms of ‘mind share’

Use keyword rich domain names – I know this sounds old skool, but there are two good reasons for this, one of which doesn’t get the notice that it deserves…

Reason 1 – Many search engines do look at keywords in your domain and give them some weight. Sure there are companies that are hugely successful like Ebay and Amazon that don’t use keyword rich domains – I’m not saying that you can’t be successful without them, but I am saying that it can give you a leg up. Plus, most of us don’t have Ebay or Amazon’s marketing budgets.

Reason 2 – this is the important one… Keyword rich domain names increase the likelihood that the anchor text of your inbound links will be keyword rich, which makes those links significantly more valuable for SEO purposes. The problem with link requests or unsolicited links is that you really have no control over how people link to you. I usually ‘suggest’ what the anchor text and following line of text should look like, but the truth is the webmaster can put in anything that he or she wants. Many people are busy, ill informed or lazy, and they are very likely to simply use your domain name as the all important anchor text. Now if your domain name is keyword rich, then you are doing just fine thank you very much… But if your domain text is keyword poor then the value of these inbound links is likely to be diminished…

Anyways, it’s worth thinking about.

Best wishes,

Ian C

[Aviva]

Helpful post - thanks!

[Kasparoff]

Good way of thinking about that.

Do you prefer two word domains or more?

[Skinny]

Nice post.

Skinny

[Ian C]

Well, given that just about every single word .com domain has been taken I'd have to say that I'm definately in favor of two or more word domain names. Plus, a multi word domain allows you to capture multiple search phrases in one effort.

Eg. If your keywords/phrases are bath, supplies and tub then having the domain www.bathtubsupplies.com allows you to target searches for

bath
tub
bathtub
tub supplies
bath tub supplies

So basically you're getting 5 for the price of one.

All the best...

Ian C

[charlesgan]

ya, search engine give more weight to keyword.
but yahoo is looking at age of domain, and keyword in domain as well.

[Comenius]

I've been finding that even the "good" two word domain names have been taken, so I've been pushing off into three word ones.

Especially if you can figure out a way so that you're covering more than one keyword phrase, a multiple keyword domain can help a bit from an SEO perspective.

Of course try to steer clear of any 30 plus character monstrosities if at all possible.

[Ian C]

Originally Posted by Comenius

Of course try to steer clear of any 30 plus character monstrosities if at all possible.

Good point, especially as many directory submission sites have a max character cap for their submission form, so those 26 character tongue twisters may pose probelms for submitting.

All the best...

Ian C

[maverick123]

all posts are very helpful

[mastermemei]

Originally Posted by Ian C

Use keyword rich domain names – I know this sounds old skool, but there are two good reasons for this, one of which doesn’t get the notice that it deserves…

Reason 1 – Many search engines do look at keywords in your domain and give them some weight. Sure there are companies that are hugely successful like Ebay and Amazon that don’t use keyword rich domains – I’m not saying that you can’t be successful without them, but I am saying that it can give you a leg up. Plus, most of us don’t have Ebay or Amazon’s marketing budgets.

Thanks for the post. Speaking of keywords in domain names, I rank #2 in a certain keyword in Google & Google.com.au for months now and I can't seem to beat the competition since the keyword phrase is the site's domain name itself.

[bested]

I'm sure it helps

But there is plenty of sites that are successful and don't use their keywords in their domain.... and just make up some catchy name. (like you mentioned)

what the hell is a 'yahoo' or a 'google'? haha

[John Scott]

Good post, Ian

[Cornbread]

Does a two word domain name have to have a hyphen in between it for the search engines to treat it like two words? I have heard it both ways, some say yes and some say it doesn't matter.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by Cornbread

Does a two word domain name have to have a hyphen in between it for the search engines to treat it like two words?

Yes.

http://www.internet-marketing-blog.c...words-in-urls/

[simeonquarrie]

I agree to some extent. I bought a keyword rich domain name and found i was included in Googles result within weeks not months. No joke, 3 weeks.

However if you are thinking really big, i mean creating a brand, then i don't think its a good idea. They sound cheap. I prefer taking the hit for a year in the sandbox.

My 2 cents worth.

[Jadehat]

Good point.

And I want to emphasize --- keyword-rich domains don't just 'help' SERPs. They boost them a lot. And by a lot, I mean that site that would gather the dust somewhere on the second page could become #1 if keywords would be added into it.

[Easytouch]

Thank you for the hint about the keyword rich as anchor text by random... I never was thinking like that about it. On the other hand I feel that the domain name itself has lost a lot of its value compared and it should be a very small factor in the whole picture. (I try to imagine flickr as keyword?).

But now after your post I think I will try again longer domainnames. but wouldn't the length be a bigger factor for the value?