5 SEO Techniques for Domain Names
We all know how essential it is for your site to rank on the first page for your chosen keywords. This is why SEO plays such an important role in all web based commercial and social endeavors. In July 2008, Google announced that it had indexed over 1 trillion web pages each of which is a potential competitor. Most ranking algorithms currently determine the order in which sites are displayed for a given search term by taking into consideration relevance and authority. Search engines determine relevance by reviewing your site’s content. A search engine would quickly go out of favor if you search for baby food and are returned a list of sites describing Russian coins. Authority is generated through off page techniques typically including backlinks from other sites containing the same keywords (AKA authoritive or quality backlinks).
Making sure your domain name includes relevant keywords is a form of SEO keyword optimization. Keywords in the domain name however have a much higher weighting than keywords in the content. I have personally conducted an experiment to rank a keyword optimized domain and a non keyword optimized domain using the same techniques in both cases. Even after obtaining double the number of quality backlinks , the non-optimized domain did not usurp the optimized domain. The conclusion: keyword optimized domains are an extremely important SEO technique.
There are 184 million domain names currently registered and approximately 100,000 new domains registered every day! With these statistics you can be sure that most competitive and relevant domain names will have already have taken. Short of purchasing a domain name for a domain name hoarder (I don’t like those guys), there are a couple of techniques you can use to ensure your domain name remains SEO relevant.
1. Localize Your Website
If you are targeting a local audience, consider obtaining a localized domain name. For example, if you are selling to Australians only, try to purchase a .com.au keyword relevant domain instead of a .com domain. This has an added benefit as most search engines will rank localized sites higher as local sites are typically more relevant. A google search for fishing rods in the US and the same search for fishing rods in Australia highlights this point.
2. Add a Prefix or Suffix
Adding a prefix or suffix to the keywords is a common technique for obtaining a keyword relevant domain. For example, if you are targeting baby food, domain names such as mybabyfood.com and babyfoodco .com are still highly relevant. Be careful not to add too many letters though as relevance will diminish with each character is added.
3. Add a Dash Between Your Keywords
Use this technique sparingly. Too many dashes may make your site appear to be spammy in the eyes of potential customers. Do not use this technique if you are targeting repeat visitors. Repeat visitors will often forget to enter the dash into the domain name and accidentally find themselves on your competitors web site. Dashes appear to most search engines as a space and can therefore be used to separate keywords. Say for example you have a site promoting a business specializing in engraving words on keys (such as “front door”). The keywordshop.com domain name may appear to a search engine to be relevant for “keywords” and “hop”. key-words-shop.com may produce a better result.
4. .net or .org Extensions
There is no evidence that search engines give priority to .com extensions. Traditionally .org extensions were used by not-for-profit organisations and many potential visitors may still think this is the case. As with dashes, repeat visitors may automatically add .com to your domain and accidentally navigating to your competitors site.
5. Keyword Optimized Path
Lastly, you may consider adding a keyword optimized path to your existing non-optimized domain. For example, www.thefoodcompany.com/babyfood will rank for baby food. If the example site only sells baby food, a permanent redirection from the home page to the babyfood page will also help in the keyword rankings. As explained in item 2, additional characters in the domain name will however reduce the keyword relevance of the domain name.
Domainsbot.com is a free service that can be used to help find that killer domain name. Just enter your keywords into the text box and Domainsbot will produce a list of SEO optimized domain names. The results are sometimes unexpected or event funny but often serve as a good starting point.
To conclude, if you are serious about SEO make sure your domain name is keyword optimized.
