When deciding on a domain name for a website it is important to take a number of factors into account. A good domain name can have a big impact on the success of a website. Your URL is the first full text block that a search engine will see, so in terms of keyword promince this is very high importance.
David Viney (the SEO expert) says:
You may have read on SEO forums that keyword-rich domain names are a waste of time, that users see them as spammy, and that brand presence is more important. As usual, there is some truth in all these arguments, but recognise that if you choose to follow this advice you are opting not to use one of the most powerful SEO tools at your disposal.
Indeed, if you try typing in search terms in Google, more often than not the highest ranking sites will have matching keywords in their domain name. B&Q have notably used a new domain of “diy.com”. The old domains “bq.co.uk” and “bandq.co.uk” now re-direct to this main domain, and unsurprisingly they are ranked number 1 in Google for the keyword “diy”.
Hugh Boyle (head of digital for Europe, Middle East and Asia at Ogilvy Action) said of B&Qs decision to buy and use this domain name:
It’s brilliant. What it is saying is, B&Q is DIY. It’s a clear statement of market leadership and of confidence.
It is also important to consider the use of hyphens within the domain. Google sees hyphens as natural spaces or separators, although some argue that hyphenated names are harder to remember, and that Google can read the keywords from long strings anyway. However, I think the following domains could certainly benefit from hypens in the domain in order to avoid any confusion (although I find them quite amusing!):
Experts Exchange
www.expertsexchange.com
Pen Island
www.penisland.com
Both of these domains could have avoided any confusion, issue by using hyphens, i.e. www.experts-exchange.com. Ultimately, having a keyword rich domain in conjunction with your company name domain could help increase the organic ranking of your site, and ultimately increase site traffic. If you think that there are not many keyword rich domains left anymore, check out the hyphenated equivalents and I think you’ll be surprised by the results.
One Comment
Interesting and communicative, but would participate in something more on this topic?