Three ways your domain name can help you rank better in the search engines
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Neil M Hancock May 20, 2009
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Are you using your domain to its maximum potential? Read Neil M Hancock’s tips on getting the most out of your domain names.
It is important when you are creating a new website that you choose
a good domain name because your choice of name can have a positive
effect on your future search rankings!
I am going to highlight below the three ways which you can improve your rankings by selecting a good domain name!
Including a keyword(s) in your domain name
Your domain name is considered when the search engines decide where
to rank your website in their search results page. If you include
keywords, (i.e. the main area of your business) in your domain name
then it can help you rank better in the search engines for that
keyword, as it helps to promote your website for the chosen keyword.
Need Proof?
Sainsbury’s purchased SainsburysKitchenAppliances.co.uk, if you
search for ‘Kitchen Appliances’ in Google you will notice Sainsbury’s
are in the number 3 position, compared to Amazon who are other 6th, and
do not use a keyword rich domain.
Improve the quality of your incoming links
Links are a very important factor in determining where your site
ranks in the search engines. The anchor text (the actual text used for
the link), determines what keywords the link is promoting your website
to the search engines for. Unfortunately many webmasters will just
create a link using your domain name. Therefore by having a keyword
rich domain, as mentioned in point 1, any incoming links to the domain
will include your chosen keyword.
So using the Sainsbury’s example above, if I was to create a link to
the website I would be including the keywords Kitchen Appliances in the
link, this would help convince the search engines that the page is
relevant for the search terms Kitchen Appliances. Yet all I have done
is link through to their web address.
It’s a very clever way of getting people who only want to link to a
web address of highlighting exactly what you do in the link without
having to chase these people into changing the link text!
Register your domain for as long as possible!
When you are registering your domain name, register it for as long a
period as possible! It will not cost you any more to sign up for a
longer period, compared to renewing it each year. It also shows to the
search engines that you are committed to the website and the domain.
Many ‘spammers’ who use ‘throw away’ domains will only purchase the
domain for one year to minimise costs on a domain they do not plan on
using for longer than 12 months, or they think might get banned within
12 month.
Therefore only registering a domain name for one year potentially
puts you in the same group as the ‘spammers’, which will have a
negative affect on your website!
Caution
A few words of caution before you go off and research your perfect domain;
Make the domain name easy to remember, and do not use more than two
hyphens (-). If you sell goods/services in many different areas try and
find a domain that can sum up the whole company, or you might find it
difficult to expand the business into different areas.
You do not need to purchase hundreds of domains that you think could
be useful, as each domain needs to have unique content, and needs to be
managed separately
Finally make sure you read and then re-read your domain name choice,
do not do what some unfortunate companies did and get a domain name
that can be interpreted differently, like The Therapist Finder’s
website www.therapistfinder.co.uk (some people read this as ‘The Rapist
Finder’) or a company called Pen Island www.penisland.com (who’s domain
name appears to look like ‘Penis Land’)
In Summary
Think very long and hard about your domain name, it shouldn’t just
be a quick purchase! A good domain name can dramatically help your
business grow online. Use keywords, where appropriate, in your domain
names and read and re-read your domain names, don’t get caught out with
an embarrassing domain name! |