How to Choose an SEO-Boosting Domain Name

Writing by Brick Marketing in SEO

This is a guest post by Courtney Mills of ineedhits.

When choosing a domain name most people will take the easy option and make their company name their URL, but is this really the best option, especially when it comes to optimizing your website for the search engines?

The key is balance – you need to find a domain name that easily identifies your business or brand but will also help increase your website’s ranking.

Here are 5 tips to choosing the right domain name:

1. Use a .com domain extension – the .com domain extension is the most popular and therefore is considered the most legitimate. Having a .com domain name will boost your credibility to both searchers and the search engines themselves. If your business caters to a specific country only, then it’s perfectly acceptable to have a country specific domain extension like .com.au or .com.ca

2. Choose a keyword rich domain name- from an SEO standpoint this is perhaps the most important factor when choosing a domain name. A keyword rich URL will help boost your ranking in the search engines. Plus, it also has the added bonus of being relatable for searchers – if they’re searching for perfume they’re more likely to remember your domain name as www.businessnameperfume.com instead of www.businessname.com (unless you’re a well establish and well-known brand name like Microsoft or Toyota)

3. Avoid numbers and hyphens – they can be confusing for visitors to remember and for you to verbalize.

4. Old vs. New Domains –It is pretty commonly accepted that the older the domain, the easier it will be to get it ranking well in the search engines. However, a word of warning: if you choose to purchase an already established domain name then you must do your research. Your chances of ranking well improve with each year of the domain. When it comes to backlinks, an aged domain should have a few hundred backlinks and these links should be of good quality. If the domain name you are after lacks either of these, then it might be best to back away and look for an alternative domain.

5. Keep it short – As a rule of thumb, your domain name shouldn’t exceed 67 characters. While you might find it difficult to find a really short URL name (like cup.com), because they are becoming more and more difficult to come by, this doesn’t mean you should go in the other direction and have an excessively long URL. A short URL will ensure that it visible in its entirety in the SERPs, while also having the advantage of making it easier to read, write and remember.

About the Author
Courtney Mills is the queen of communications and social media marketing at ineedhits – a search marketing agency with over 16 years’ experience helping small businesses build their online presence. For more information visit http://www.ineedhits.com.