5 SEO Tips For Picking a Keyword Rich Domain Name

Picking a good domain name offers some confusion for business owners who are just starting to venture into online marketing.  A domain name is the industry term for your website’s online address, such as www.mybusiness.com.  There are many types of domain names, including “.com”, “.biz”, “.net”, and others.  I thought it would be a good idea to write a blog post on just what makes a good domain name for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, especially for our potential clients or aspiring web designers.  When picking a domain name, you should keep these fundamentals in mind.  Don’t know if where to start?  Then check out our Why WordPress article.

Optimizing Domain Name for SEO

Here are a couple suggestions to get your first step into internet marketing off on the right foot:

Use a .com

Stick with the most professional and highest level domain extension.  This means you want to register a “.com”.  If the domain name you want is already registered, and other extensions are available (like a .net or a .tv), E3 suggests picking a new domain name that is still a .com.  “.coms” are simply considered better from a marketing and branding perspective.  This is because .coms have been around longer and are generally believed to be the most professional and most legitimate addresses.  If a .com is not available, then a .net or a .org are next in line in the domain extension hierarchy.  Never select a .biz, a .tv, or any other domain extension.

SEO Keyphrase

Choose a domain name that has your “key phrase” in it.  For example, “WordPressDesigner.com” is a much better domain name than “E3corporate.com”, from an SEO perspective.  However, for websites that intend to blog alot, you can get away with having a domain name that is your company name or some other non key phrase, because websites that are blogging produce plenty of additional web pages and content loaded with SEO keywords.  Look for domain names that have your key phrase in the order someone would search for it using a search engine.  For example if “wordpressdesigner.com” is not available, try adding a generic keyword to your primary keyword, such as “bestwordpressdesigner.com”, or “premiumwordpressdesign”, etc.  If your having trouble, just think of other key phrases to base your domain name on.  For example, if you publish a golf book and “golfbook.com” is taken, try focusing on a different key phrase that is still something your customers would search for, such as “golftips.com”, “rulesofgolf.com”, etc.

No Dashes

Never use a dash.  It breaks up the key phrase (thus destroying its SEO potential) and is not user friendly.  Saying, “visit me at e3 dash corporate dot com” sounds and looks awful and is not easily remembered by your customers.

Plural Domain Name

Pluralizing a word is OK, and often times if you’ve done some good keyword research, you’ll find that the “s” (pluralized) version of the word is actually searched for more than the singular.

Short and Sweet

Domain names should not be longer than 15-20 characters.  This is not only because it’s hard for people to remember, but also, few people type unusually long and connected key phrases into search engines.  While key phrases used in SEO campaigns are OK to be much longer, avoid really long key phrases as your domain name.  Would you go to, “awesomewordpressdevelopmentanddesigner.com”.

So remember, use a .com, use a short and sweet key phrase, plural is OK, and no dashes.  Good luck!