SEO and Domain Names

Here's an article I found today that I have some comments on but before I do that, one quick note...

People look at the task of blogging as such a chore. It's not. One thing I do is subscribe to a number of these daily e-newsletters that have to do with topics that relate to this blog. I then either quote parts of them and add in my own commentary or use them for inspiration for new, original posts. It's really not that hard. If you're not blogging, you should be. If you don't have a blog, then get one - even if it's at blogger.com. Start writing something. One post a week gets you 52 new pages on your website a year.

So people come to us and we often make brand new websites (as well as website redesigns). That's good. I love it when new companies start and know they have to be on the web or when a company that has existed a while comes to realize that a good web presence is essential. One question that we get is about the domain name. Here's an excerpt from an article about SEO (search engine optimization - which means creating your website so that search engines like it and want to rank it high):

Top Signs Your Site Isn't Ready for Prime Time, Part 2 (searchenginewatch.com)

Domain Age

It's not so much that an "aged" domain is the end all, be all. However, the things that come with an aged domain (links/trust/content) absolutely are critical to your Web site gaining the authority necessary to rank highly in the search engines.

If you just bought a domain on Go Daddy last week and launched your Web site today, I highly recommend you consider buying a domain that has existed on the Web for a number of years, already has a number of backlinks to it (perhaps it's already listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Business Directory, Business.com), and perhaps is still live on the Web, has content and already has some rankings that you would like.

This is true. An aged domain is much better to use. It has been out there a while, Google probably knows about it and it has some history. If it's going to be used for another, similar company then that's fine. This is why there are people out there that make their living just buying and selling domain names.

So domain age is important. What are other factors to consider when buying a domain name? Here are a few that mainly pertain to buying a new domain name:

1. The domain should contain the keyword. People have been buying domain names a while now, so do you think all the good ones are taken? I don't think so. Plug in a keyword into the Google Keyword Tool and find some long tail keywords that get searched on - are they open? Or how about adding a word or two before or after the keyword? That's perfectly fine and you get the benefits.
2. Buy a .com! Enough said.
3. If you can't buy a .com, get a .net but please refer to point #2 above.
4. Get a domain name that's not to long and easy to remember. Your domain name might be said in radio ads. That's why even though "webstix.com" may not be the best for radio, we've also purchased "websticks.com" which forwards to webstix.com.
5. If you want to protect your brand, do buy the .net and .org versions of the domain.
6. Make sure you register your domain for 5 or more years and not just 1 year at a time. Google does have this data and even though they say they're not using it a whole lot, they may be using it a little and every little bit counts. If you're Google, you want to send people to websites that plan to be around a while, right? It's also cheaper to register a domain for several years.
7. You can have dashes in your domain name but they can make it longer to say or explain to people, so don't use them if you don't have to.
8. Buy one you like. You're going to use it for a long time!

Doing the keyword research is probably the most important point but other things above are also important. If you need help, give us a call. And you can easily buy and research domain names at Webstix Domains.

-Tony

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