Sep 07 2010
What is in a Domain Name?
Domain Names are an important way for people to find you and to brand your business on the Internet.
It’s one thing to get your business name as a domain name, but it is another to use the correct keyword phrase for a domain name.
The decision to use your business name versus a selected keyword phrase for web marketing purposes as your domain name can be a tough decision, but I look at it this way – which one will help draw more traffic?
I’d go with the domain name with the keyword because the search engines seem to give more weight to a website with the keyword phrase in the domain name. (Yes you could do both)
Example:
Which website would get more of a ranking boost for real estate based on the domain name.
xzycorporation.com versus southfloridarealestate.com
Can both sites get ranked for their domains? Yes, but it takes far more work and effort to get the xyzcorporation.com into the same rankings as a keyword laden domain name.
If you’re watching your budget and want a faster track to get your website ranked more quickly, then the decision is simple. Try to get that keyword phrase, that best describes your business, in to your domain name when selecting a domain name. You will be spending a great deal of time promoting your website, so try to do it right the first time.
If money is not much of a problem, then get both your business name and the keyword phrase domains. You can always point the business domain to the keyword phrase domain or visa versa.
One other thought, be sure to purchase your domain name for at least 3 years (I select 5 years). The reason for doing this, is what the search engines look at.
The 1 year domain purchases act like a red flag to the search engines. The spam type websites buy domains for 1 year knowing they will get black listed or shut down for the type of marketing they perform.
This information, is of course, all my humble opinion.
