Choosing an SEO-friendly domain name is usually a battle between the brand name and the most significant keyword. But there are many factors to consider before settling for the final name. Having a domain name is a long-term commitment, and your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are tied to what you have decided.
Consider whether your chosen domain name will represent your brand, key product or service, target keyword, or location. Taking time for research and careful planning will pay off. When choosing an SEO-friendly domain, it:
1. Is Simple and Easy to Remember
Name your favorite brand and recite its website address. You can easily do that, can’t you? It should be the same for your domain name. Have a URL that everybody can remember and easily spell when typing it in the search bar. According to DigitalAuthority.me, do not overthink when choosing a domain name for your official website; it should not be complicated.
What is your vision for your business? You can describe it in one to three words, and these words can be your domain name. Compare your tentative domain name with those of your competitors and see whether yours is more recognizable.
Remove complicated punctuation marks and double letters to avoid confusion on the part of the user when they type in your domain name in the search bar. You can ask a few of your customers and test whether they can remember it and spell it easily.
2. Can Represent Your New Line of Business
Your vision for your business may be small for now. But as your company grows, you might decide to add a new line of business. With this in mind, choose a domain name that can embrace future new products and services. You can name some well-known ecommerce sites today that started small but have been introducing new services or products and even expanding to other parts of the world.
Popular domain names can still represent new products and services that businesses offer to people around the globe. You may think you are not interested in going global, but who knows, your business is the next big thing to hit the internet in a couple of months. It is better to allow room for future expansion to grow your business a lot faster.
3. Can Market the Brand Name
The reality is that your domain name has an impact on SEO. It is hard to optimize keywords when the domain name is far from what you are campaigning about on the internet. People can easily mistrust your digital marketing promo or sales pitch and ignore your messages if the domain name does not represent what you are saying.
It will help you a lot if, after mentioning the sales pitch, the domain name is there to confirm that you are indeed selling a particular product. The domain name must reflect what your brand is all about. It should represent the company and its vision well.
With research and planning, you can think of a witty domain name that will catch the attention of your target market. If you can catch your potential customers’ attention with just your domain name, it will be easier to market your brand name because it is SEO-friendly. This will result in ranking high on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Remember that people are either too busy or lazy to look for a certain brand name. They will type in the search bar what they can recall. So choose a domain name that people won’t forget easily.
4. Is Keyword-driven
To make SEO campaigns hit the target results faster, integrate a primary keyword and brand name into the domain name. For example, you can use “nicafashionshoes” or “michaelgoldjewelry.” Run some of your keyword options through Keyword Planner or Google Trends and check whether there is high competition and demand for them.
You can also ask some of your potential customers or clients about how they can easily associate your brand with a word or phrase. List down their answers and run these through a keyword research tool to check the market feasibility.
If you are torn between what you want and what research shows, you can have both by combining words such as “SamOrganicCoftea” or “MarkPizpasta.” You will not have a problem with common words because people will automatically associate them with the known word and easily understand your message as “coffee and tea” and “pizza and pasta.”
However, do not do this if your products or services are new in the market because it will cause more confusion and prolong your brand awareness campaign. Also, be careful with associated slang words that might prompt people to laugh because of an infamous term.
5. Can Give a Location Clue
Consider adding a location to your domain name if you are certain about a long-term local business. Others choose to add a location to their domain names because they plan to buy another domain name for a foreseeable new branch in another country.
If you want a faster return on investment for your SEO using local marketing, adding a location to your domain name is a good move. Another way to do this is to use a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) that represents the country you want to do business with for the long term (e.g., MarkPizpasta.us or michaelgoldjewelry.uk).
Just remember that search results might not be in favor of your domain name when a user is searching for another country. This might affect your SEO score and compel you to narrow your SEO focus down to national or local marketing campaigns to capture your target market and rank high for the country you are serving.
If you are unsure about a ccTLD, you can safely go for a .com domain. This is the safest top-level domain (TLD) you can use; it will signify that your company is a commercial organization. On the other hand, some websites are primarily for public service, so .gov or .org is the best TLD for them.
Final Words
Choosing an SEO-friendly domain name for your website is the first important decision that you will make for your business. Take time to reflect on what you really want to accomplish for your business. With that in mind, write down keywords that lead people to that vision.
Your domain name should have a sense of destination on what the future will hold for the stakeholders that will be part of the journey. Your domain name also serves as your public image, so be careful with what you will choose. You will be tied to it for the longest time possible.
