Does Your Domain Name Impact SEO?

Does Your Domain Name Impact SEO?

Why is your domain name important?

Your domain name is one of the most important aspects of your business. It’s how others find you on the internet and is a part of your brand and image. The domain name you choose can be an effective way to grab people’s attention and a way to stand out among your competitors. You want your domain name to be memorable like your business, and make sure your domain name is not limiting in any way so you only reach a certain audience or location. After all, it is your goal to be seen by as many people as you can reach.

Do you need keywords in your domain name?

Some have argued that it is essential to include keywords in your domain name for SEO purposes. They reasoned that it makes your site easily searchable, but most agree that this is no longer the case. Google has been changing the way it displays search results and is constantly improving so searchers can find what they are looking for much quicker. These improved search results also offer websites with better quality content. There are several factors that influence your search ranking. Your domain name is a contributing factor that plays only a small role in the success of your SEO. The content on your website affects your SEO as well as the backlinks on your site. Your domain name is important, but it is not the deciding factor of your rank on search engines. Google wants their search results to contain relevant information that will get searchers where they need to be – your website name is not the only key player. If your site contains information relevant to what the searcher is looking for, then Google will display those results first. You also have to consider how competitive the keywords you are using are. You may not rank high in searches if you pick a highly competitive keyword because there may be a sea of information on the topic. This is why it is not as important to worry about your domain name, and more important to produce original, creative content on your website. Google realized that more people started using keywords in their domain names to achieve higher rankings. They updated and improved their search results so users would be directed to websites with content that is valuable to their search inquiry instead of a website that only matched the keywords searched. If keywords had more importance and you were to search with the terms, “marketing” or “brand,” Google could bring you to a site that isn’t close to what you are looking for and doesn’t seem like a reliable source. The content on your website as well as your backlinks are essential to improving SEO. Your domain name should contain keywords that are essential to your brand instead of your search engine ranking because it isn’t heavily impacting your SEO.

Is your brand more important?

Consider your brand for a moment. Are you ready to stuff keywords into a domain name only to confuse your targeted audience and others that visit your website? Does that fit well with the image you are trying to maintain? Keywords that are strung together only make for an illogical domain name. It’s not catchy or memorable to users and they may have to do more searching than necessary to find your business – the truth of the matter is that it shouldn’t be that difficult. You want to create a domain name that is easy to remember and not a messy combination of keywords that won’t make sense to searchers and potential clients. Think about a few successful businesses. You can usually easily distinguish them from their competitors and recall their website name because you know their brand. It is important to maintain your brand and not sacrifice it in hopes of improving your SEO because you won’t – trust us on this one. Successful website domains are not lengthy and stuffed with keywords because their success is rooted in the quality of the content on their website. It’s better to have content that is rich in keywords rather than a domain name brimming with keywords.