Domain Sales

What’s in a domain name? When it comes to SEO, it might be much more than you think.

Your domain name identifies who you are, what services you provide, and how you appear in the marketplace. Depending on what you choose to register, your online presence could appear more or less friendly to curious human visitors.

Today, global competition for ranking a good domain is increasingly competitive: worldwide expenditures for SEO jumped to $80 billion in 2021. Ranking highly for SEO matters more than ever, especially when it comes to your domain name.

Domain SEO impacts almost everything published on your websites—your content, your landing pages, and even your products. Understanding exactly how your domain name affects page rankings and web traffic is critical to the success of your brand. 

Let’s explore the basics of domain SEO, starting with its actual definition.

What is domain SEO?

Domain SEO is the practice of optimizing owned domains to make them more accessible to human visitors and search engines. It involves picking a simple phrase, an optional subdomain, and a top-level domain (TLD) to create the perfect web identity.

Contrary to popular belief, domain SEO is different from webpage or URL SEO:

• Webpage SEO involves optimizing your digital web content, including copy, images, and associated buttons.
• URL SEO focuses on optimizing title tags, link anchor text, and elements of the actual web address.
• Domain SEO only strives to optimize the name of your registered domain.

It’s best to use domain name SEO as a complementary strategy with other optimization efforts, including on-page, off-page, and technical approaches. The more time you spend creating a streamlined, polished domain name, the easier it will be to advance other SEO strategies.

Does domain name matter for SEO?

A domain name’s length, keywords, and extension are critical components of an SEO strategy. A trustworthy, focused, and simple domain name will get more traffic and interest from people and search engines.

You might be tempted to assume that domain names are less important than other elements of SEO. However, take, for example, www.cheap-discounted-jeans.net or freeshippingforlife.biz. Neither of these domains inspires much confidence.

You might be more likely to view these addresses as scams simply because of their names. Customers are extremely aware of this, and so are search engines.  

Steps for picking an SEO-friendly domain name

The best way to choose your next SEO domain name is to be mindful of keywords, consider shorter lengths, and focus on simple or abbreviated terms. While you might not find yourself on the front page of Google overnight, you will be grounding your domain in best practices right from the get-go—and reaping plentiful rewards as a result.

Below are four actionable tips for choosing a domain name that is optimized for search engines.

Choose the right keywords

The importance of using keywords in a domain has varied over the years. It was once a mainstay of search indexing on sites like Google and used by hundreds of thousands of ecommerce brands throughout the early 2000s. Today, keywords continue to play a part in domain SEO—albeit in an abbreviated context.

These days, domains don’t need keywords spelled out in their names to see search engine boosts. However, it’s not always a bad idea to throw in a concept or two to provide clarity around your brand.

Luxury fashion brand Giulio Fashion leverages a keyword in its domain name, giuliofashion.com, without appearing spammy or awkward. The company Giulio is complemented well by the addition of “Fashion,” setting expectations and helping searchers find what they’re looking for. Sabo Skirt (saboskirt.com) is another example of a brand adding keywords to help boost relevance.

Keep in mind that a great domain name doesn’t need to be wholly focused on keywords. Try to choose a domain name with just one or two keywords, or encapsulate the idea of your brand with a short acronym.

Opt for a short domain name

The actual length of your domain name does not affect its standing on search engines, particularly Google. However, it can and will have a significant impact on customer memorability.

Research indicates that the average domain length is just 13 characters long. For the world’s 500 most popular websites, this average drops to just seven characters.

At Hit Villa Digital Marketing Agency, we have curated a list of different web domain names that would suit your needs; click on the link below to buy any of our curated domain names at affordable price.