While designing your website the most important task to be done is to decide on a good, catchy domain name. The domain name is going to be your first impression on the users. If that is not luring the users into opening your website, then there’s no point in spending days in designing one. Also, having a good domain name that somehow relates to the content on your website will improve your SEO rank and thereby increase the traffic on your website. Having a suitable domain name will make your website stand out in a pool of other similar websites obtained as the result of a search query; this makes your website more likely to be clicked. So, there is no doubt in saying that domain names do have something to do with SEO and this makes them so much more than just being keywords.
There are two types of domain names: Branding domain names and Keyword domain names.
The Branding domain names are the ones n which you use your brand name as your domain name and that need no0t necessarily have any connection with the service your company provides. For example, Puma has nothing to do with the products it manufactures.
Keyword domain names are the ones in which you use your business-specific or product-specific keywords in the domain name. For example, Snapchat is for chatting by using snapshots.
Now that we are aware of the importance of domain name, let us look at the tips that will help you choose an SEO friendly domain name.
1. Small and Simple
The domain name, in general, should be tried and kept as short as possible. In addition to being just short, it should also be precise and attractive. Let us take an example of a long keyword. Suppose, you are working as movers and packers in Texas and you choose your domain name as MoversAndPackersInTexas.com. This is a very long name and one might get bored reading it and they will end up not opening your website. You might be providing very good service at a very cheap rate, but that cannot be known unless they open your website. To open your website, they will first have to read your domain name. So, try to keep the domain name as short and sweet as possible to not bore your readers and let them come to your website.
2. Choose the words wisely
We have realized that having an exact match of the service you provide in domain names is not a good choice. But, you can still include the root word in your domain name. For example, if your website has got wallpapers for desktop or mobile devices, then you can use WallpaperWorld.com as your website’s domain name. When it is emphasized to use the root word of the service your business provides in the domain name, it does not mean that it is a compulsion and that your website cannot do good without it. There are plenty of examples of businesses that use domain names that do not relate with the business and still they are doing very good; amazon.com instead of OnlineShopping.com
3. Avoid duplication and hyphens
While you are thinking of a good domain name with .com, there is a chance that you might decide on a name that has already been taken with .in or .org, then it’s a wiser choice to look for a different name than to stick with this one. If you anyway use the same name there’s a lot of chance that your users would accidentally land on a different website, and as the names are the same, it’s business would also be similar to yours. So, that will lose you some customers.
About using hyphens in the domain names, it has been statistically observed that domain names without hyphens are performing better than the ones with hyphens. Having hyphens makes the name appear boring and people will thus, not be interested in clicking on it open your website. So, try to avoid hyphens. You will not be able to find many websites with hyphens in their domain names that are doing good.
4. Don’t use difficult words
Try to keep the domain name as catchy as you can. In doing so, you should use simple words instead of showing off your vocabulary skills. Certain words are not only difficult to pronounce but also difficult to understand. This makes them difficult to remember as well. So, use simple and lucid words in your domain name. Also, using words that cannot be understood in the first read, will make it difficult for people to know the purpose of your website. So, they will not want to click and visit such websites. You would want to make your domain names memorable. This will ensure that whenever people are looking for a website that provides services like yours, they will directly use the keywords on your website as they already remember getting service from there before. Many marketers are using animals and colors as a part of the domain names for their website. For example, SherKhan.com. Sher sounds similar to ‘share’. Now, this domain name tells about the service provided by the website as well as it reminds you of the fictional character from The Jungle Book. This lets you relate to the website and so you will open it again and again.
5. Use .com as your TLD
TLD stands for Top-Level Domain
You might want to use some catchy domain as .ly, .info, .biz, etc. , but instead, use .com as your TLD. The reason behind suing .com is that most of the users consider it to be the domain by default without checking for the actual one.
6. Try not using numbers
Generally, spammy websites use numbers more often in their domain names. So, avoid using them in your genuine website to not falsely be identified as a spammer. Also, when someone has not looked at the name and just heard about it then they might not actually think that you would have spelled the number. For example, OneTwoThreeDummyName.com or 123DummyName.com. It is confusing and people might not want to waste time verifying the correct name. They will simply shift to some other website.
7. Avoid using ambiguous names
Be certain that the name you use should only have one meaning ad that too the correct one that you want to imply. As there are no spaces in the domain names, it can be interpreted in multiple ways and thereby, people can understand something different from what was intended. For example, therapistfinder.com, gotahoe.com, itscrap.com, etc. can all be interpreted in at least two ways which are very different from each other. So, make sure your domain name doesn’t have this kind of ambiguity.
Choosing a domain name that is SEO-friendly is an easy task. You do not need to worry about it. Just follow the tips mentioned above and you will definitely have a good, catchy SEO friendly domain name for your website.