Domain SEO
8+ Minute Read
Domain SEO
Many people assume that the SEO of a website starts when your website is developed and has content in it. But I would say, you start thinking about SEO right from the point of Purchasing a domain name.
This is a comprehensive article on how you plan to buy a domain name that can help you in your website rankings.
Domain SEO: Introduction
It all starts with a domain name. Whoever you are, a student, a businessman, a marketer, an influencer, or an astronaut. When you want to create a website you need to pick the domain name for your website.
Picking the right domain is the most important thing for any business.
Now, what exactly is a domain name?
Domain SEO: Domain Name
A domain name is your website name.
A domain could be your product name or a business name.
Technically, A domain name is an address where users can access your website on the server.
Computers Generally have addresses called IP addresses.
Ip address is enough to open a website, You don’t need a domain name to access a website.
But an IP address is a series of numbers. Example: 127. 198. 3. 221
But it is difficult for humans to remember strings of numbers.
Because of this, domain names were developed and used to identify websites on the
Internet rather than using IP addresses.
A domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers, and it can be used in combination with various domain name extensions.
Domain SEO: Domain Extension
The domain extension is the notation at the end of a web address that specifies an Internet category or a country code.
Domains are divided into 2 types based on Extension.
- Top-level domains (TLDs)
- Country Code Top Level domains (CCTLDs)
TLD tells us about this kind of business category a domain belongs to:
Examples:
.com for commercial
.org for organization
.gov for the government ( Not for Sale)
.edu for all educational institutions
.net for a network.
CCTLDs tell us about the website target audience of a particular country:
Examples:
.us – USA
.uk – UK
.de – Germany
.in – India
CCTLDs tell us about the website target audience of a particular country:
Branded domain name vs EMD (Exact match domain):
Branded Domain Name:
The name of a business or a brand name is purchased as a domain name.
Example: ola, Olx, uber, tomato – Business name or the product name is the domain name here
Exact Match Domain:
The target keyword for the business with a high search volume is purchased as a domain name.
Example: fooddeliveryapp.com cabbookingservice.com
Which one should you buy? – EMD or Brand Name.
In the past, people were buying the keyword as a domain name with some extension because it was valuing it so high in the past. But now with the Google EMD Update. The exact match domains aren’t valued highly.
But, still, Exact match domains will have slight advantages over others when maintained right. If your exact match domain is a low-quality site then it could get impacted and penalized by Google Exact Match domain update.
Things to keep in mind while buying a domain Name:
- Buy a brandable name – Easy to spell and pronounce
- It will be great if that brandable domain contains your keyword
- Use synonyms – Thesaurus for domain name ideas
- There are domain generator tools to help you with, try using them for more ideas
- Check for the availability of your domain ideas in any domain search tool
- Try to buy .com extension if available
- If your website is targeting a specific location or country and if you don’t care about global rankings go for CCTLD, with your target country code as extension
- Stick to letters/words. Avoid numbers & hyphens.
- Avoid trademark text or close variation of popular domains.
- Check the domain history using wayback machine
- Check for availability of social channels for the domain name you picked.
- Purchase your domain from the right vendor
- Check for the best price or coupons available
- ON the domain LOCK for safety
- Purchase domain on your name, using your mail id & mobile number.
- If you are serious about the business and the name buy it for long – 5 – 10 years
- Set your domain to auto renew, so you don’t lose it.
- Considering enabling privacy protection.
Impact of domain extension on SEO:
Yes, it does impact. Especially CCTLDs
Having a country code as a domain extension, like for example .in, .us, .au, .uk are appeared to be ranking better in that country and could limit the ability to rank internationally.
So go for a CCTLD only when you are sure you don’t care about international traffic or global rankings.
It doesn’t mean that your website won’t load in other countries. It will load and you will traffic from other countries too. But your rankings in other countries won’t be as good as your rankings in your country when the domain is in CCTLD extension.
How long should I register a domain name for?
It again depends on multiple factors:
If you have limited budgets go for 1 or 2 years. Remember there is an auto-renew option, enable it so you don’t lose that domain.
If you are very serious about a business/domain and have enough budget you can go for 10 years or so.
The date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain. Hence it is also a ranking factor and it is always suggested to buy a domain for more years if you are very serious about that business.
Domain SEO: Does your domain name affect your websites SEO?
Yes, your domain name will affect your SEO rankings.
Here is the list of Factors related to your domain name and how they affect your SEO Rankings.
Keyword in the Domain Name: In the past, websites with keywords present in the domain had a huge advantage. But these days it is not considered a crucial factor. But still even now if you have a keyword in your domain name it can give you a slight advantage.
The keyword as the First Word in the Domain Name: If a domain is starting with its target keyword in the domain name. They have an edge over other websites that don’t have a keyword in the domain name or have the keyword in between.
Keyword in Subdomain better than keyword in Extension: It is suggested that the keyword appearing in the subdomain can boost rankings when compared to having the domain in extension.
History of the domain matters: A domain name that is dropped too many times
will have a negative score to its name. Or if a domain name is penalized by google that penalty could last even after the domain is expired. The new owner will buy a penalized domain and thus get affected.
Buying a keyword as a domain name isn’t worth it anymore: In the past, people were buying the keyword as a domain name with some extension because it was valuing it so high in the past. But now with the Google EMD Update. The exact match domains aren’t valued highly.
But, still, Exact match domains will have slight advantages over others when maintained right. If your exact match domain is a low-quality site then it could get impacted and penalized by Google Exact Match domain update.
WhoIs, Should it be public or Private: Shouldn’t matter much for your SEO, but if you
are someone who runs multiple websites and all of them have whois to be private
then it appears like something unusual but still doesn’t make it bad for your
the website’s SEO as long as other factors are good.
Don’t get penalized by Google, Not even once: If Google identifies a particular person as a spammer whose website is penalized. It could have an impact on the other
websites run by the same person.
Age of the Domain: Domain Age is a factor that can impact your SEO but trivial, not much. The website with the age of 6 months is as good as a website with 1 year of
age. Can’t make a huge difference. But still, domain age is one of the factors.
Domain Life: – The number of years left for a domain to expire: Google
says, The date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain.
Hence it is also a ranking factor and it is always suggested to buy a domain for more years if you are very serious about that business.
These are the ranking factors that are associated with the domain name.
By reading this article you can learn how to do SEO for a new website.
Suggestion: Best vendor to buy a domain name from?
These are 1000’s of vendors/registrars out there that sells domain names:
Domain SEO: Here is the list best domain and hosting provider
- BlueHost
- Names cheap
- Crazy domains
- Domains
- GoDaddy
Here is the list of points that you should keep in mind before choosing a domain registrar.
- Check if there are any Additional or hidden fees associated
- Price of the domain for that extension, reasonable or not
- Is the registrar accredited by the ICANN or not
- Easy domain transfer and forwarding – if you want to transfer the domain in future
- Good customer support – ideally 24/7 customer support
- Is the registrar charging for Private WhoIs registration or Free?
- Manual and automatic renewal features
- Renewal Fee – Most vendors charge a high renewal fee and give the first year for a very cheap price to attract an audience. It is suggested you buy from a vendor that charges a constant fee every year.
Blue Host gives DOMAIN NAME FOR FREE when you purchase hosting from BlueHost, so you may want to go for blue host hosting and get Free SSL, & Free Domain.
Here is a link to get a free domain from BlueHost.
Note: You get a free domain from Bluehost only when you buy hosting with them.
Names cheap is well-known for domain names and is one of the market leaders in the domain industry.
Name Cheap also offers a free domain when you purchase shared hosting.
Here is the link to get a domain offer from Names cheap.
Crazy Domains
Crazy domains offer domains with very reasonable and cheap prices. The best part is that they offer domain prices at a constantly fixed fee every year.
Here is the link to buy a domain name from Crazy Domains.
