14 May Best Domain Name Selection for SEO

If you are not creating a personal blog in your own name and if you have concerns about whether your site will generate the amount of website traffic you want, you will need to find a good domain name for your website. This is the key factor for SEO. Of course there is always a possibility to improve your website with any domain selection. However some domain names are going to help you much better on SEO.  You will find some domain name selection tips on this page. Please try our blog name generator if you are looking for unique names for your blog.

Type of Domains

There are four kind of domain facts in SEO:

• Niche domains. These domains are generally created with long tail keywords. They are also about specific subjects or a sub-category. You build a few pages for those websites and focus on off-page SEO. Niche domains are easy to work with…
• Brand domains. These domains only include a brand name. For example, Flippa is a website for domain sales. However the name doesn’t include anything about that. These kind of domains need too much work to build up for SEO. Especially if people are unfamiliar with your brand and your reputation is low.
• Keyword domains. This is similar with niche domains but needs more content than niche websites. Unlike niche domains, they can be short.
• Keyword and brand domains. These type of domains are recommended by Google. Especially for e-commerce websites. You can improve reputation of your brand with those domains and also use the benefit of keyword for SEO.

Niche Domains

Niche domains are not for big projects. Your website will become too focused on the keyword domain if you try to create a lot content on it instead of building a few pages. These domains are handy for generating traffic from a certain keyword. Niche websites can be even be one page websites which has been focused on off-page SEO. The traffic of the website is going to be limited with the search volume of the niche keyword.

Example niche keyword: texas truck accident lawyer

Example niche domain: texastruckaccidentlawyer.com

Niche Domains are recommended for long tail keywords which has low traffic potential.

Brand Domains

There are also two kinds of brand domains. There are recognizable brand domains which have no traffic concern due to the company’s established reputation is one of them. The other one is brand domains that have no reputation and domain authority with low traffic concerns.

Brand domains which have no traffic concern is generally about product of companies. Those websites are usually built for the purpose of introducing a product.

There are also websites which are trying to get known with only brand domains. As we have already told in the list above, Flippa is a good example of those brand names. It is very hard to get traffic through brand domains at the first stage. You will need to be careful for on-page SEO and Off-Page SEO. It will need a serious work on that.

Brand domains are only recommended for introducing a new product line or for well-known products and brands.

Keyword Domains

These domains can be selected with combined keywords or just one primary keyword. These domains should have high traffic potential. (Combined keywords too.) These kind of domains are good for wiki websites and informative websites. We don’t recommend these for brands and companies. Why? Keyword domains are not memorable if you can’t find a unique one. Brand sites, e-commerce websites and company sites should have memorable names. Otherwise your website’s SEO presence will be unstable and unpredictable… People can’t find you with your keyword on search engines every time. However, a memorable brand name will always help you to be found on Google.

Example keyword: online assembly

Example keyword domain: onlineassembly.com

Keyword domains are recommended for informative websites and wiki websites.

Brand and Keyword Domains

These domains can be especially effective for new brands which need to generate traffic and it can be very good for e-commerce websites. These domains will be also be useful for information/wiki websites that want to build up their brand name in the future. These domains are generally created with one brand name and a keyword.

Example Brand+Keyword: ANX Gold

Example Brand+Keyword domain: anxgold.com

Brand and keyword domains are memorable names for users. It is recommended for all business industries and blog types.

Which Domain Type is the Best for SEO?

We recommend brand+keyword domains for you if you would like to do serious businesses with your blog, e-commerce or brand name in the future. You will get the benefit of keyword for SEO and you will have a memorable name as well. However, keyword domains can also be an awesome option for you.

Niche domains have too many differences with other domain types. So you need to treat it in a distinctive way. If you want to target a specific search keyword, this is going to be best option for you.

SEO Best Practices for Domains

• Don’t use hyphens on your domains. Such as: 85-ideas.com. It won’t good work for you.
• Using numbers on your domains is not also very good until you use it as a brand name or keyword+brand.
• Your domain name should be something that people will remember with a lasting impact.
• Choose .com domains first and then .net. TLD is important.
• Try to get a new clean domain instead of an old one.
• Short domains are going to be helpful since they are easier to remember for your consumers.
• Check search volume of your keyword if your chosen domain name includes it.

Hyphens on Domains

It is proven that Google doesn’t like hyphens on domains. You can also find similar information on SEOMOZ and Ahrefs articles. This is common mistake of people that they are trying to use domains with hyphens when they can’t find available domains. You can prefer use shorter or longer domains instead of domains with hyphens.

Prefer .com TLD First

You will find many articles online that try to convince you that Google treats all TLDs equally. However this is not the truth. There are aren’t many popular and successful websites that utilizes another TLD rather than the industry standard .com TLD. In fact, almost 99% of all popular websites have .com TLD at the moment. Statistics don’t lie… So try to get a .com TLD for your new project. If you having trouble finding an available domain name with .com TLD, you can try to get one with a .net TLD instead.

Don’t Use Numbers on Domain if It is Not a Brand

Sometimes brands can include numbers. We recommend you to not to use symbols or numbers in your domains if your brand doesn’t already include it. Text-based domains are the best for SEO, which shouldn’t include Hyphens as previously mentioned in the article.

Memorable Domains are Awesome

If you pick a memorable name for your website, your domain is going to have better search results on Google, Bing and other search engines too. This will be the key factor that will determine the SEO success of your brand name. So try to choose memorable and shorter names for your brand.

Get a New and Clean Domain

There is a lot of information on internet that try to explain how old domains are better than newly created domains. Actually, this is not true. I have tested it myself by creating multiple websites with old and new domains to verify the accuracy of my statement. Old domains can be quite problematic for you and you might need to work hard to rectify previous SEO issues compared to the clean slate that you have with a new domain. An established website that is properly updated is much better than a new website, but an old domain name is not better than a new domain name at all.

Get Short Domains if Possible

Short domains are valuable because long URLs is not something appreciated by Google. A short domain name will help you to create your link structure much better than an long domain name. Link structure is very important for SEO. So if it is possible, we recommend you to pick short domains. If you are planning to create a niche website, you can ignore this.

Check Search Volume of Your Domain Keyword

If you have decided to create a website with a niche domain or keyword domain, this is very important for you. We recommend you to check potential traffic of your chosen keywords before you create your website. How will you do it? You can find the information with powerful keyword research tools such as Semrush and even with free SEO tools like Google keyword planner.

See: How to Use Google Keyword Planner to Find New Keywords Free

If you have any questions regarding domains, please let us know. We will respond you as soon as possible with our expert staff.

Burhan Sönmez

Seo Consultant

info@nettstedweb.com

Nettsted Limited