Buying a New Domain
Buying a New Domain
It is important to get good keyword rich domain names, so, as always, keyword research is the most important part of this process. So, to use the ubiquitous ‘widget’ example, if you had a site that was selling widgets you could first try and buy the domain “widgets.com/.org/.net” etc if this is taken try “sellingwidgets.com” and so on until you get the domain you are happy with.
The two hosts I use most are Hostgator and Godaddy, you can click on the banners below to take you straight through to these sites:
If your product or service is country specific then I would always recommend getting a country specific top level domain (ccTLD – Country Code Top Level Domain) such as .co.uk for the UK, .fr for France, .ca for Canada etc. Most registrars will sell these domains, but if you are struggling to buy one for your specific location type your ccTLD followed by ‘domain names’ into the search engine and you should get a good choice from there (for example ‘.co.uk domain names‘). If not then feel free to get in touch with me and I will help.
So which domain extension is the best? There are so many extensions these days that opinion is very divided. The official line taken by Google is that the extension does not matter, but all the evidence points to the contrary. In general the top domain extensions in order of preference are
1 .com
2 .net or .org
3 .info or .biz
.com’s have always been more brand able and tend to do very well in the search engines.
.org’s are good too, but are still often associated with charities and organisation.
.info’s tend to be a little cheaper but because of this have always been seen as a little spammy. Originally they were associated with information sites, and if you have a site which is based mostly on supplying information then this will still be a good bet.
The use of hyphens in a domain name is another grey area. Generally a hyphen will make your site less brand able and harder for people to remember, but can still be a good idea if it helps you get your keyword rich domain name. I would not recommend however any more than 1 hyphen. So in our example above you could use selling-widgets.com but I would steer clear of you-selling-widgets.com
And finally we can move on to prefix and suffix. A prefix comes before your keyword and a suffix after it. So for instance in the widgets example your keyword could be prefixed by ’online’ or ‘your’ or ‘buy’ thus making onlinewidgets.com or buywidgets.com
The suffix would simply come after your keyword, such as widgets online.com or widgetsreviews.com
In general I would recommend using prefix and suffix if it is suitable for your business, if you are selling a product online then putting a prefix of ‘buy’ or ‘buying’ is very viable. Also of course the prefix and suffix are good if the domain name and extension you are primarily after are not available.
That’s it for now. As always feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment.
Mark
Which Domain name?
Which Domain Extension?
Domain name is the address you type into your web browser ending in .com or .net or .co.uk ie google.com or google.co.uk or twitter.com Domain names can have a big influence on your SEO (search engine optimisation) and can influence the speed of indexing and how high your site is ranked, and can also have a very direct impact on how much money you can make.
It can be a difficult choice. You are looking for an SEO friendly domain. Keyword research is very important in any optimisation as ideally you are looking for a keyword that is searched for many times, but has low competition. This is an idealised view, and rarely seen so easily, but you get the general picture.
Once you have you a keyword or phrase it is important to use this phrase when choosing a domain name. Although the search engines haven’t come out and admitted it, all the evidence points to the fact that they see keywords and phrases as an important factor in ranking.
There are three categories of keyword matching options. Exact match, phrase match and broad match.
Exact Match matches your keyword or phrase in the domain exactly. For instance if your keyphrase is ‘bird seed’ then the exact match domain would be ‘birdseed.com ‘
Phrase match has the keywords in the right order in your domain but with an extra word also to create a new phrase. Using the bird seed example that could be ‘buybirdseed.com’
Broad match has the keywords in a different order, also with an extra word or two thrown in. For example ‘seedbirdonline.com’
There is also non keyword optimised domains, which don’t have any of your keywords included. Again taking the above example this could be ‘avianfood.com’
Generally non keyword phrases are most suited for companies with an established brand, or trying to build a brand. This doesn’t mean that these domains can not be used for your chosen keyphrase, it just makes it a little more difficult.
With all other ranking factors being equal then the search engines will rank in the following order: Exact, then phrase and finally broad.
In my next post I will discuss choosing the best domain if your keyword has been taken.
