by Chris Beauchamp
Many website owners focus on techniques and tools, but there's one aspect that often goes unnoticed: the domain name. After link building, there are few things that can affect a site's ranking like the domain name does, and this article will explore a handful of ways that you can enhance your website's SEO rankings by making a smart choice with your domain name.
.Com ... .Net ... .Info? The TLD (which stands for Top Level Domain) is the .com, .net, .info, etc. If your website was yoursite.com, the TLD would be: .com. The TDL that you choose can play a major role in the ranking of your site, as many TLDs are seen as spammy and cheap. For example, .info domains can be purchased for $.99 and are traditionally used by spammers: the search engines recognize this and will be more hesitant about ranking this site. This isn't to say that the site will never get rankings, or doesn't have the opportunity to rank well for their terms; but it does mean that they will have a longer and often harder fight to win over the search engines' trust.
The question, then, is what TLDs are optimal? And the answer is that .com's are generally the #1 choice, followed by .org and .net, with all others coming in last. If possible, use .com for every site.
Registration Period This is a secret weapon for many seo experts. When a brand new website is first indexed by Google it is often put into what is called a "sandbox" for a few weeks to even a few months until it has had a chance to build a few trusted links and Google has seen that the site is trustworthy. Wouldn't it be great if you could virtually bypass the sandbox completely? Well, this strategy, along with the others in this article, can help you bypass the sandbox to get your new domain name ranked within days. I have done a test where a completely new site was indexed and ranking for my terms in less than a 24 hour period. I attribute much of that success to this technique. We are talking, of course, about the length of the domain registration period.
Most spammy sites will only order their domain name for one year, because they don't plan to investing for the long-term. Google recognizes this and if a site is registered 2 years or more, there's a much greater initial trust by Google to index and rank this site. It may cost an extra $7, but if you're serious about your site's SEO, this technique can't be ignored.
Using Keywords in the domain If there is one aspect of the domain name that has the biggest impact on search rankings it's the keyword. Go to your favorite search engine and do a search for any term: you'll find that many results in the top 10 often include at least part of the search term. It is imperative to your rankings to choose a domain name with your keywords before you ever build the site.
For example, if you're targeting "Black Tea", it would be best to find a domain like: BlackTeaHaven.com or BlackTeaOnline.com rather than something that doesn't include both of the words Black and Tea.
There are dozens of aspects of SEO, and I tend to think that the domain name is a lot like the foundation: other areas can be built on top of it, but if your domain isn't optimized for SEO, you'll be facing a difficult fight. Begin by using the three tips described above, then work at writing content and doing on-page SEO, and finally build trustworthy backlinks to your site and over time, your site will outrank all the competition!
.Com ... .Net ... .Info? The TLD (which stands for Top Level Domain) is the .com, .net, .info, etc. If your website was yoursite.com, the TLD would be: .com. The TDL that you choose can play a major role in the ranking of your site, as many TLDs are seen as spammy and cheap. For example, .info domains can be purchased for $.99 and are traditionally used by spammers: the search engines recognize this and will be more hesitant about ranking this site. This isn't to say that the site will never get rankings, or doesn't have the opportunity to rank well for their terms; but it does mean that they will have a longer and often harder fight to win over the search engines' trust.
The question, then, is what TLDs are optimal? And the answer is that .com's are generally the #1 choice, followed by .org and .net, with all others coming in last. If possible, use .com for every site.
Registration Period This is a secret weapon for many seo experts. When a brand new website is first indexed by Google it is often put into what is called a "sandbox" for a few weeks to even a few months until it has had a chance to build a few trusted links and Google has seen that the site is trustworthy. Wouldn't it be great if you could virtually bypass the sandbox completely? Well, this strategy, along with the others in this article, can help you bypass the sandbox to get your new domain name ranked within days. I have done a test where a completely new site was indexed and ranking for my terms in less than a 24 hour period. I attribute much of that success to this technique. We are talking, of course, about the length of the domain registration period.
Most spammy sites will only order their domain name for one year, because they don't plan to investing for the long-term. Google recognizes this and if a site is registered 2 years or more, there's a much greater initial trust by Google to index and rank this site. It may cost an extra $7, but if you're serious about your site's SEO, this technique can't be ignored.
Using Keywords in the domain If there is one aspect of the domain name that has the biggest impact on search rankings it's the keyword. Go to your favorite search engine and do a search for any term: you'll find that many results in the top 10 often include at least part of the search term. It is imperative to your rankings to choose a domain name with your keywords before you ever build the site.
For example, if you're targeting "Black Tea", it would be best to find a domain like: BlackTeaHaven.com or BlackTeaOnline.com rather than something that doesn't include both of the words Black and Tea.
There are dozens of aspects of SEO, and I tend to think that the domain name is a lot like the foundation: other areas can be built on top of it, but if your domain isn't optimized for SEO, you'll be facing a difficult fight. Begin by using the three tips described above, then work at writing content and doing on-page SEO, and finally build trustworthy backlinks to your site and over time, your site will outrank all the competition!
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