Does my domain name matter to search engines?
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
We get asked this question all the time, so do you think search engines will read your domain name? Is it important to pick a name for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
The quick answer is : YES! Although it’s not the single most important factor, because people are increasingly using browser bookmarks and subscription tools like RSS feeds. But that’s not all, here are some other important tips to remember and is the old-school way of thinking about domains:
- is short
- is easy to remember
- is easy to spell
- is descriptive or brand-able
- does not contain hyphens and numbers
- recommended a .com extension
The biggest flaw on the argument of people that don’t think that domains play an important role on the success of websites lies on the assumption that web surfers will bookmark or subscribe to a given website right after visiting it.
That is not the case. Most people need to come across a website several times before making the decision to bookmark it or to subscribe to its service, an interesting fact is the average person needs to see an ad/product at least 30 times before purchasing.
On the first visit they will come to that site via a link on another website or on a search engine. The domain name, however, will play an important role on the subsequent visits. If it is short, easy to remember and easy to spell, a visitor will not have a problem going back to that site in the future. If the domain is very long, hard to remember and hard to spell, however, there are great chances that the visitor will end up somewhere else, and will probably never return.
*remember: Your website is the first impression, what is your design telling customers?