{"id":423,"date":"2017-02-21T20:01:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T02:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/krafttg.wpengine.com\/domain-name-seo-tips\/"},"modified":"2017-02-21T20:01:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T02:01:12","slug":"domain-name-seo-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kraftgrp.com\/domain-name-seo-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Domain Name SEO Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Domain names hold more importance to a business than most companies first realize. Domain names not only help your web pages get found by clients but also play a vital role in driving search engine traffic. When choosing a domain name for search engine optimization, you need to consider more than just relevancy. Page ranking and security will also need factoring in.<\/p>\n
Start at the Top<\/strong><\/p>\n A top level domain extension will be your website\u2019s meet and greet for current and prospective clients. This is why you must aim to make a good first impression. Ideally, you want to choose a domain ending in .com, .co.uk, or .edu. Domains ending with .info or .biz are believed to be negatively affected by Google\u2019s search engine algorithms. Newly developed domain names can also be detrimental to ranking.<\/p>\n Be Keyword Friendly, Not Spammy<\/strong><\/p>\n Many new businesses make the mistake of trying to stuff their domain names with keywords related to their brand. If a keyword makes sense to your company then by all means, put it in your name. However, domain names like buyhighqualitycheaptiresnow.com are going to be recognized as spam by Google and will be associated with the low-quality content. Build your own brand recognition through your domain selection. When settling on your domain name, go for a memorable moniker your customers can easily remember without having to jot the name down. Try to avoid hyphens between words when possible as well. Too many hyphens decrease the chances of having clients finding your website quickly.<\/p>\n If you do use keywords in your domain name, specific keywords will always perform better than their generic counterparts. For instance, people are more likely to click on a link titled racingscooters.com versus myscooters.com. Keep in mind too that generic website domains are also a less cost-effective choice overall for a business. Since a generically named domain is already likely owned, you\u2019ll have to pay more to gain ownership.<\/p>\n Brand significance will make the biggest impact when choosing an appropriate domain name. Even if you\u2019re not yet well known in the industry, Google will eventually recognize your company page as a legitimate business and rank it as such. Even if your business has a common name, you can still rank high in search engines. For instance, type in \u201capple\u201d and you\u2019re not likely to come across any first page results related to the fruit.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that the shorter the domain name you choose, the better. Ideally, your domain name will have no more than one or two words in total. Many of the top ranking domain names have fewer than 10 characters (not including the extensions).<\/p>\n