Choosing a Domain Name? Do Your Keyword Research First by Rachelle Money, 16 December 2007
As the ancient Chinese proverb says; “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” Choosing an appropriate name for your company takes careful thought and picking a domain name for your website is just as important a decision, especially when taking into account how fiercely competitive the world wide web is. Joshua Sloan, director of online marketing for the world’s most popular web host company, 1and1.com explains…
Key points
- If your company name doesn’t include relevant keywords you may want to add them. A family company recognized locally as Henderson’s the bakers might prefer hendersonsbakery.com instead of simply hendersons.com.
- More data is better than less data. All data is relative to the questions you ask about it or the way you think about it. All the data in the world is not helpful at all unless you can make a decision on it.
- Whatever your website is about, you need to be the expert in your subject matter and if you can’t write from the top of your head 500 to 1,000 words about a topic related to your business then you haven’t yet mastered your niche - you have to be confident and competent.
As the ancient Chinese proverb says; “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” Choosing an appropriate name for your company takes careful thought, and picking a domain name for your website is just as important a decision, especially when taking into account how fiercely competitive the world wide web can be.
Joshua Sloan, director of online marketing of the world’s most popular web host company 1and1.com, says they have registered and handled more than 8.8 million domain names, as well as providing additional tools to help customers build professional and helpful websites.
Carrying out some keyword research could be a deciding factor on which name you choose, as Sloan explains; “The process of finding keywords helps you understand the search behavior of your target consumers and first ideas of how you want your site to be found on search engines.”
“But if you are a new company there aren't going to be many people looking for your brand. Usually that process of discovering keywords means adapting how you pick domain names.”
If the keywords relevant to your business are not in your brand name you may have to use a domain name which isn’t the same as your business name, or alternatively incorporate both.
For example, if I ran a family company called Henderson’s which was recognized locally by its brand name as a bakery, having a domain name like hendersons.com won’t tell potential customers on the web anything about the company. So, it would be beneficial to incorporate a keyword in the domain name like hendersonsbakery.com
Sloan says: “In the world of the internet you can use keywords anywhere in your domain name, url, directory, title tags, page name, content on the pages - this pattern of keyword relevancy all adds up to being beneficial to not only your visitors but also your site traffic.”
Research, and research, and research...
However, Sloan is quick to point out that when businesses start to build their website, keyword research and search engine optimization tend to be afterthoughts. “The average website builder does not necessarily understand the keyword relationship to architecture and page naming - directory naming and domain naming do all tend to come afterwards.
“If you were extremely knowledgeable you would know the time you invest in understanding the keyword relevancy to your site’s architecture is valuable because it tends to take longer to retro fit your site based on new keyword knowledge.”
However, Sloan recommends businesses launch a template site as opposed to nothing at all until a website has been fully designed. “If you don’t get something up you’re just going to extend the time needed to get value from your site,” he warns.
1&1 are now working alongside Wordtracker through the affiliate sales channel, which Sloan directs. “We are constantly looking for tools, tips, websites and products that help generate additional traffic, and preferably tools that aren’t expensive and have relatively low learning curves - because one thing a company cannot give to its clients is time.”
When asked what advice he has for young companies eager to put themselves on the web, Sloan harked back to his days as a college lecturer.
“I have this metaphor framework that I teach my own students and I call it the three rules of data.”
1) More data is better than less data.
2) All data is relative to the questions you ask about it or the way you think about it.
3) All the data in the world is not helpful unless you can make a decision on it.
“And that goes for whether you are analyzing your web traffic or how to battle severe competition, or picking a domain name for branding - it applies to a lot of different eCommerce sites and web businesses.“
1&1
1&1 started out as an internet access seller in Germany in the early 1990’s and now boasts an international portfolio with companies based in the UK, France, Austria, Spain and of course the United States. They are also working to expand into the Indian and Australian market.
In 1998 the company passed their first milestone when they merged with an IT and web services company called Schlund+Partner. Buying one of Europe’s most powerful data centers brought an exciting new dynamic to the company - this has continued to pay dividends.
“That synergy was really good for us,” remarks Sloan. “According to the last numbers I saw we have 40% of the German hosting market, 20% of the European hosting market and in the US, which is a relatively new company, we hit the top ten list in less than two years and the top five in less than four.
“In the US there are 22,000 web hosts and so for us to rise quickly in a highly competitive industry is quite remarkable.”
Diversify and expand
1&1 have worked on expanding the number of services they provide to more than just registering domain names. They now have 6.39 million customers on paid services like click and build packages where you can create professional websites which attract and effectively communicate with visitors. They also help people set up instant mail where you can have your domain name in the email address (your.name@yourdomain.com), and get your own eShops up and running, or install virtual private servers (VPS).
Sloan says 1&1’s employees are “proud geeks.” “We think that’s a good term here,” he laughs. “I myself am a second generation geek - my father was a programmer in the seventies.
“I would say that there are a large number of people at 1&1 who don’t have a great deal of corporate experience, but do bring a lot of intelligence, enthusiasm and the ability and willingness to learn the skills that they need.”
1&1 understand the benefits of online marketing and so have given their customers a helping hand, especially to those businesses just starting out, as Sloan explains.
“With the beginner's hosting plan we give $50 for MSN or Pay Per Click, $25 Google Pay Per Click, $25 for Yahoo Pay Per Click, and if they are a brick and mortar store they can also get a $25 voucher for City Search.”
He calls this “learning money”, for businesses to gather data on which marketing solution is working best for their business - this in turn helps them make future decisions on online marketing strategies.
Become an expert
Once a business is satisfied they have built a good website, the next step is to create the copy that will go on the site. Sloan says many website designers will “draw the line at creating content” and will rely on the client to provide the designer with the copy needed.
“My honest feeling is that whatever your website is about, you need to be the expert in your subject matter, and if you can’t write 500 to 1,000 words from the top of your head on a topic related to your business then you haven’t yet mastered your niche - you have to be confident and competent,” says Sloan adamantly.
He goes on to say: “That doesn’t mean it has to be right first time, and if you have done keyword research and can see the way people are querying the search engines, it is possible to organically write copy that has between half a percent to one percent keyword density.”
It just goes to show that keyword research is as important at the beginning when you decide your domain name, as it is at the final sentence of your content.
Top tips for choosing a domain name
1) Do not assume your brand name is the best domain name to select. Carry out some keyword research before making a decision and consider incorporating a keyword alongside the brand name.
2) Short is better if you can do it, but simple phrases can be fine. Too long and you might get more mistypes.
3) Keywords (which people actually use) in a domain are useful in making it clear what the site is about.
4) Show a preference for .com top level domains (TLDs), but don't despair if you have to use other TLDs. Any TLD can be brandable - it's just a bit easier with .com.
5) Most people should avoid tradename and tradename typos. Domain squatting on these kinds of names can lead to costly legal battles.
6) Do grab the mistypes of your own domain. Not for SEO, but to get traffic that might have not otherwise reached you.
7) Multiple domains can be developed into targeted sites and then interlinked if their themes are not mutually exclusive.
8) And finally, here’s what to do if your domain is gone:
(i) Contact the existing owner directly and make them an offer.
(ii) Use a domain broker like Sedo.com to negotiate the price for the domain.
(iii) If your brand is strong, you could try out a different TLD (a .net instead of a .com), or if your brand is new or not well known, try a variant domain (mybrand.com instead of brand.com).
About Rachelle Money
Rachelle Money is a freelance journalist based in Scotland, UK. She graduated from the Scottish School of Journalism in 2005 where she was awarded an internship with two national publications - The Sunday Herald newspaper and The Big Issue magazine. Rachelle has been working with Wordtracker since August 2007 and is a regular contributor to the newsletter.
47 comments
Hi Rachelle
Just read your article. Good info on SEO. I just wanted to check 1&1.com website and ??? "website not found". Is this in accordance to your preaching? There's no link to your source of of information and it can't be found under 1&1.com (I did find it under 1and1.com however).
Best of luck...
JP
Hi JP and Rachelle,
1&1 Internet Inc. is the company. The website is www.1and1.com
I hope this helps.
Hi Rachelle,
Is it true that a keyword related domain will like rank higher than a domain with no keyword?
For example golfcarts.com vs andyDoe.com
What I want to know is if search engines also take domain names into account or is the name important for branding purposes only?
remko m,
The article didn't cover too much about domain names and SEO, despite its title. But you asked:
"What I want to know is if search engines also take domain names into account or is the name important for branding purposes only?"
Search engine do take the domain name into account but according to some of the search engine companies, they weight it less than say, the page title, which is highly weighted. Also, if a person wants to create a keyword-rich domain name, they are best to use dashes between the words. That way the search engine's robots will be able to see them as separate words.
So the bottom line is, it's no great advantage to make your domain name keyword-rich, because you can get better results from the page title. Though your domain name counts to search engines, you are usually better selecting a brief and memorable domain name that elicits the flavor and theme of your business. That is true even if your brand is not established. A brief domain name that catches the mind and conjures up a feeling is one important way that brands catch on in the first place.
So I would opt for a great domain name and use the title tags for more SEO impact than you would get from a keyword-rich domain name.
Cheers, John
Dear Rachel:
Thanks for the information. I am overwhelmed at the amount of time it takes to do any of the tasks associated with online marketing. It has taken me weeks just to make up html listing frames for my inventory to list on auction sites let alone developing a website. I have learned a lot along the way about html, but I realize I will need to have help. My site with 1&1(1and1, yes you didn't obtain the alternate) is just a landing page to lead to my eBay store and I would like to develope an independent ecommerce store next year.
Is there a relatively inexpensive service that would help me with some of the tasks involved? Not just the SEO part but all of the deveopement and technical end of it? Thanks Ron
Seems like all the "good" domain names are already taken, even the silly ones are taken; "doh.com", "duh.com", "moose.com"
There are definitely far more weighting ranking factors than keywords in a domain, looking through a list of SERPs will prove this. However, a keyword filled domain can be useful in terms of back links and general perception of authority by users/potential clients, but be careful with using too many hyphens, anything more than two is not a good idea, as it looks spammy and untrustworthy.
Dear Rachel, thank´s for this article. One of the big Problems is to find a good Domain Name AND one, who is still free with (all) the right TLDs (for example at least .com and .de (for Germany)). In most cases you need a two word domain name with AND without an "-". Hours and hours of brainstorming and many frustrations by "Sorry - this domain is taken by..." I hate Domaingrabber...
I think it depends on what you are going to use the domain for. If it is a site that represents you or your company that you want people to remember the shorter and catchier the domain name the better. If you are only counting on SEO to bring traffic I think longer domains work great. But I agree with Mario, it is becoming more and more difficult to find a good TLD.
Excellent point in addressing the issue of TLD. The fact is that the .com TLD is "the best option" when available, but it is far from the only option. Any TLD is brandable, and it is not THAT much harder to brand a .net, .us or .ws than it is a .com.
The sad reality is that this is the truth but it is definitely not cool to say it. Kudos Rachel for telling it like it is!
Hello Rachelle and Everybody else~
I have a couple of websites one is my name that I am trying to brand is www.lafianza.net the second is www.fianzas-bailbonds.com I really worked diligently at the branding of La Fianza and have done fairly well in the searc engines for the kw lafianza. The word is Spanish and is used in the bail bond profession. My biggest problem has been that I have limited myself only to prospective searchers who are looking for that kw and have thusly hidden myself from English speakers who are looking for the term bail bonds. Even though the site is kw rich it still doesn't do well. Long story short I have grabbed another .com fianzas-bailbonds.com which targets both demographics English/Spanish speakers. I will still brand within that domain for name recognition. I will let you know how this turns out.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year
i have just started SEO as a trainee but ithink there is a lot of information available on net but ur article is so valuable for me can u send me some more information as i can start basic work on seo on my Email-ID.
Great info.,
I have a site doing well (SecuritySaint.com) would it benefit me to also aquire Security-Saint.com? Thus separating the obvious word "Security"? How would this weigh on SEO.
Thanks in Advance, Mark Logan
While the TLD .com is highly valued inside of the USA does it follow that the same should apply for other countries?
As search engines rank results on the basis of relevance using their fiendish algorithms presumably it would be better for a British website--as defined by keywords of its web content or copy-- to secure the .co.uk extension?
Intuitively the answer from a search engine point of view would be yes.
B:o)
I started this company in the late Sept of last year and I didn't do so good, now here it is January and all I am getting is clicks and no buys. This is my first time ever having a business like this and I am getting really frustrating because this is not working at all. Could you give me some advice as of what to do and how to do?
Very good article!
I agree completely with this article. It is amazing how much google page ranking can be improved by using the right URL. The applies even more where there is competition for keywords.
Hi Rachelle, I couldn't resist saying, "Hi!" I'm planning a Robbie Burns party with friends and intrigued with the coincidence of you living in Burns birthplace. I'm doing reasearch on blogs helping a client vitalize a sagging blog. Your article helps add information. I need to read some more to better understand all the impact. I appreciate your clean, friendly style.
HI Rachelle, Your article is very enlightening to me. Wish I have read it earlier before I created my website.
well, better late than never ;-) Thanks a zillion!
Hi Rachelle,
I loved the information provided in the article. I am brand new to the internet and domain name game. I can't wait to read your next article! Keep up the great work. I need all the help I can get.
It is also important to use keywords for your domain because it will help your rankings for those words.
Thanks a lot. I've even heard that Sharper Image uses keyword research for naming their products and determining demand for new products.
Hi Rachelle, Currently working on getting more domain names up for affiliate marketing efforts,good information regarding the domain name research element. best of luck patrick
nice article, helped me a lot
Hi Rachelle, You are absolutely right. We can push this a little it further, if you want to get traffic and get well ranked in the top ten searches (first page) of Google, Msn or Yahoo, use a WP blog with the right plugins. Make the necessary research to find the best keywords that perfectly defines your website (watch your competitor...) Build your blog as website or in as subdomain of your website, it works fine. In your blog create categories choosing 2nd level keywords eg: Your website or blog is about selling home made tee-shirts. Your Brand is Rachelle. You can create your domain name (after you've done some researches): "Rachelle-Top-Graphic-Tee-Shirt.com" Create categories choosing keywords to create a first level hierarchy. eg: fashion / funny / kids / xxxl etc... Do the same for your sub categories. eg fashion-modern / fashion-europe / fashion-party etc... Post in each category relevant articles using related keywords to these categories, always respect the keyword hierarchy. Main - second - third... Post your articles to good directories and in less than 30 days you can reach the top 10 in the Google, Msn Yahoo searches.
Yes definitely the keywords or keyword phrase is important in the domain name choice. Hope it will help...
Hi Rachelle Money, First; let me say congratulations on your article. For a fresher in the SEO business, I think you are brilliant. I read through your publication and I was able to recognize my mistake immediately.
Secondly, I think what Jon Pall, the first writer on the list was trying to say is that you should have used the opportunity of your brilliantly written article to link readers to the proposed site using your own affiliate link unless otherwise if you are not permitted to do. I still think with the point you have been able to make, I believe you should be rewarded for it by linking readers to the site and becoming a successful affiliate/ referral. I would have mentioned your name to the link administrator, Mr.Jesse if I hadn't gotten my account earlier, you could have been paid as much as $300.00 just for referring me to 1and1.com through your link. Finally, you are a very beautiful and intelligent woman from your picture, I live in New York in the USA, you can send me an email if you are ever in the USA, I can always show you around. Good Job, keep it up, keep the flag flying.
Hi Rachelle, Finding keywords is the very first step on building business on the web and the most important point to be considered as well. I made mistakes by ignoring this point and resulted in fails. It's hard to find "good" and "simple" domain name these days and I my self need few days to research the keywords and domain name. For Domain Name, It's fairly better to use a - (hyphen) between words on domain name and I believe SE s will relate the domain name to keywords better since word phrase sometimes have bias in meanings. This great article has covered important points in choosing a domain name, and I believe there will be more knowledges to be shared in your next articles. Great job and success always...
Keywords in domain names is futile. It has been proven over and over again. Instead, concentrate on a well found name that is easily remembered. To make my point: If you type "graphic design" in Google, you will get a webiste number 1 that doesn't even have that keyphrase anywhere on its home page, not in the source code, not in text content, not in the domain name.
Getting highly ranked is ALL about connections with other important online AND offline sources.
Unnatural use of keywords is also very short lived because there are always these rogues who totally misuse any loophole they can find and thus Google finds out and changes its policy. Never go for short term profit because you have to redo all that work again and again and again. Instead, find a really good product. It will sell itself by mouth-to-mouth advertising, which is more powerful then all the google's in the world.
By the way, in general, Google only amounts to 25% of the traffic. Not really worth to lose any sleep over. Instead, concentrate on your relationships online and off line. Build partnerships, exchange links, spread the word without having to accommodate google, then google will accommodate you automatically.
I hope this helps :-)
I have been inspired to keep searching for a better domain name for a new range of Personalised Christmas Cards that we are going to Market in the coming season. I will be using your principle of including key words in the domain.
A great article!
I can say from significant experience that naming your URL by incorporating your most important keywords is very important. Our site BusinessListsForSale.com does just that and does very well in search. This is a great informative site and I will be including links to it in our upcoming newsletter.
The debate over keywords in the domain name all depends on the situation with your site. Keywords are definitely going to help your site in the search engines but a long domain name is never going to take off and dominate a market. Thanks for the info, keep the articles coming!
Wow, great article. Send more. I will have to reserve misspellings of my domain name, and see if this domain name is good for keywords. I have reserved several, including oldworldtoystore.com that redirect. What John said above is interesting too. If anyone goes to see the site, I know that the keywords and descriptions are not finished yet. Good hits already... Can't wait until I do more research, and targeted ads.
Hi Rachelle,
nice article, I signed up for the 7 day trial of wordtracker and feel like I've had a paradigm shift in the way that I look at building my site thanks to Wordtracker and some of the articles I've read.
After just reading the comments I was wondering do you reply to peoples questions by email? The reason I ask is, if so, could you post the answers in the commnents as I'd like to know also! :p
thanks, Jack
the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names
Build partnerships, exchange links, spread the word without having to accommodate google, then google will accommodate you automatically.
Great info!
Finding new domains is always tricky, good info like this helps!
After reading this I bought 10 more domain names!
It's funny after reading this I had to reevaluate my domains. some ok others not
Rachelle, I think it would serve you well to actually answer some of these questions...
In over four months, you haven't posted a single reply.
As "Wordtracker’s newly appointed journalist" where your role is to create relationships with both users and potential users, it seems to me like there's heaps of clues for you to provide a really top quality service here.
What do others think?
Lots of mixed comments with regard to the importance of domain names having keywords or not. It really depends on your marketing strategy and overall goals for your website/business. Particularly liked what Marc and John had to say on the subject.
Several months now with no comment from the host. I very good site, but it appears she has abandoned it. Hopefully she will pick it up again.
Hi,
I'm sorry if it is stupid question, but i believe it's related to your article above.
Does it matter if i choose another TLD excluding .com ? I figured out that every name that i want was already registered.
Cheers,
Asep
remko m: the main ways a keyword rich domain can help you are:
those words might then used in text of links to your site (and link text is good);
relevant searchers see your keywords on search engine results pages (SERPs) which might make them more likely to click through to your site.
But this can only work for the small number of keywords (one?) in your domain name. Hence it's a technique usually of more interest to those targeting small markets.
RON ROBERTSON: Try a search with 'content management system'.
Mark Logan: No. your current domain name is already established, concentrate on the big picture of building quality content and links.
Bob Bonnington: To get better results in the UK you want either a .co.uk or to be hosted in the UK.
In answer to your question Asep: If you want to target people in a non-USA country, eg the UK, then it helps to either have y our site hosted in that country or have that country's TLD, eg .co.uk.
Not having a .com TLD shouldn't affect your listings in the US.
You might think it will affect people's perception of your site and you must decide how much that matters compared to having a great name.
However, Sloan recommends businesses launch a template site as opposed to nothing at all until a website has been fully designed
Very good article!
Hi Rachelle
Nice posting keep it up