Before you set up and publish your website, one of the first and most essential factors in selecting an SEO domain. After all, this is your moniker worldwide, so think of it as choosing the name of your new business or company. You must put a lot of thought and consideration into it, as it affects not only the way visitors view it but your SEO!
The domain name shouldn’t only fit your business but the way it fits your SEO goals. Furthermore, it should be easy to find and type and promote online and offline.
There are so many factors to consider when doing so, and I know it can be not easy trying to figure out what matters most. Read on as I show you the crucial domain factors that can help with your site’s SEO.
Nine Domain Factors That Help Your Website’s SEO 637
Whether you are a personal blog or official business, it’s crucial to create a domain that people will directly associate you with regardless of your goals. How can you combine those goals with your SEO needs?
These are the nine factors you need to consider before making your final decision on what to name your website:
1. Choose Your Domain Wisely
The domain needs to be easy to read and type for starters, especially in print format. You wouldn’t want something long, as this will make it confusing and unappealing for viewers.
Avoid using long words or slang, which can make it difficult to understand. Also, don’t use numbers or hyphens, an old SEO technique that isn’t appropriate today.
You can check with SEO tools and companies like Joel House to see if your domain name is short and sweet, NOT spammy-sounding, and memorable for many to note in the future.
2. Your Domain Age
Domain age isn’t a huge role in SEO rankings, BUT Google still uses it in a certain way for minimal reasons. That’s why it’s always important to consider this when selecting a domain name.
Checking your domain age is easy, as you can go to most hosting websites. Type the domain name, and it will show you the necessary information about it, including its age. It is helpful for those who are analyzing domains for marketing campaigns.
3. The keyword is in Top-Level Domain
Google bolds keywords appearing in a domain name, though they may have stopped doing this recently. While this isn’t proof they use it for SEO rankings, it shows how a keyword in your domain is a relevancy signal.
Since it doesn’t happen anymore, you don’t need to worry too much about it, but something to keep in mind.
4. Keyword in the Subdomain Name
Besides the keyword being in top-level domain names, you should also consider it is the first word in a domain and within the subdomain.
While it isn’t crucial for the keyword to be the first word in a domain, it’s still recommended to use keywords in subdomains. Just make sure it’s incorporated seamlessly.
5. The Domain Registration Length
This comes from Google’s patent, talking about domain registration length:
Valuable and legitimate domains are paid several years in advance, while illegitimate domains are rarely used for over a year. Thus, when a domain expires, data may be a factor in predicting the domain legitimacy. You can check your competitors’ domain registration length using web-hosting platforms or by hiring companies like Brisbane SEO.
6. Your Domain History
It’s most likely that websites with volatile domain histories can adversely impact your SEO efforts. So when you purchase a new domain, investigate all the domain factors such as its previous owners and activity and its link profile. Fortunately, useful tools help you conduct domain audits to show how right (or bad) the domain is.
7. An Exact Match Domain
Exact match domains with the exact keyword you use were a huge ranking factor. However, it has been updated since 2012 to stop poor-quality websites from getting higher rankings simply because of keyword usage. If your site has an exact match domain, you have a high-quality website and content to rank high.
8. Public vs. Private WHOIS
Using private registrations for your domain name doesn’t hurt your rankings, but checking other links and domains helps SEO content marketing strategies.
This can help you find spammy links in lousy link profiles to know what blog networks to avoid backlinks.
9. Are You Penalized?
When you purchase a domain and don’t see as much benefit despite following all of the non-spammy Google practices, you know, it’s most likely that your website was penalized before. You can use tools to check if your domain has been punished and what you can do about it.
Wrapping It Up
While you may think it’s a small part of your website, your domain name is one of the significant faces that showcase your site! It’s vital to put more thought into what the domain will be, considering important factors that range from the keyword usage down to ease of remembering.
By learning more about these factors, you can now narrow down your choices and create the most suitable domain that will help with SEO. But this is just the beginning! Start learning more about the importance of your domain name and dig deeper into your SEO audit now.
