Is Keyword At All Required In Your Site’s Domain Name?

Another war to rank in Google’s search engine! Another question about keyword placement. Yes, putting a keyword in the domain name does sound logical, but how many should you place? Isn’t there a chance that the keyword might have already been taken? Too many questions, too much confusion!

To make things worse, Google is constantly updating its Webmaster program and adding new criterions every day. Having a keyword placed at each and every corner of your website once held its prominence, but Google soon rectified itself and made things complicated.

To answer this question of how to choose a domain name and where to spend money, break down the series of confusions into few simple steps.

Think like a human for a change

Suppose you intended to sell cat food online and contacted some respected authority to purchase a domain name. Certainly, the keyword in your web content will something be like “cat food” or “best cat food” or “cat food Boston”. Having a domain name like “www.catfoodboston.com” will definitely increase your chances to top the list.

To make things simple, place yourself on the customer’s chair. Say you typed “cat food in Boston” and the first link that came up had those exact words as its domain name. How much trust will you place on that site? But, instead, if your site came with a name like “www.beststore90.com”, will you consider this at all?

Google recognises this human psychology. The sole motive of its algorithm is to enhance user experience and what better way there is than to find your search result as the name of the site itself. So whatever you have heard about people talking about keywords in domain name not holding value anymore, chuck them out of your window.

But can’t anyone else have similar domain names?

Certainly, they can. To give you a reality check, it may so happen that the best 20 possible domain names relating to your keyword are already sold. In case of such a scenario, SEO veterans suggest two solutions:
          –  Buy similar domains and use 301 redirect.
          –  Use top level domains for your site.

If you already bought “catfoodboston.com”, then place orders for similar domains such as “bostoncatfood.com” or “onlinecatfoodboston.com”. After that, simply redirect the other websites into your original one. Smart strategy to fend off competition, right?

Or else, go for a domain with “.com” and “.org”. Seriously, no one puts their faith in “bostoncatfood.tv”. No matter who else use similar keywords, all customers stay with you.

And if everything fails?

All domains related to “cat food Boston” are gone, and you just cannot put a keyword in your domain name? Fret not as Google’s software designer Matt Cutts has an answer for you.

Click HERE to see how important is it to have keywords in a domain name?

Remember the lines from the movie “Jobs”? It is where Aston Kutcher is left wondering what name to give to his newly found computer selling company. He said something like, “I want a name that is common, that people use every day and remember quickly.” Now when you hear “Apple,” you know what to think.
It is always not about keywords. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter didn’t go for keywords. They made their brand shine, and that is what Matt Cutts focuses on.

Finally!

Keep your content relevant, and that is what is necessary. Yes, keywords in domains will definitely help, but relevant content will go a long way to improve your rankings. It will promote the “back-linking” concept and Google is certain to take a note of this.

Govind Agarwal

Govind Agarwal is a Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing Expert at SubmitEdgeseo, with over 6 years experience in the Web Marketing Techniques.