Mediapainter

After all these years, finding the right domain is still quite the chore as ever. It’s actually one of the key factors that search engines look at to rank your website. If you want to get a glimpse of how this works, search Google for the keyword business. The number one spot will now and forever belong to business.com. This will never change, ever. A domain name that has a high correlation with the actual theme of your website will increase your chances of search engines ranking you well for related keywords.

Assuming you don’t already have a domain name established, you must pick your path in this never ending battle for high rankings in the search engine results pages (SERP). You can either take advantage of the relevancy bonus by going with a domain name that has keywords you’re after, or you can go for the branding (domain names that make no sense until you’re rich). Google is a great example of a domain name that had absolutely no meaning whatsoever until its share prices entered the stratosphere. Today Google is the absolute definition of search and often replaces the word in day to day conversation.

Most of the good keyword stuffed domain names have already been picked up and flipped a couple times by domaineers. Those that are actually for sale will most likely involve facing a high price to pay (business.com sold for over $300 million 2 years ago). I personally almost always go for a domain name that you can brand your own, preferably something that will connect with your product or service on some level and is short as well as easy to remember. If you have to spell it out over the phone, dumb it down a notch.

Although if you’re developing a website for a new niche in a market, then you can probably get away with including 1 or 2 keywords without having to jump any hoops. Keep it simple though; don’t be using all these hyphens thinking you’re going to string up a whole sentence of keywords for your domain name. That’s what spammers do, and anything they do gets shut down in a hurry. Tomorrow I’ll be discussing how to register a domain name with my ICANN accredited registrar of choice: GoDaddy.