In 2018, there were 333.8 million domain registrations. With so many domains and websites, how can you expect to rank? Are domain names important?
You might think all of the good domain names are taken, but that isn’t the case. There are some important things you should know about domains before you purchase one for your company.
Understanding a domain name value will help you understand domain SEO. Continue reading this article to learn what you need to know about domains and how they affect SEO before you get started.
What’s My Domain Name Value?
When you go to buy a domain, you want to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. You might not want to get a domain that is your company name and think you can get a keyword specific domain to boost your rankings. These are called exact match domains or EMDs.
Understanding a Domain’s Anatomy
The most simple explanation of a domain is that it allows you to type something easy to read into your browser to access a website. For some people that is enough information, but for you – you want to rank and you need to know how a domain is put together.
Domains consist of:
- Protocol
- Subdomain
- Domain Name
- Top-level Domain aka TLD
- Root Domain (Includes domain name and TLD)
The protocol is http://, the subdomain is what comes between the http:// and the domain name, the domain name is the word(s) that come before the .com, . net, etc. And the .com, .net or .org, etc is the TLD.
You may also see the term ccTLD which means a country code TLD such as .au or .co.uk. If you want searchers to know what country you’re creating content for then this can be helpful.
Why Should I Care About Domain Anatomy?
Now that you understand how a domain is made up, we can talk with you easily about what you should and shouldn’t do. Refer to the above information if you get confused.
When you type a website address into the search bar http:// is always in play even if you don’t type it. Whether you type www.websitename.com or websitename.com, the http:// is there whether you see it or not.
Where the domain structure can hurt you here is if you have multiple versions of the website such as www.yourwebsite.com and https://yourwebsite.com. You always want to make sure that your website only resolves to one location so when people link to your website, you get all of the “link juice.”
Having a basic understanding of SEO will help you navigate through the murky waters but don’t let it bog you down. Keep moving forward with your website and other growth plans.
Choosing the Best Domain for SEO
The value of your domain name begins to increase as you develop more authority. Not every website has authority because everyone starts at 0. When you register your domain name, you don’t have any links or social share or anything.
The only thing you can do when you’re selecting your domain name is to pick the best foundation. Even though the domain name doesn’t have any clout as of yet, you want to make sure the domain name you pick has the best opportunity to build clout.
If you aren’t sure how to register a domain name, you can read more here, but let’s continue to learn about choosing a domain name.
1. Readability & UX
When you look at the domain you’re considering, how easy are they to read when you look at them? How easy are these domains to remember?
You want your domains to be as short as possible, easy to remember and easy to type. When you get all of these things together, you’ve hit the sweet spot for domain names.
User experience is important because it is one of the ranking signals for Google. They want their users to have a good experience and if your domain gives signals that is happening, you’re going to get a little boost.
2. EMDs
Exact match domains used to be the way to rank. You’d decide you want to rank for “best ways to lose weight in 2007”, buy the domain best-ways-to-lose-weight-in-2007.com and boom – you’re ranked in the top 10 almost immediately after indexing.
Don’t worry. It’s not that way anymore so don’t rush to grab an EMD. If you have a spammy EMD then you can get penalized for it.
Stay away from EMDs as much as possible. If your domain happens to be the keyword that you’re trying to rank for, that does not mean you’re automatically going to be penalized though so don’t worry about that.
3. Branding
Another important thing you need to keep in mind is that you should be building your brand at all times. If your niche is in weight loss and your company name is Slimmer in 10 then slimmerin10.com makes sense.
If your company name is available, it’s always a smart move when you use a brand name for your domain.
How Important Is My Domain?
Having a domain that serves the searcher and is not spammy is extremely important. The age of your domain isn’t as important as it once was thought to be but there’s probably a little juice behind it.
Your domain value will continue to grow over time as high quality websites link to it so make sure to promote and implement effective SEO strategies.
Continue Your Internet Marketing Training
Congratulations. You now understand more about domain name value than most people on the planet. The information above can help you make the right decision on which domain name to buy so you can get the best results with your website.
Still need more help?
We’ve put together many tutorials to help you increase your SEO knowledge, but one of our favorites helps you learn about keywords and how to use them. Read our keywords article today and increase your SEO knowledge.