There’s always something to howl about.

Basic SEO: How to Choose a Domain Name

Lately I seem to be getting this question a lot. At BHB Unchained it was asked of me several times. Finally, a good friend asked me today: I am looking getting a site and choosing a domain name and I KNOW I need to get one full of keywords.

“How about CityRealEstateStateHomes.com?”

My response?
“How about
CityRealEstateStateHomesCondominiumsSaleBestAgentHomeSearch.com?”

I mean, if you are gonna get (what we call at EricOnSearch) a marketing turd, why not go all the way? (grin) ( I know, I am being absurd…but hopefully this helps illustrate the point.) I think THAT one is available.

I made the statement at Unchained. From an SEO perspective, QUIT trying to keyword stuff domain names, thinking that you’ve just helped yourself in a hugely meaningful way to get great rankings. I said it. I meant it.

If there is ANY benefit, it is small (there are exceptions to this, which I will explain.) and it is MORE than offset by the marketing damage that you are doing by SOLELY looking at your domain name through SEO eyes. Notice I am NOT saying there is NO benefit. I AM saying simply that it isn’t worth it.

Do yourself a favor and use marketing eyes and not SEO eyes alone when buying domain names.

Now before people start throwing tomatoes, please allow me to explain in detail:

Search engines are smart.

Depending on how you break them down, there are hundreds of variables that make up a typical search engine’s algorithm. The name of the domain is only ONE (1) of those. So even if ALL of the possible variables carried the same weight, it would still NOT be a big deal.

Google (and other search engines) evaluate apply different weights to these characteristics to determine where your site will rank. They KNOW which of these characteristics are easily spammed. They know which ones are NATURALLY self correcting.

A Title Tag is somewhat self correcting in that it forms the TITLE that you see in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). Characteristics that affect how text looks on the screen are also likely to be self correcting since it makes sense that these could only be abused so far without damaging the user experience. In other words, search engines look for defensible characteristics that people would not abuse because they would want to protect their ability to attract and keep visitors.

This is why in April 2007 Rand Fishkintook a poll of 35 of the leading SEO practitioners as to which characteristics they deemed more important when optimizing a site. Notice that domain name was well down the list. (Also notice that there is much disagreement between SEO folks!)

Have things changed since then? Undoubtedly they have. But I have seen nothing that leads me to believe that domain names have dramatically increased in importance since that time.

The exception to this is a domain name that EXACTLY matches a keyword phrase. I have worked on sites like CityHomes(.)com that have seemed to get extra goodness WHEN searching for the Exact Term “City Homes”. This also seems to apply to .org and other extensions. This makes SENSE to me. It is designed (IMO) to protect trademark holders since in many cases they own the domain name for the EXACT search.

I can also imagine that in a TOTALLY non competitive environment, that having a keyword centric domain name might have some effect. BUT over the long haul it is NOT the major factor that some might think. You are better off writing for the readers. A domain name that catches their eye and helps them remember you is the way to go.

I met Cyndee Hayden at BHBU. I like her Clearwater Florida site SandbarsToSunsets.com much better than a domain name like clearwaterrealestatetampahomes.com. Call me crazy. One is great branding, the other is a marketing turd. Which would YOU want on your business card?

So I guess the bottom line is: Choose a domain name that works for Marketing. If there is a great mix of both keywords, then GREAT. One example would be Bob Wilson’s site HomeSalesSanDiego.com. I think that is great marketing wise AND happens to contain the keywords.

If you can get ’em both GREAT! If not… go with the marketing.

Thoughts?