When you start up or expand a business, choosing a domain name can be both daunting and exciting at the same time. For many people who are new to this area, working out how to choose a domain name can be difficult. Some make the mistake of thinking that the best strategy is to choose an exact-match domain, which in the past was an effective strategy. In years gone by, using an exact match for your domain name could see your site rocket towards the top of the rankings.
However, over recent years search engine giants such as Google have clamped down on this. They class this as a form of keyword stuffing, which as we all know is something that Google has really clamped down on over the past few years. If you choose an exact match domain, the chances are that it will now have the opposite effect and will result in your site ranking plummeting. This is why you need to be very careful when choosing your domain name.
Tips to bear in mind when making your choice
There are a number of tips that can help when it comes to choosing the best domain name. This will help to ensure that your search engine ranking is not damaged and that you are not penalized for trying to use an exact-match domain. They can also help to ensure that you have the most effective domain name. Some tips to keep in mind include:
· Make it easy to remember: You should try and make your domain name short, punchy, and easy to remember. This increases fluency as well as making it easier for potential visitors to remember the name of the site.
· Opt for broad keywords: While using exact match keywords is not advisable, using broader keywords can prove helpful. This will help to promote what your business does within the domain name without putting you at risk of being penalized for using an exact match.
· Try not to use hyphens: Many businesses do use hyphens in their domain names to try and split up words. However, this makes it more difficult for visitors to remember the name of the site and also has a connection with spam sites. If you do use a hyphen make sure you use no more than one.
· Don’t choose low level TLDs: When it comes to TLDs (Top Level Domains) there are a number of options. We all know common ones such as .com, .co.uk, .org, and similar. However, there are also ones that are lower level such as .info and .biz, which are not as well known and therefore receive less traffic.
Another thing to remember is that if you already have a site but you are moving from one domain to a new one, you need to ensure you set up redirects on the old site. You should to this on a page by page basis rather than having all pages on the old domain redirected to a single page on the new one.
