Can My Domain Name Affect My SEO Ranking?

Every business that’s worried about being found online cares about their search engine rank. Savvy businesses use SEO tools to ensure they rank well on particular keywords. But does your domain name play a role? We say yes.

Choosing the right TLD

TLD or Top Level Domain helps visitors understand your geographic ranking. A .com.au TLD tells visitors that you’re a commercial site in Australia. If it ends in the UK then Great Britain is your primary location and so on.  Having a .com.au domain name tells search engines to include your site in results from Australia. This combined with good keyword copywriting on particular web pages can help you to appear in more search results for visitors looking for Australian services.

What about your Second Level Domain (SLD) name?

Your name – the part you choose for your domain name (e.g. Asporea in asporea.hk) is slightly less important. Google is no longer interested in domains that have keywords stuffed into them. In fact, they may penalise your search position for doing that.

The mission of search engines is to find the most relevant search results to help users find what they need (not what you want to give them). To do this search engines focus on ranking their results considering some factors, including how many similar or related sites link to yours, as well as things like the content on your site and how well that content picks up on particular keywords.

So your SLD should be short and memorable and should not be stuffed with keywords. Leave your keywords for all the great content in your website’s pages. Think about those sites that feature prominently in search engines – they are simple. The name itself is rarely stuffed with keywords. Consider UBER.com – there is nothing in the domain name to tell you it’s about transportation or taxi alternatives, it’s just UBER.

Where your Second Level Domain does the heavy lifting is with brand recognition. When your customer sees your domain name, they should instantly recognise that it’s you. The other thing to remember is how it reads in print – you want to avoid names that could be misunderstood. e.g. milestherapist.com could be read two ways – one most regrettably for Miles, a therapist.

Consider future uses and protecting your interests

Think about how to protect your business name investment. With domain squatting on the rise you want to ensure you have all the variations of your domain name you think you’ll need.  You should also consider future uses. Will your business expand? Could it be harmful if someone else bought a similar domain in another TLD? I  always recommend the benefits of securing as many Top Level Domains as you can afford to protect yourself against unscrupulous marketers who want to steal your business away.

Asporea offers a wide range of Top Level Domains and an easy search facility to ensure that you can find the right Top Level domain for your business.  Our domains start from $9.99, so initiate the search for your perfect domain name today.

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