What better place to pick up where we left off than talking about a domain name. We have been doing all these tutorials on your site for SEO, and haven’t really touched on the most basic make-up of your site. No not lipstick and blush, but the first thing that Google sees. Your domain name.
 
Now, a long time ago, people could put up a site, keyword stuff a title, and description and rank in 24 hrs. Now, it requires a lot more skill than typing.
 
So, let’s look at some of the factors when choosing a domain.

1. Stick with the highest level domain extension. This means .com. If the domain name you want is taken, and is only available in .net, I’d skip it and try and find a different domain. Underneath that is .org and .net. There has been debate under which is better, but generally I have had more success with a .org site. Another thing to remember when choosing and extension is “.com” is much more brandable than a “.net”.

2. Choose a site that ideally has your keyphrase in it. Now, I know what you are thinking, your site is “rachaelbutts.com” You are a hypocrite. I have had success with non keyphrase and keyphrase sites , don’t get me wrong. In the end the most important part is on page content and links. Which designers get plenty of . So, look for sites that have your phrase in the order it is searched, or try adding a word before or after the phrase. Say for example that wordpressdesigners.com is taken, but bestwordpressdesigners.com is available then the latter is perfectly acceptable.

3. Avoid dashes. Dashes are bad for two reason. a. It breaks up your keyphrase, and b. It isn’t user friendly. No one says, ” Hey, visit my site at rachael dash butts.com. See it looks and sounds weird.

4. Pluralizing a word is perfectly fine, and if you have done your keyword research you might find the “s” , or pluralized version is actually searched more than the singular.

5. When purchasing a domain that is an “aged” domain, and has established backlinks and PR. Make sure that the domain isn’t in any bad neighborhoods, and only got all those backlinks by paying for link farms. An aged domain is most of the time better than a newly registered domain, but not if it is associated with bad sites. It is like dating a guy you don’t get a background check on.

In conclusion, there are several things to look at when choosing a domain for yourself, especially for SEO. Remember, .com, keyphrase, no dashes, can be plural, and no bad neighborhoods. Good Luck!

Posted on March 27th, 2010 by Rachael Butts in Phoenix SEO