Does Your Domain Name Affect SEO?

Choosing a domain name is one of the primary steps to create a website. It gives a unique identity to your website on the World Wide Web. It is like a business card for your online business that helps it stand out from others.

Remember, when you choose a good domain name, it not only offers a better branding to your business but also improves search engine rankings. Yes, you heard it right, your domain name can help in better SEO as well, though to some extent only.

Let’s find out how and how much?

There are two main parts of your domain, they are:

1. Top Level Domain (TLD)

It is the last part of your domain that follows your website’s name. Some of the popular top-level domain names available today are: ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.org’, etc. TLD helps search engines know about your website and target audience by geo-location.

For instance, a .co.uk. domain extension lets the search engine know your website operates in the United Kingdom.

2. Second-Level Domain

The second level domain consists of that portion of your domain name that you see before ‘.com’ and other similar extensions. It would not be wrong to say that SLD addresses the URL that complements your top-level domain.

Indeed, SLD is the actual name of your website. For instance, in google.com ‘Google’ is SLD. It can impact your SEO efforts to some extent, but not much.

Choosing The Right Top Level Domain-

In order to choose the right top-level domain name (that you may find on Hostinger Domain Name Search, you must understand how a search engine works first. Remember, the major goal of a search engine is to display the relevant search results to the users for their queries.

Let’s understand it with an example. Assume, you reside in Melbourne and you search for car dealers, there are more chances that you don’t want to see the listings of car dealers in Sydney. Search engines will identify your domain extension and show the most relevant results for your search.

Let’s find out how it happens.

When you opt for a TLD of com.au, Google identifies that your business is focusing on the Australian market. And when you combine it with your other on-site SEO practices that must include the right optimization of keywords, meta tags, etc., you will definitely be able to put your business in front of the right audience (Australian).

Below are some points you should know while choosing a TLD.

- Choices are countless when it comes to top-level domains. With so many extensions out there ranging from country-specific to industry-specific, you should choose the one that best matches your business requirements.

-Choosing the right country extension for your domain can be your smart move if you want to target the market of one particular country. It may help with your SEO strategy.

-According to different studies, ‘.org’ the extension works better than extensions like .biz, .edu., etc.

Choosing the SLD

The one biggest myth that we want to debunk first is that you do not need to insert keywords within your domain name. Because search engines are aware of it that website owners stuff keywords into the domain and manipulate search results. Now they have adjusted their algorithms to give it the minimum impact.

Websites like Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor are a great example of it. They don’t have any keyword in their domain name still they rank on the top results of the Google and other search engines.

It is because they make use of other search engine optimization services as well. For example, Google Plus, link building, content optimization, image optimization, etc.

Remember, there are more than 200 ranking factors Google uses to rank a website you can’t rely on your domain name only. In comparison to other ranking factors, second level domain carries very little weight.

Your domain name and its extension can affect SEO in the following ways.

Reputation Management

If you choose a relevant and well-spelled domain name, your online reputation will definitely get an advantage.

Reach The Right Audience

As we mentioned above geo-specific extension can help you reach the right audience. Google is also putting a lot of efforts to enhance its local search.

Tips to Choose The Right Domain Name

Now you are aware of that your domain name extension has some impact on your search engine rankings. So why not choose it carefully? Here we have put together a few tips that will help you find the right domain name.

Choosing a domain name is more similar to a choosing a business name. It takes a lot of efforts and planning. As we said in the beginning, your domain name is the real identity of your business on the internet you should make sure it is working with your business perfectly and is simple to remember and promote.

-Never go with a name that is complicated to type such as del.icio.us.

-It should be short, easy to remember and shared.

-You may try adding your local business location into your domain URL.

-Don’t use hyphens or other special characters between your domain names.

-Like hyphens, you should avoid numeral spelling as well.

-In order to avoid copyright issues or other legal issues, you should research your selected domain name for trademarks or infringing copyrights.

Final Words

Considering everything together, we can say that over the past few years, the importance of a domain name for SEO has become low. Even Google doesn’t give enough importance to keyword rich domain names now. Still, we would say you should keep SEO factors in mind while choosing a domain name.