I have to be careful here because I'm not a search engine optimization wizard.
What I am going to tell you is either what I have experienced or what I have gleaned from others that I consider to be very knowledgeable on the subject.
Often business owners wonder what the best URL or business naming strategy is for an online business or product. Sometimes they even wonder if the domain name has any bearing whatsoever on the search engines.
Of course, the reason to be concerned about SEO is to be able to get as much "organic" (or non-paid search engine) traffic as possible to your web site.
I believe your domain name is quite important to your SEO strategy. With a URL (uniform resource locator or "web site address") like www.golfshirts.com you are going to get more search engine "love" for your topic (consideration as a valuable and relevant web site) than if your web site address is www.jacks-apparel-store.com.
The first web address is niche specific and easily remembered for the topic. The latter URL is more broad and says nothing about the type of clothing being sold.
Modern day search engines are quite sophisticated and can pull strings of keywords out of multi-word domains. Dashes between the words are not necessary; in fact, some experts feel that there is a slight penalty by some search engines for such URLs.
Another difficulty with dashes is that prospects will not usually remember whether your site name has dashes or not. Most type in URLs into search boxes without dashes - and if that's the case, the dashed domain will not come up in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
I can also, unequivocally, recommend that you only register dot com names. That is the Internet business standard and anything else is "second rate" in most everyone's eyes. If your desired name is not available as a dot com TLD (top level domain), don't settle for a dot info or dot biz ending. Find another acceptable dot com name that is similar or close to what you want.
(If you doubt the validity of what I'm telling you, check out the prices that dot come names being sold fetch compared to other domain endings.)
Make sure that your chosen domain name has top keywords in it if possible. The search engines will boost your site in the rankings compared to other names. Why? It has to do with site relevancy.
You see, the search engines want to give the viewing public the most relevant and "on topic" search results they can. By including good keywords in your site URL, you are letting the search engines know that your site is going to be relevant for the search terms used.
Think about this. If you were a prospect searching for a new golf shirt, other things being equal, and you saw www.golfshirts.com on a result page next to the listing for www.jacks-apparel-store.com, which one would you click on first to find your new golf shirt?
One domain gives the searcher exactly what he's looking for, the other may or may not have golf shirts for sale.
Just two more tips for now: some feel that by placing your top keyword at the front of the URL string, you will appear higher in the results (other things being equal) than if the keyword is at the tail end of your domain name.
Of course, the more memorable and the shorter your domain name, generally the better the name will be for your business or product.
That's it for today . . . we'll talk more about domain names in future posts.
