Domain Name, SEO, and Social Media

As you plan for a website, it is important to realize just how important the domain name is. In addition to content quality, user friendliness and website speed optimization, the domain name greatly determines the success of your website.

Not only does it play an important role in branding, it also affects SEO and social media in profound ways. Choosing a matching keyword domain name (e.g. www.buylightbulbs.com) is no longer a guarantee that it will increase your search engine ranking. In fact, if you are not careful it might work against you.

It’s a Brand, Not Just a Name

Nowadays, your domain name is an essential part of your overall brand. When you are choosing one, don’t just look focus on keywords and forget the brand aspect. You want a name that people can instantly recognize and can easily remember. This is especially important in social media. When scrolling through news feeds, an easily recognizable domain name will get far more clicks than any other. Social media users are also more likely to share content from a well-known website. This, of course, translates to more followers, more sharing of your content and, ultimately, increased positive exposure on social media.

EMDs and SEO

EMDs (exact match domains), like the example given above, were once a must-have for good SEO. In 2010 however, Google changed their search algorithms to reduce the importance of EMDs in SEO, and the impact of EMDs on SEO continues to decline. This is not to mean that you should abandon having certain keywords in your domain name, but make sure that it is a high-quality, brandable domain name.

Choosing a Domain Name That Positively Impacts SEO and Social Media

1. Easy to remember. An SEO-friendly domain name is one that is highly memorable. Even a person who sees it for the first time should be able to remember it easily. It also helps people to type the domain name into their browser thus helping increase site traffic. A complicated name is easy to misspell or forget.

2. Avoid top-level domains (TLDs). Top-level domains are those uncommon ones that have their extensions as .name, .info, .biz and so on. The most common extension is .com and this is what people are used to. In addition, these domain extensions are frequently associated with spam websites.
For SEO- and social media-conscious website owners, .com extensions are the safest and best choice.

3. Stay relevant. This is another very important, but oft-ignored, aspect of a domain name. If your domain name is relevant to your business field, it will rank higher on search engine results. It will also be easier for people to associate it with your company.

4. Keep it short. One other common indicator of spam websites is a long domain name. People also view such domain names with a lot of skepticism and tend to avoid them. Your domain name should have a at most two words. If need be, use three names but make sure than each is short.

As you think about website design, website speed and content, make sure that choosing the right domain name is also a priority. Contact Website Optimization for expert help.

Website Optimization
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