Internet-Marketing.web.id

Selecting Your Domain Name

Nothing happens on the Internet without traffic. Generic keyword style domain names get a lot of organic type in traffic for nothing more than the keyword weight or gravity of the name itself. These are also the ‘catchy’, or ‘brandable’ names. When choosing a domain name for SEO purposes, there are a couple of main factors to consider:

* Rankability (& Linkability)
* Brand

Google tends to give weight to keywords in the domain name. This increases the importance of selecting a good name. Aaron Wall

While Google gives weight to domains with keywords in the domain name, there is also the risk of having too generic a website name that Google might penalize for keyword stuffing, or that no (legitimate) website owner would want to link to. In Bali, the domain name market is saturated for terms like ‘bali villa rental‘ (Bali is also ranked one the Top Island Destinations in the world). Would you remember any of these website names?

• www.indobalivillasrental.com
• www.balivillasforrent.com
• www.bali-direct-villa.com
• www.ultimate-bali-villa.com
• www.hotvillarental.com
• www.balivillacottage.com
• www.balibestvillas.com
• www.balihomevilla.com
• www.baliprivatevacationvillas.com
• www.accommodation-bali-villas.com

Probably not. These names are far too generic and they all blur together without distinction. Realistically, no one is going to remember these domain names. This brings us to the importance of mixing Rankability with Branding.

Brand

Brands are a mark of distiction. Brands are memorable. If you are using a generic keyword stuffed domain name, it risks seeming too generic (like the examples above), and it lacks credibility. In a crowded market, brand offers a point of distinction. Balance is suggested here in terms of a domain name for your website.

The balance in terms of Branding and Ranking for your domain name can be boiled down to a simple equation that looks something like this:

• Generic + Term
• Keyword + Generic
• Keyword + Brand

eg. SeoBook, Internet-Marketing, CheapFlights — these domains have both an element of keyword & branding mixed together. Since Google is looking at keywords in your domain and you also want users to remember something about your domain, this equation offers a memorable domain name solution.

Linkability

People with legitimate websites are more likely to link to a branded & memorable domain name, then a spammy keyword-laden domain name. Keywords + Brand are important; I personally wouldn’t want to link to a site such as www.villa-bali-villas.com

Choosing a .com  VS.  .net/.biz/.org  VS.  Country Code TLDs
Dot com’s hold the most weight in terms of domaining and for general search terms, simply because dot com’s are the most readily understood domain extension. Many people will simply append the subject matter they seek with ‘.com’ in their address bar, expecting to find products and services that match the generic keywords they entered. However, most all of the really good .com’s have already been bought. That being the case, there is ample opportunity in using country specific TLDs for region specific websites, as discussed in Domain Name TLDs The Golden Opportunity. It makes sense that Google ranks ccTLD domains higher when the searcher is in that country.

Currently, there is a very limited range of “top level domains” or TLDs – common ones include .com, .biz, and .net. In addition, every country in the world has it’s own TLD, e.g. .uk, .com.au, .web.id

Each TLD is run by a “registry” who is responsible for registering and renewing domain names, and maintaining the technical infrastructure that make it’s domains work. This creates an opportuniity for business owners who wish to register a domain name that is already taken in the TLD. As it is currently extremely hard to buy simple and descriptive domain names — since most have been registered already — new TLDs open up virgin territory. Internet-Marketing.web.id is one example of that opportunity, offering region specific information.

One of the many factors in Google’s search engine algorithm is the age of a domain name. Like any business, the age of a domain gives the appearance of longevity & authority and therefore a higher relevancy score in Google; people tend to trust a business that has been around for a long time over one that is brand new. The same is true for websites in the google algorithm, primarily as means to stave off the myriad of spam websites that are created for malicious purposes.

Two things that are considered in the age of a domain name are:

• The age of the website
• The length of time a domain has been registered

The age of the website is built up of how long the content has been actually on the web, how long the site has been in promotion, and even the last time content was updated. The length of time a domain has been registered is measured by not only the actual date the domain was registered, but also how long it is registered for. Some domains only register for a year at a time, while others are registered for two, five, or even ten years.

In an update to the Google algorithm a couple years ago (that SEOs call the Jagger Update), some of the big changes seen were the importance given to age; age of incoming links, age of web content, and the date the domain was registered. There were many things, in reality, that were changed in this last update, but since we’re talking about the age of a domain, we’ll only deal with those issues specifically.

One of the ways Google uses to minimize search engine spam is by giving new websites a waiting period of of xx number of months before giving it any kind of PageRank, this is also referred to as the “Sandbox Effect“.

What does this mean to you? For those of you with new websites, you may be disappointed in this news, but  don’t worry. There are some things you can do while waiting for the sandbox period to expire, such as concentrating on your backlink strategies, promoting your site through Pay-per-click, articles, RSS feeds, or in other ways. Many times, if you spend this sandbox period wisely, you’ll be ready for Google when it  does finally assign you a PageRank, and you could find yourself starting out with a great PageRank!

Even though the domain’s age is a factor, critics believe it only gets a little weight in the algorithm. Since the age of your domain is something you have no control over, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your site isn’t going to rank well in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It does mean, however, that you will have to work harder in order to build up your site popularity and concentrate on factors that you can control, link inbound links and the type of content you present on your website.

So what happens if you change your domain name? Does this mean you’re going to get a low grade with a  search engine if you have a new site? Perhaps intially. There are a few things you can do to help ensure that your site won’t get lost in the SERPs because of the age of the domain.

1. Make sure you register your domain name for the longest amount of time possible. Many registrars allow you to register a domain name for as long as five years, and some even longer. Registering your domain for a longer period of time gives an indication that your site intends to be around for a long time, and isn’t going to just disappear after a few months. This will help boost your score with regards to your domain’s age.
2. Consider registering a domain name even before you are sure you’re going to need it. We see many domains out there that even while they are registered; they don’t have a website to go with it. This could mean that the site is in development, or simply someone saw the use of that particular domain name, and wanted to snatch it up before someone else did.
3. Think about purchasing a domain name that was already pre-owned. Not only will this allow you to avoid the “sandbox effect” of a new website in Google, but it also allows you to keep whatever PageRank may have already been attributed to the domain. Be aware that most pre-owned domains with PageRank aren’t as cheaply had as a new domain, but it might be well worth it to you to invest a bit more money right at the start.
4. Keep track of you & your competitors domain age. One of the ways you can determine the age of a domain is with this handy Domain Age Tool. What it does is allows you to view the approximate age of a website on the Internet, which can be very helpful in determining what kind of edge your competitors might have over you, and even what a site might have looked like when it first started.To use it, simply type in the URL of your domain and the URLs of your competitors, and click submit. This will give you the age of the domains and other interesting information, like anything that had been cached from the site initially. This could be especially helpful if you are purchasing a pre-owned domain or considering a link exchange with another website.