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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.