Too often people are buying domain names without giving them too much thought. Maybe it’s because they are relatively cheap. Or maybe it’s because they don’t treat them seriously. The truth is that purchasing a domain name is just like buying a piece of real estate and should be treated as such. The only difference is that it is virtual.
Apart from being available for purchase, there are a number of criteria that your domain name must fulfill before purchasing. If you follow the criteria below, you will put your website on the path to ranking on page 1 on the major search engines.
It Must Include Your Main Keyword
You eventually want your website to be ranking on page 1 of Google for your main keyword. The single most important factor that search engines take into account when ranking websites is whether they have included their target keyword in the URL. You will make your life much easier by making sure your keyword is in the domain name.
For example, if you are a property lawyer, make sure that either “property lawyer” or “lawyer” is in your domain name. Don’t forget to do keyword research so that your website is targeting the right keyword.
It Must Explain Your Business
This is very related to the previous point about including the keyword in your domain name. However, the reason why I mention this is because many people simply choose their brand or business name as their domain name.
Now it’s true that some of the biggest websites in the world such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Digg don’t use URL’s which explain what they’re about. However, these websites have invested a lot of time, energy and money to get to where they are today. Most people don’t have the time nor the money to undertake such projects. As a result, you will be making your life much easier by targeting domain names which explain your business (in most cases it is your target keyword).
It Must Target Geographic Location
This is something that many people forget when purchasing domain names. If you have a business which targets a certain geographical location, then you must purchase a domain name which reflects that.
For example, if you sell specifically to the Australian market, then you should purchase a .com.au domain name. This is because a .com.au website will always rank higher in the search engines than a .com when doing a search in Australia. The same goes for other countries.
If you sell specifically to a certain city in a country, then the city’s name should be included in the domain name. For example, if you sell specifically to the Sydney market, then you need to include the word Sydney in your domain name. This is because such websites will rank higher in the search engines than other sites when doing a search in Sydney.
Another thing is that you should take advantage of geographical location even if you are an international business. For example, if you sell to a number of countries, you will find it much easier to gain traction in each country by purchasing a domain name for each country and building websites specifically targeting each market on each one.
Think Before You Buy
The next time you purchase a domain name, just pretend that you are purchasing a piece of real estate. Just because it’s available doesn’t mean it’s a great investment. Putting a bit of thought can go a long way to buying the right domain name.