When I registered 2CreateAWebSite.com back in January, 2002, it was all about using your “important” keywords in your domain for SEO. No question.
Since createawebsite.com was already taken, I simply put the “2” in front. At the time, it was a no-brainer — anything to get those all-important keywords in my domain.
For the first couple of years, no doubt it was helpful for SEO, but as the Net matured, it became less about the keywords in your domain and more about content and link popularity.
I’m not saying to forgo using your important keywords in your domain. They are still somewhat important. I’m just saying it is not as important to squeeze every major keyword in your domain for maximum SE traffic.
Here’s an example. Search for create a website on Google. The number one ranked site is weebly.com. There’s not a website-related keyword to be found in that domain name.
However, they are ranked #1 because they are popular and people use keywords related to creating a website to describe the site. So it earns a top ranking for that phrase even though they don’t use “create a website” in the domain.
Don’t Feel Too Sorry. 😉
I’m not complaining. I’ve had a tremendous amount of success with my site, regardless of the name. But if I could do it all over again…
1) I would not use a number. It confuses people. When verbally telling people my domain name, they assume it’s “tocreateawebsite” and I always have to clarify it’s the number 2.
(Yes, tocreateawebsite is already taken — otherwise I’d buy and redirect.)
In addition, I’ve caught people misspelling my domain name in their write-ups. Some forget to add the 2 altogether. That is one reason I wanted my new logo to emphasize the “2”.
2) I would choose a shorter name. Shorter names are easier to read and remember. Plus, you don’t run into spacing issues when using it on various websites, business cards, logos, etc.
The funny thing is, people register similar variations of my name (with the “2”, same keywords, etc.) because they assume that is the key to my traffic. Once upon a time it was, but these days it’s more about content and quality inbound links.
Yes, having your important keywords may help with SEO, but only to a point. I don’t think it’s worth making your domain name awkwardly long just to get all your important keywords in it.
If you become popular in your niche, you can still earn top rankings for important keywords. Search engines see the big picture, which means they factor in your content and inbound links too. Gone are the days where the domain matters most.
How about you? Do you regret anything about your domain name? Would you do anything differently today?
Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog
to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results.
If you know of any please share. Thank you!
I totally regret my website name for Google Bot reasons, but it is beautiful in terms of describing what my site is — and that’s why I chose it, although I can’t get the .com and have to live with the .us instead Unfortunately, I started my website in 2008 with the intent of writing for people, not SEO (didn’t know the term SEO until 8 months ago)
However, “roads less traveled” is the 5th biggest search hit for my site — but the people searching for that are not looking for my content… they’re looking for a book on relationships by that name or the TV show or Robert Frost’s poem…
I don’t know how to untie my website name from my website as far as SEO goes… I like the name in my niche (full-time travel by RV and sailboat) although in hindsight it is a little too long…
Hello
Dot com is the best? example: Doctor.com. What about using any other extension and building the name like this: Doct.or ? This domains do well or better?
What about if we use two numbers at the last something like
website21.com , domain21.com
Does that have any confusion ?
Lisa,
I used the same strategy with my site porscheresource.com . I wonder at times how many people misspell the name. So far I have not regreted it though.
Bill
There’s more to registering domains than many people realize. To be fair, it’s not tricky by any means, but if you don’t cover all your bases to start with it could come back to haunt you in the future.
That’s why it’s helpful to retain a few things in mind before you get started and as you’re going through the process
Actually, since my last comment above, I’ve moved up the rankings for “money making opportunities” to page#2, purely by doing work on SEO for the past few months.
I’m sure my improved ranking has nothing to do with my site name.
google for “learn website” and you will see you are #1
Just to be clear, I did not enter a web site address and the Twitter account was @seowebstrategy, so the above details have been added by Lisa without my prior consent or knowledge.
I would have to disagree with some points in this post, but hey, that’s what discussion is for right!
1) We have four numbers in our domain name, and with strong competition, we have found that on this basis, Google differentiates us from our competition. Our Google Analytics backs this up, as our third highest key phrase contains the four numbers. You state that you have problems with your domain name in that is contains a number, but the problem isn’t simply that it contains a number, it’s that the number also represents a word. There’s no harm in using numbers in domain names. 123-reg host over 2 million websites (according to their own testimony) and they haven’t even registered onetwothreereg.com – which is still available to register, to my utter disbelief! But it clearly hasn’t hurt them. I’ve also undertaken some Google Keyword Tool research and millions of people type numbers into their Google key phrases.
2) Obviously nobody wants to get anywhere near the 63-character ICANN (newbies, that stands for “Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers”) limit, but there’s no reason not to be above the average in terms of domain name length. http://www.searchengineknowledge.com/domains/length.php states that the average domain name length is 11 characters. 2createawebsite.com has 19 characters, making is almost twice the average, and your content suggests you have achieved an above-average level of financial success from your website. Our domain has 20 characters, and this didn’t stop 12,500 people coming to our content, 9% of which were direct nav bar visits. That’s not to boast, rather to illustrate the point.
3) You state that weebly.com outranks 2createawebsite.com for the term “create a website”, and you also state that this is because their content is more relevant to the key phrase. Point taken, but that therefore renders the argument that domains shouldn’t contain keywords as irrelevant. It’s a separate point. I would argue that the vast majority of your visitors will never create a website that has global brand appeal, and that’s not just based on a statistic I once heard (which may or may not be based on myth) that over 95% of websites fail and cease activity within the first year. With this in mind, surely your readers would benefit more from including relevant keywords in their domain, as this increases their chances of being noticed by Google and the other major search engines, as well as creating great web content, of course.
4) We have had the opportunity to change our domain name, and perhaps one day we will, but our choice of using four numbers in the domain hasn’t caused any problems, unless you make the mistake of typing the year in letters instead of numbers, which I’m sure most people don’t.
I can see why YOUR domain name choice may have caused you problems, but webmasters (and webmistresses) shouldn’t be totally put off using numbers, if in the correct context.
hi Lisa,
you are rite about Domain Name. but having a domain name rich in keywords is critical for online success and SEO. It may help you show higher in the search engines.
Hey Lisa,
I’ve recently setup a WordPress site and noticed that the www prefix isn’t showing as part of the URL.
Do you believe it is necessary to have the www before the domain name or does it not make a difference?
Gracias..