In the earlier days of Google, the goal was to stuff your domain with as many keywords as possible to better your website’s ranking. If you owned a phone store, your perfect domain would have been something along the lines of “www.buyaphone.com,” as to the point as possible to rank higher for those keywords.
Today, Google’s algorithm has changed completely. Google no longer will bold keywords that come up in a website’s domain; instead, they are bolded within the schema markup of the piece of content. With all of that being said, you are probably wondering, do domain names even matter? The answer is still yes, just for different reasons! Read along further as we discuss the effects that your domain name has on your SEO efforts.
Branding
Your domain name must fit into all of the branding efforts your company puts elsewhere. It must be easily readable and look decently professional. Always ensure that there are real words in your URLs, never any jumbled-up numbers and letters. You should also consider what the best top-level domain is; .com, .gov, .org. It is typically recommended to use the popular .com because if someone is looking you up and they are not 100% sure, odds are they will type in .com.
Pay Per Click
Those who get enticed by PPC ads are generally looking for a product, not a brand. If you are running a PPC ad and are running low on space for keywords, having them in your domain may end up helping you. This also comes into play when it comes to local SEO results. Local SEO results tend to be higher if you have your specific location located in your domain or subdomain.
Should You Change Your Domain?
There is no definitive yes or no answer to this; it truly depends on the company and how long your domain and website have been in use.
If your company currently has well-established branding and traffic coming in, there is no need to change your domain name. There is no reason to change the years of work it took to build your site and brand when it is working for you!
As a newer company, it is recommended to ensure you are not limiting the possibilities of your company within your domain name. You never know if your company will begin to branch out into other products or services one day, so it is important not to get stuck with any exact match domains.
Contact Boston Web Marketing
If you feel as though you could use more guidance in choosing your domain name or any of your SEO efforts, make sure to contact the experts at Boston Web Marketing. We are highly experienced in website design and SEO. Give us a call today or fill out our online contact form for more information!