Which Domain Name to choose?

June 30, 2007

Many people are joining the “web business” and want their domain to start building their sites or blogs, it can be for business purpose or personal purpose. Here is an interesting question that I want to share and answer:

I’ve found three keywords that clearly focuses on the contents of my site.

** This is an example only **
My keywords are “maths”, “activities” and “games”. The following are possible ways to register the domain and the Overtures monthly search volume:

1. mathsactivities = 5,000
2. mathgames = 3,900
3. math-activities-and-games.com = 890

Which is the best domain name to register?

You certainly can’t count on that, because it would depend on how competive the various terms were, and how well you had optimized for them. Keywords in the domain name can be a plus but not if you overdo it.

One factor to consider is that many webmasters have an aversion to domains with so many hyphens and it might be harder to cultivate links.

You’re likely better off to choose a shorter, more easily brandable domain name then name your directories carefully to support your target phrases. Remember that internal pages can drive a lot of traffic.

Don’t overload your URLs with keywords. It’s helps a bit to have a few, but don’t overdo it. Effective SEO will depend on your on-page optimization and your link development a lot more than stuffing your URLs.

Instead of

catchyname.com/maths/games/bingo-numbers-game.html

I’d do something like this:

catchyname.com/maths/games/bingo/

A user looking at that URL would get a pretty good idea what the page would be about, and for SEO purposes it would support some of your target terms without looking spammy.

It’s a sensible enough URL that people interested in the topic would likely feel okay about linking to it or emailing it to a friend.

There are advantages to keeping your URLs short if you can. If the URLs for all your internal links are shorter, the bites saved can add up to faster page loads. NEVER pass up an opportunity to make your pages load a bit faster!

Also, shorter URLs are less likely to break in an email.