|
|
 |
| |
By Rich Brooks
Expert Author Article Date: 2008-04-09 Dear Rich, How important is the actual Web address in regards to search engines? Should I use a domain name based on my company name, or one that describes what I do? In other words, is there a benefit to going with organicbakedgoods.com as opposed to mycompany.com? --URL Hunting in Unity Dear URL Hunting, Good question; one that gets different SEO experts saying different things. Some experts believe that the domain does help and it's part of the search engine's algorithm; others believe it has no or nearly no affect at all. Search engines often bold words that exactly match a search, even when those words appear in the domain or Web page address. Take a look at this example on an "organic brownies" search: Note that organic and brownies are bolded in the title, description, and in the URL. However, just because the words are bold on the search results page doesn't mean that the URL name helped the site's ranking. The top result doesn't have brownie in the domain name, although it does appear in the full Web site address. Organic doesn't appear at all in the URL. The site must be doing other things well to rank first. Correlation doesn't equal causation. (Nor does it mean that it didn't impact the ranking.) 
There is one real benefit to having a keyword rich domain, though. When people link to your site, they're probably going to use the site's name. The words in the link can help with the search engine optimization of a Web page, so having a link to Organic Brownies--the name of your site, but not necessarily your company, will help you rank better for that phrase. My opinion? In the long run, if you do other things right, such as keyword rich page titles, good headers and body copy, and develop quality incoming links you can probably overcome even the most generic domain name, or even one that has little to do with what you actually sell. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go track down some organic brownies. Comments About the Author: Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media, a Web site design and Internet marketing company in Portland, Maine. Flyte works with small businesses to build professional Web sites that often include e-commerce, Flash and content management systems. They promote their clients' sites through search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, business blogs and podcasts, and viral marketing. |
 |
| Newsletter Archive | Submit Article | Advertising Information | About Us | Contact |
