I run a domain name tools membership site, and it seems that I am constantly running across scenarios where people A) Can’t seem to be able to tell from an SEO perspective whether one domain name is a better choice to build a site on than another, or B) Professional Search Engine Marketers struggle to communicate to SEO clients why the domain name they chose for their business is affecting their rankings in the way that it is.
My goal in writing this article is to address 5 SEO metrics for evaluating a domain name so that you can choose a great domain name for a new site or address any shortcomings that a current domain name you or a client own might have.
Here are 5 metrics that you should run through for your “SEO domain name stress test”:
Domain Age – It is pretty commonly accepted that the older a domain name is, the easier it is to rank in the search engines (with the exception of maybe MSN). Do a search for the “Google sandbox” and you can see that there has been quite a lot of discussion about domain age and the age of incoming backlinks to a domain. The consensus is that, everything else being equal, the older the domain name is, the easier it is to rank high for your desired keyword or keyword phrase.
Exact Match Keyword Only – I have done numerous tests personally and it seems to me that if you own a domain name that is an exact match keyword only domain name, you have a great chance of outranking a similar site even if you have less backlinks. What exactly is an exact match keyword only domain? An example would be if the keyword phrase is “vitamin B capsules”. An exact match keyword only domain would be vitaminbcapsules.com and NOT 123vitaminbcapsules.com or online-vitamin-b-capsules.com or any number of other domains that contain the keyword phrase but that also contain extraneous characters. This really only makes sense if you think about it. Of course, you still have to do the necessary work and add quality content and market the site, but in both a searcher’s eyes and a search engine’s eyes, what sounds like it could possibly be more relevant to the keyword phrase “vitamin B capsules” than the domain name vitaminbcapsules.com?
Keyword Rich – This is the next best thing to having an exact match keyword only domain name. The only difference between the two is that the exact match keyword only domain cannot contain any extra characters besides the keyword phrase, while the keyword rich domain must by necessity contain the entire keyword phrase but can also contain extra characters. For example, debtconsolidation.com is an exact match keyword only domain for the keyword “debt consolidation,” while the domain name debtconsolidationguide.com is a keyword rich domain name (and while not as good as debtconsolidation.com, it is still obviously quite a good domain name).
TLD – This has been said time and time again, but it’s worth saying again: .com domain names are king. Yes, you can still rank a domain name that ends in .net or .org or the appropriate country code, but (with a few exceptions) if you have a commercial website then .com is still the most trusted and most popular in the eyes of many users, so it only makes sense that the same thing is true of the search engines. Notice that I said “with a few exceptions,” because as Rand noted in a previous post, SEOmoz.org is still a great domain name because SEOmoz owns the .com and redirects the .com to the .org.
Brandable – With the recent increased weighting in Google’s algorithm for established brands, it is becoming even more important to have a strong brandable domain name. Even aside from the potential SEO benefit to having a domain name with a strong brand, it can also of course help to cement your name in the mind of your website visitors and stimulate repeat traffic to your site. Always a good thing.
So how can you find domain names that meet these 5 SEO criteria? Well of course, I would like to add that you can use our domain name tools to do just that, but even more specifically here are 3 things that you can do:
Read the how to guide with 25 Rules for Choosing a Domain Name
Use the Type-In Traffic Finder tool to find exact match keyword only domains (the tool uses real time data from Google)
Use the SEOmoz tools available to SEOmoz Pro members so that you can do the necessary research to rank as high as you possibly can.
My goal in writing this article is to address 5 SEO metrics for evaluating a domain name so that you can choose a great domain name for a new site or address any shortcomings that a current domain name you or a client own might have.
Here are 5 metrics that you should run through for your “SEO domain name stress test”:
Domain Age – It is pretty commonly accepted that the older a domain name is, the easier it is to rank in the search engines (with the exception of maybe MSN). Do a search for the “Google sandbox” and you can see that there has been quite a lot of discussion about domain age and the age of incoming backlinks to a domain. The consensus is that, everything else being equal, the older the domain name is, the easier it is to rank high for your desired keyword or keyword phrase.
Exact Match Keyword Only – I have done numerous tests personally and it seems to me that if you own a domain name that is an exact match keyword only domain name, you have a great chance of outranking a similar site even if you have less backlinks. What exactly is an exact match keyword only domain? An example would be if the keyword phrase is “vitamin B capsules”. An exact match keyword only domain would be vitaminbcapsules.com and NOT 123vitaminbcapsules.com or online-vitamin-b-capsules.com or any number of other domains that contain the keyword phrase but that also contain extraneous characters. This really only makes sense if you think about it. Of course, you still have to do the necessary work and add quality content and market the site, but in both a searcher’s eyes and a search engine’s eyes, what sounds like it could possibly be more relevant to the keyword phrase “vitamin B capsules” than the domain name vitaminbcapsules.com?
Keyword Rich – This is the next best thing to having an exact match keyword only domain name. The only difference between the two is that the exact match keyword only domain cannot contain any extra characters besides the keyword phrase, while the keyword rich domain must by necessity contain the entire keyword phrase but can also contain extra characters. For example, debtconsolidation.com is an exact match keyword only domain for the keyword “debt consolidation,” while the domain name debtconsolidationguide.com is a keyword rich domain name (and while not as good as debtconsolidation.com, it is still obviously quite a good domain name).
TLD – This has been said time and time again, but it’s worth saying again: .com domain names are king. Yes, you can still rank a domain name that ends in .net or .org or the appropriate country code, but (with a few exceptions) if you have a commercial website then .com is still the most trusted and most popular in the eyes of many users, so it only makes sense that the same thing is true of the search engines. Notice that I said “with a few exceptions,” because as Rand noted in a previous post, SEOmoz.org is still a great domain name because SEOmoz owns the .com and redirects the .com to the .org.
Brandable – With the recent increased weighting in Google’s algorithm for established brands, it is becoming even more important to have a strong brandable domain name. Even aside from the potential SEO benefit to having a domain name with a strong brand, it can also of course help to cement your name in the mind of your website visitors and stimulate repeat traffic to your site. Always a good thing.
So how can you find domain names that meet these 5 SEO criteria? Well of course, I would like to add that you can use our domain name tools to do just that, but even more specifically here are 3 things that you can do:
Read the how to guide with 25 Rules for Choosing a Domain Name
Use the Type-In Traffic Finder tool to find exact match keyword only domains (the tool uses real time data from Google)
Use the SEOmoz tools available to SEOmoz Pro members so that you can do the necessary research to rank as high as you possibly can.
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