Choosing Your Domain: for the People or the Search Engines?
No matter whether you’re trying your hand at internet marketing for the first time or you’re setting up a website for your 0% credit cards business, you’ll doubtless reach a point in the process when you or someone else asks ‘what should the domain name be?’. It’s easy to believe that this process should be simple: just take the name of the business, register it, and the job’s done. But it’s not always so clear cut. There are lots of different things to consider when you choose a domain name, one of the most important of which is whether or not you name your domain for the benefit of the users or the search engines. So what do we mean by this, and which one should you choose? Let’s have a look at this question in a bit more detail.
Why there’s a choice to be made
The first thing to understand is that there are many different ways to make an impact on the web. If you’re a completely unique business with a unique offering, it will probably be very easy to gain exposure and therefore visitors. On the other hand, if you’re entering a market rather than creating one (like most companies do), you may have to rely on more grassroots means of generating traffic. These means may include search engine optimisation, and hence could affect your choice of domain name. Which one of these options you choose will come down to who you are as a business, but also down to personal preference, so let’s look at each of the options in more detail.
Naming your domain for your users or customers
The first choice we discussed was choosing a domain name based on your brand. Let’s say, for the sake if argument, that your company was called ‘Megastar Solutions’. You would probably want a domain name that includes these terms, such as ‘megastarsolutions.com’. A name like this will allow your users or customers to search for your brand directly. It will also help for those people who may simply type your name into the address bar and put ‘.com’ at the end, in the hopes of finding you. What it won’t do, however, is net you any gains in terms of organic search engine optimisation. Because your domain name is your business name, you’ll only appear for searches such as ‘megastar’ (at least in our example). So why would you choose a domain name like this? Well, primarily it is a great strategy for any company trying to build a brand. If you want your name to be recognised as a mark of your professionalism and so on, your site must reflect this. If, however, you make your mark in other ways, you may want to try our next domain naming strategy.
Naming your website for the search engines
Let’s assume that our made-up company, Superstar Solutions, are an acting agency based in London. If they chose to name their domain for search engines, and optimise it for organic traffic, they may go for a domain such as ‘bestactingagencylondon.com’ or something similar. The benefit of doing this is two-fold. First, it is instantly clear to anyone that reads it what the company does. Secondly, the company will benefit greatly from boosted natural SEO. The term ‘best acting agency london’ being a part of the URL will bolster organic SEO efforts, and boost the ranking of the site for search. This option is definitely best for any company that will be sourcing some or all of their business from organic traffic. Search engines like Google are fond of keywords, so having them in the URL is definitely a good idea.
Another great tip to keep in mind if you’re facing this decision is to create a document outlining exactly where you plan to source your business. If the larger slice is away from natural search (direct mail and so on), then you may want to choose a branded domain name. On the other hand, if you want to take full advantage of search engine optimisation strategies, choosing a keyword based domain name can be an excellent idea for both you and your business.
