Or Why domain names are important.

Having a descriptive domain name is one of the easiest ways to get an important keywords in your URL. However, there is a constant debate between using your brand name in your URL (e.g. www.blueclaw.co.uk) or say, a descriptive, keyword rich URL (e.g. www.seoleeds.biz) Either way, there are a few more ranking factors that you should take into account. For example, I don’t think www.replacebrokenwindowsglassglazerglazingemergencyglaziers.info will be ranking very well. Two words - keyword stuffing.

Some other ranking factors to think about for your domain are:

• Age of domain - the older the better as it will naturally become a more authoritative site.
• Great content on site
• What anchor text links you get to your site - this counts for far more than using keywords in your domain name.
• And finally, probably the most important factor of all, the quality of links pointing to your website. Don’t think bulk, think relevancy and authority.
  

  Monte Carlo

On http://blog.com, they state,

“Get your address at the best possible Internet real estate. You’ll get an address thatlooks like you.blog.com. It’s the virtual equivalent of your own island in Dubai, mansion in Monte Carlo or a Manhattan flat overlooking Central Park.”

However, they rank 4th for search term “blog” on Google, after Blogger, Wikipedia and WordPress. This proves keyword rich domain names can only take you so far, and there are far more relevant sites (or blogging platforms) that do not incorporate keywords in their domain name. So if you already have an old domain that just needs a bit of sprucing up with fresh content and links, concentrate on that instead of going ahead to register domains keywords in.

Do you use a descriptive or branded domain name? Let us know your thoughts on whether or not having a keyword rich domain name is useful.

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Brand value, Content, Keywords, Link Building, SEO Tools