Search Engine Marketing CLT – November is for Domain Hogs

This month’s meeting of Search Engine Marketing CLT is based on “How and Why You Should Buy Domain Names for SEO.”  For some reason this stirred up a flame inside of my SEO heart.

Since 2001

I’ve been collecting domains, normally .com’s and when the .me came out a few years ago I went a little bit crazy.   Over the years I’ve actually made a little side cash by selling specialized domain names, which was very nice when you used to be able to buy them for a couple dollars a year.

For the past few years domain names have become part of the SEO algorithm for search engine ranking.  SEO Moz took 72 SEO “experts” and a keyword in the domain name is ranked #3 of importance.

Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com) 60% high importance

Two Sides of the Domain Buying Coin

Daily I deal with clients that are upset that their brand name or a version of their name or their catch phrase is taken.  On some counts, we can do something about it but on most there isn’t anything we can do.  I can’t tell my client “You are shit out of luck buddy, why didn’t you buy that 10 years ago?” so we brainstorm ideas, talk buy out of .com’s and hope that we can change the catch phrase.

If you have a budget, buy, buy, buy.  404 redirect them to your main site until you need them.  Now, I’m not saying squat, I am saying keep and use.

Brainstorm. If you are a company that is either a. large or b. creative.  Brainstorm marketing pitches, campaigns and thoughts that involve your brand name.

Breathe.  Make sure all of your domains are spelled correctly and they are in fact what you want.

Do Domain Names Really Matter for SEO?

My short answer is yes. And my long answer is..well no.

Quickly I went to three of my more favorite websites that had odd names, I looked up their domain authority.

ThinkVitamin.com = 77

TeamDicky.com = 80

Mashable.com = 90

If you are creative, make your website creative.  Don’t make the website so hard that you can’t remember the name but make it original like you.

If you aren’t creative and you want to fit in, or rank high quickly based on SEO and not what is inside.  Do it, especially if you don’t utilize blogging or some sort of consistent updating process to rank your page higher.

End of It All

I work with SEO everyday.  There are two ways to write, buy or run your website.  For robots or your readers.   Finding a middle ground is important as is knowing the goal of what you are creating.  Are you a car dealer trying to be top of all the car dealers in your area, well have car and possibly the city in your domain.  If you are a writer and trying to catch peoples interest on Twitter and Facebook? Be interesting with your domain.