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SEO 101: Domain Names

March 20th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under •

First off, the domain name for this site is terrible, so this really is a case of ‘do as I say (not as I do)’.

From a search engine optimisation perspective it is advantageous to get your keywords into your domain name as this will help your rankings and it helps the users too. For example, Dermot over at Home Inspections Chester chose www.homeinspectionschester.co.uk as his domain name; it is pretty easy to work out what Dermot does and where, from just the domain name. It also contains three of his target keywords (home, inspection and Chester) and if you type these three terms into Google guess which site comes first. Bingo!

I have been watching the 2008 SEO Contest with interest and it is interesting to see the domain names that the participants have chosen. if you try this Google search seocontest2008 you will notice something about domain names used by the competitors. The last time I looked 8 out of the first 10 results returned have the target keyword (seocontest2008) in the domain name.

Read the rest of my SEO lessons

« Not such a healthy option
SEO 102: No-follow links »

There Are 5 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by David Lea on 28 April 2008:

    Good post. I managed to get HIP into my Home Information Pack site which will hopefully help with SEO.

  2. Comment by Martin Hilliker on 28 April 2008:

    I also found good listings when setting up http://www.energysurveys-northwales.co.uk but found that everyone wants a monthly income for advertising!!!

  3. Comment by Tony on 28 April 2008:

    There are lots of free web directories out there, but the quality ones and the sustainable ones tend to charge. The exception being the likes of DMOZ run by a community of volunteers.

  4. Comment by adam on 13 May 2008:

    Tony, I don’t think that the name ‘thehipzone’ is bad, at all. I like Hip, I like Zone):
    (Especially, not for you as a SEO expert, who can easily overcome this obstacle by knowledge and experiences.) I know, that you were writing that in context to the topic.

    p.s.
    Your web name is a part of your virtual history…

  5. Comment by Tony on 13 May 2008:

    Virtual history I like that and once you are in the webarchive you are in the history book.

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