How to choose a domain name for the site so that it can both develop the brand and be easy to scale later? The following article will help you better understand what a domain name is as well as a guide to choosing an effective domain for your website.
What is domain name?
A domain name is the online address that leads users to your website/blog. To make it easy to understand, just think of someone looking to meet you through your home address.
The structure of a domain name (eg getsolu.com) it includes: brand name (getsolu) + extension (.com).
- .COM is the most popular, professional, and most user-friendly, so please prioritize this type of extension first
- .NET + .ORG is also an appropriate choice if the .COM domain has been purchased by someone else
- .IO .IO is an easy-to-remember type that is very popular with technology startups
- .AI is the domain for artificial intelligence related websites
- .BLOG and .ME are domain extensions that can be purchased to make a personal blog
- There are also many other types of domains such as .BLOG, .SHOP, .CLUB, .STORE, .CC… but less common.
What type of domain should I choose? prioritize the .COM domain, then .NET and .ORG.
Does Domain Affect SEO? Domain only helps you in making your brand easy for users to remember and Google does not rely on domains as a ranking criterion.
For those who are new to making websites, choosing a name and suffix for a domain seems easy, but it is the most painful step. A lot of questions revolve around topics such as:
- Where to buy a reputable, quality and affordable domain name?
- How to choose a domain name good for SEO?
- Should I use the website’s main keyword for the domain?
- How to choose a domain to easily remember the brand?
- …
The following article will help you understand more about how to choose a good domain to help develop a website/blog and long-term effective branding.
Where to buy domain?
To buy a domain, you need an online payment account. At least visa/master card or registered Paypal.
Here are some reputable websites where you can buy domains:
- Namecheap (I usually buy here)
- Godaddy
- Namesilo
- Domain.com
- Name.com
Is domain name an SEO criterion?
Many people think that choosing a domain with the .COM extension will make SEO easier.
Google only relies on the strength of the domain to rank keywords, which will be shown by the development of that website. In the beginning, all domains are evaluated equally, the important thing is what you will do with that domain to get to the top.
If you search for a certain keyword and the first results displayed (not ads) all have the .COM extension, it’s easy to understand because this extension is popular and used a lot.
In addition, there is an opinion that the domain name should be combined with the main keyword of the site to be good for SEO. Actually, this is neither necessary nor appropriate in the current context because Google has introduced the EMD algorithm since 2012, to prevent poor quality websites from having good rankings just because they have the same main keyword match the domain name.
However, including keywords in the domain can still help you implement SEO and increase rankings. I will share more below.
Common types of domains
Before going to the instructions on how to choose a domain, I will give you 4 common types of domains that you will encounter often.
A domain name is the main keyword
buyasmartphone.com, hotelbookinginnewyork.com,… are domains of this type.
The specialized term is called EMD (Exact Match Domain), which means that the domain name always contains the keywords that need SEO and website makers always research keywords that need SEO before deciding to choose a domain name, these keywords often have a high search volume.
The domain contains a part of the main keyword
Are domains like: Greenhotel.com, carservicecenter.com, …
This is a domain that contains a part of the head keyword, the rest is 1,2 words that are not in the keyword to be SEO, mainly something that is memorable for customers.
This type of domain name is called PMD (Partial Match Domain). In terms of brand development potential, this type of domain can build a better brand than Exact Match Domain. There are many brands named after this.
Personally branded domain
This is a domain name that contains the blog creator’s personal brand name.
The personal domain name called by the professional term is PDM (Personal Domain Name), used to build a personal brand is very good. In addition, if you take your personal brand as the name of a large company brand, you can also use this domain. For example mcdonalds.com or louisvuitton.com
Business brand domain
Google.com, Ebay.com are brand domains, referred to in specialized terms as BDN (Branded Domain Name).
Big brands will build their influence on customers so that when someone mentions the domain name, they know what the website is about.
Example:
- Google, when it is mentioned, people will immediately know that it is an internet search engine.
- Ebay, when it is mentioned, people will immediately know that is an e-commerce site.
The brand domain is a top choice of small and large startups today, because of its high professionalism. The name of the domain represents an entire brand, not the individual who created that brand.
Should I use the exact keyword domain?
Above you have learned about 4 common types of domains, next below I will give a breakdown of each type and advice in turn. Based on the orientation of the site as well as the size, you can choose the right type of domain name.
Keywords in the domain have no meaning in SEO
As I mentioned, before 2012, experts thought that keywords in the domain were very beneficial for SEO. After 2012 and later, this is no longer true and the domain containing the keyword no longer has any meaning in SEO.
Google now relies heavily on content and user experience to evaluate keyword quality and rankings. Therefore, it makes no sense to choose a domain that contains all keywords.
Keywords contained in the domain have many weaknesses
I will take the following example to show you the weakness of having a domain name that contains keywords.
A website with the domain name cheapestwebdesign.com, has the keyword “cheapest web design” in the domain, which means that this website is doing web design services.
If it ranks at the top, it is for the right purpose and attracts a lot of customers for the site owner. But in the future, if you want to develop and scale up with other services such as content, facebook ads, website management, SEO, etc., using the above domain name is no longer reasonable.
Because the domain name only covers the field of website design but now expands to add unrelated services, it is difficult to maintain the existing brand.
In summary, the brand development potential of the EMD type is very low. Domain is the first place to help customers remember your brand, product or service.
What if the domain contains part of the keyword?
You can choose this type of domain, but always keep the following in mind:
- Prioritize main keywords with high search volume
- Keywords can be expanded later, this type of domain does not need to follow the niche.
Example:
- The main keyword is “electronics” and the domain is greenelectronics.com. Now you can freely sell products related to electronics => should choose
- The main keyword is “washing machine” and the domain is greenwashingmachine.com. At this time, you can only sell according to the niche of washing machines, and later, if you want to sell other things like air conditioners and refrigerators, it is “a bit unreasonable”.
This type of domain name has the advantage that customers can easily remember your brand and search for your website when needed. Because they just need to see the name to know what the main field you are developing is, from there it is easy to gain trust and the brand will be easier to go viral.
Think big and do big, always choose a brand domain
This type of domain name is easy to think of, but difficult to understand for customers. You need time to help customers remember the brand because it is quite difficult for customers to know the main area of the website is aimed through the domain name.
In addition, when you choose this type of domain name, you should also pay attention to the brand domain names that are short, easy to remember and must be suitable for the products/services on the website.
This form of branded domain is best suited for a website being built by a team.
If you are an independent individual, just use your personal brand name to set, Personal Domain Name is the best choice for this case.
In conclusion.
In closing, when choosing and naming a domain, you should note the following issues:
- Priority to choose the domain extension .COM
- Should choose to buy domain names at reputable registrars
- Domain is not a ranking criterion in SEO, so it makes no sense to set the main keyword 100% as a domain
- Make a short name, easy to remember, easy to identify the brand and expand later
In addition, if you have chosen a satisfactory domain name, you should also buy the remaining domain name extensions, to avoid unnecessary competition later.
Above is an overview of what you need to know about domain names as well as a guide to choosing a domain name to help you confidently choose the most suitable domain name.