seoFool.com

By John Elder

In SEO, you want to take advantage of every possible little thing that you can. In this article I want to share a quick and very beginner-level tip that’s sure to give you a boost in the rankings.

Ready? Here it comes…..Use your main keyword in your domain name.

Ok, so that isn’t all that ground breaking or earth shattering, but many people overlook it, especially if they’re just starting out.

If at all possible you should always use your main keyword in your domain name.

How important is it?

That’s hard to tell. I’ve not seen any quantifiable data that show X% increase in rankings for keywords rich domain names….but my experience tells me that domains with keywords in them have an easier time getting ranked.

I once had a web site that I did ABSOLUTELY no SEO work on at all, after a few months I noticed that it was listed rather high in the rankings for one of the words in the domain name. That was with absolutely no linking, no optimization, nothing.

So it IS important.

What if my keywords are taken as domain names already?

No problem. Just use a variation. Say your keyword is Dog Grooming and DogGrooming.com is taken. Use a variation like DogGrommingPro.com or DogGrooomingweb.com

Try to tack on a short little word at the end that doesn’t take away from the main keyword all that much. With domain names, the general rule is that shorter is better. So keep it down to ONE keyword phrase if at all possible. Don’t try to stuff several keywords in there.

If the .com is taken and you can’t force yourself to add a little word to the end, try to register the .net or .org version. While not as good as a .com, they are both still sufficiently respectable. Stay away from some of the others like .info or .name or something like that.

I shouldn’t really have to explain this, but try to only use your main keyword in the domain; that one main phrase that’s the focus of your keyword research.

And just for fun, I’ll throw in one my own best practices when it comes to any keyword research…I always run my keywords through the Micro Niche Keyword Tool to find the least competitive keywords which are easiest to get ranked under.

Finally, what happens if you already have a domain name and your keyword isn’t in it? Well friend, you’re screwed…or as we say in the SEO industry, you’re “that idiot”!

But all kidding aside, it’s not the end of the world. I have web sites that are ranked really really well who’s domain names aren’t even remotely related to the site’s main keywords, so it can happen. But if your site’s new, why not scrap it and start over with a keyword rich domain name? Domain names cost like 8 bucks. It might be worth a little aggravation to start over.

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