Does your domain name affect your search engine ranking?

Does the name of your site impact SEO? That is,if you use a nonsense name, will it negatively impact your search engine ranking? Would "www.thebestsearchengine.com" rank better than "www.google.com"?

Dave's Answer:

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There are hundreds of different variables that modern search engines consider when determining which of the thousands - or millions - of results should be presented in the top slots, one of which is definitely the domain name of the site.

Other variables include the age of the domain registration, the last time the DNS record was changed, how recently the page was changed, how many other pages point to the page in question, how those other pages link to the page, whether the words in question appear in the title of the page, in a header, how frequently the key word or words appear in the text, and on and on and on.

Indeed, we don't actually know the exact formula and there's an entire industry of people trying their very best to figure it out and then remarket the specific tactics and layout suggested by their experimental data (and guesses). They're Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) specialists and while some of them are sharp marketing professionals, many are snake-oil salesmen and should be avoided at all costs.

(Actually, I talk about this at length in my book Growing Your Business with Google. This topic was one of the main issues I wanted to address when I first started writing the manuscript)

Back to your question, though!

Do a search on Google and you'll notice that in addition to matching words in the brief description, Google will also often highlight the portion of the domain name that matches too.

For example, here's the #1 match for "parenting blog":

Notice that the domain is presented as www.apparenting.com, giving you a strong clue that the domain name must have some importance to the search engine. How much? That's anyone's guess.

As a general comment, though, I'll say that my best advice to you is to focus on building the best possible content for your site, update it with some frequency, generously link to other relevant sites, and use some basic search engine SEO tactics without crossing the line into "black hat" or other dangerous and unethical tricks, and you'll do well in the search results. Focus on findability.

And good luck to you!

Categorized: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Article 5852, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: findability, google, seo
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Comments

what an interesting question. I had never realized that the domain mattered so much (at all, really) but it makes sense that it does. I suppose sites like business.com and toys.com and such rank pretty high, don't they?
Dave, I'll definatly pick up a copy of your book when I get a web site worth marketing.

Posted by: Matthew Poer at January 21, 2006 1:28 PM

I think the screen highlighting routine is a separate program external to the relevancy algorithms.

Having a keyword rich domains makes it easier to get keyword rich inbound links though.

Posted by: aaron wall at January 31, 2006 7:28 AM

I believe different search engines place a varying degree of importance on the domain name.

Some domains may rank #1 in MSN simply because the domain name is the actual key phrase.

A similar effect happens in Yahoo!, whereas Google may rank it in the top 10, but not number one.

Domain name has some importance, but it's not the end all, be all of SEO.

Your advice, to create good content, is certainly on point.

Posted by: Teli Adlam at February 1, 2006 9:01 PM

Dear Dave:

I am the computer village idiot. But I am also a fine writer and want to profit by creating a beauty blog or website.

Please advise me. Should I go to wordpress.com, for instance, and set up my blog through them, pick a domain name, etc.

Should I not have wordpress attached to my name?

I'm confused. Should I have a free hosting service with wordpress, or another place that charges a monthly fee?

Does that all matter in the search engines?

I'm looking for big publicity. My writing is that good.

Can you help me, break it down?

Thanks much.

Posted by: JellyBean at March 19, 2008 1:53 PM

Domain name is one of the most important factor for getting good ranking in popular search engine. According to Google domain name is always related to the subject of your site & the containt you have added on your site.

Posted by: Andii at March 18, 2010 12:53 AM

Well, I don't know about "domain name is always related to the subject of your site". I mean, what about Yahoo? Google? Flickr? Digg? Twitter? :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 19, 2010 9:36 PM

Interesting...I have noticed that if your domain name relates to your subject directly...your rankings do improve greatly. I've had sites show up on the 2nd or 3rd page of google, without any seo. The only thing was my domain name had one of my keywords in it.

Posted by: paul villa at September 4, 2011 7:59 PM

google really downplays the importance of key words in your domain...it's not essential. Content is king of course, but it does help

Posted by: Tiberius at September 26, 2011 9:32 PM

I used to think it mattered but these days I think if it does have an effect it's only short term.

Posted by: Jonathan Edwards at September 28, 2011 12:11 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!