Domain
Domain names are the human readable Internet addresses of websites.
Root domains, which are identified by their domain names, have
extensions such as .com, .org, .net, etc. (Ex. http://www.example.com)
Subdomains are a lower level component a root domain and precede the
domain name. (Ex. http://subdomain.domain.com)
Top Tips
- Word Separators
Avoid hyphens. Hyphens detract from credibility and can act as a spam indicator.
- Top-level Domain (TLD)
Top level domains (like .com) are the extensions associated with
domain names. For best ranking results, avoid uncommon top-level domains
(TLDs). Like hyphens, TLDs such as .info, .cc, .ws, and .name are
spam indicators.
- Length
Avoid domain names longer than 15 characters. Short domain names are
easier to remember, easier to share and have less of a chance of
resulting in typos.
What are Domains?
Root Domains
A root domain is the top level hierarchy of a domain. Root domains
are purchased from registrars. The following are examples of root
domains:
- *.example.com
- *.seomoz.org
- *.blogspot.com
Subdomains
A subdomain is a "third level" domain name that is part of a larger,
top level domain. For example, "blog.example.com" and
"english.example.com" are both subdomains of the ".example.com" root
domain. Subdomains are free to create under any root domain that a
webmaster controls.
The two most common subdomain choices are:
- http://www.example.com (www is the subdomain)
- http://example.com (has no subdomain)
These are also the subdomains that commonly result in canonicalization errors.
SEO Best Practice
To maximize search engine referred traffic, it is important to keep each of the following elements in mind:
1. Domain Name Memorability
There are a number of considerations when selecting a domain name.
Among them are making the name short, easy to remember, and easy to
type. It is also important that the name be easy to type into a browser.
This is especially true for word of mouth advertising which forces
people to type in domain names into their browser that they might not be
familiar with.
2. Keyword Rich Domains
Ideally, webmasters should strike a balance between finding a catchy,
unique, brand friendly domain name with having a domain that contains
keywords that they are trying to target. The benefit of a keyword rich
domain is two-fold. First, the domain name itself is a key ranking
factor that the engines consider when calculating ranking order. Second,
having relevant keywords in a domain name is beneficial because the
domain name is the text that other Internet users will use as
anchor text
when linking. Since keywords in anchor text are an important ranking
factor, having these keywords in a domain name has a significantly
positive impact on ranking.
3. Hyphens
For readability sake, a domain name that is longer than 3 words
should be separated with hyphens. That said, use of hyphens also
correlate with spamminess so domain names with more than 3 words should
be avoided.
4. Non .com Top-Level-Domain (TLDs)
When a webmaster registers a domain name, they will be given the
option to buy additional TLDs. In order to maximize the direct traffic
to a domain, it is advised that webmasters should only buy a domain if
the .com version is available. Additionally, it is not recommend that
SEO conscious webmasters purchase low quality TLDs such as .biz, .info,
.ws, .name, etc. as a means of increasing traffic.
5. Subdomains or Sub-folders
Since search engines keep different metrics for domains than they do
subdomains, it is recommended that webmasters place link worthy content
like blogs in subfolders rather than subdomains. (i.e.
www.example.com/blog/ rather than blog.example.com) The notable
exception to this is language specific websites. (i.e. en.example.com
for english)
6. Buying & Redirecting Domains
Buying web pages for their links and redirecting them to another site
has long been a practice employed by SEOs. Though historically this
has been effective, industry leaders (such as Danny Sullivan) post on
buying domains suggest that Google largely devalues links from sites once they are expired or when ownership changes.
7. Domain Registration Length
The notion that domain registration length matters as a SEO factor is
a myth. When asked about domain registration length Google's Matt
Cutts said "To the best of my knowledge, no search engine has ever
confirmed that they use length-of-registration as a factor in scoring.
If a company is asserting that as a fact, that would be troubling. The
primary reason to renew a domain would be if it’s your main domain, you
plan to keep it for a while, or you’d prefer the convenience of
renewing so that you don’t need to stress about your domain expiring."
8. Moving Domains
If a webmaster needs to move one domain to another, there are several
critical factors to consider. It's also important to set up the
redirects on a page-to-page basis such that sub-folders and deep content
pages are redirected to corresponding sub-folders and deep content
pages on the new domain. SEOs should avoid redirecting all pages from
one domain to the homepage of another domain. For more information, see
Danny Dover's step-by-step guide to
How to Properly Move Domains.
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