When businesses first appeared on the web they would automatically purchase the name of their company such as www.vodafone.com. This especially works with well known brand names, due to the billions of dollars they spend on marketing and advertising. “I know that I want a Vodafone mobile, so that’s what I’m going to search for, thank you very much!”.
However, for smaller to medium sized companies trying to compete and get noticed through the media bombardment of the corporate killer brands, then adding keywords to your domain name will certainly help.
This technique has been employed more and more frequently over the years since it was discovered that search engines use the domain name as one of the most weighted criteria in positioning websites. Therefore, if your business is a florist called Buntins based in Brighton, you’ll have a much better chance of being on page one if you choose the domain www.brightonflorist.com rather than www.buntins.com. However, if you are an already well established business that has a substantial client base who knows your company by name, then you may want to use your brand name in the title, in which case try to add at least one keyword as well. For example, a real estate agent called Foxes may want to use the domain www.foxesrealestate.com or www.foxesproperties.com.
The final consideration is which domain suffix to get. The rule of thumb here is always go for a .com, as although you may not be a global company, the .com suffix is always given preference to others in the search engine listings. If you are a multinational company and want different websites offering localised content for different regions, then you can use the .co.uk or .es etc. Another reason for using alternative suffixes is if your superkiller keyword loaded domain is not available as .com, so a .co.uk, .net or .org, is a good alternative.
In summary, if you’re an SME with a small marketing budget then fully key-worded domain names are the way to go, although I am of the opinion that it’s always best to use a bit of both. Now, if you’re really clever, then you’ll think way ahead and add a keyword into your brand name when setting up the company… u-hum, ArayoWEB!
