This is the second post in a series about all of the factors that affect your ranking in Google. If you want to start at the beginning, click here. If you want to know about other Google ranking factors, scroll to the bottom for links to the rest of the series.
There are a lot of things to get done if you run an online business or even if you do not do most of your business online. Ranking in Google is the top priority whether you do business globally or depend on local customers finding you. Keep in mind that Google constantly changes the priorities. There are a lot of SEO professionals that say the domain doesn’t matter at all and others that say it is still a factor.
The bottom line is that the domain name alone will not get you onto the front page of Google. However, I don’t believe it should be ignored. No one knows what Google will decide is important a week from now or a year from now or even tomorrow.
This post is a continuation, part 2 of a series on all the factors used by Google to rank your website. There are around 200 factors Google places some sort of value on when “scoring” your website toward where it ranks vs similar content. Part 1 can be found here is you want to start from the beginning.
Basic SEO means covering as many of the factors that help your ranking in Google. Even if the algorithm changes, it will have little effect on your website. A lot of SEO providers “chase” Google algorithm updates. They analyze what new things are important to Google and change their strategy with each update. I believe you should do your best to stay ahead of the game by paying attention even to the seemingly unimportant factors.
Let’s talk about the domain name factors that can affect your ranking in Google
Each of these domain factors may or may not be important, depending on the algorithm being used at the time. Google changes the priority of some of things on the list each time they update their algorithm. It doesn’t have to be a major update to affect your ranking in Google.
The age of your domain name is one of the factors that can be important. You can’t change the age of your domain, so this is beyond your control. However, the number of years you register your domain name for is in your control. Spammers and scammers don’t register their domain names for more than a year. That doesn’t mean that Google thinks you are a spammer or scammer. Google just doesn’t know whether you are or not.
Registering your domain name for 3-5 years tells Google that you are going to be around awhile. A good SEO service is likely to check this at the very beginning when analyzing what needs to be done to your website.
Are keywords important to have in your domain name?
The short answer is yes. Your SEO service provider has likely built you a list of keywords to target. Everyone wants to use their company name instead of a domain name with keywords in it. For branding purposes, this makes sense. One way to do it is to register your company name as a domain and also register a domain name that has important keywords in it.
It’s best to have those keywords at the beginning of the domain. Then you forward your company domain name so that it takes visitors to the website on the keyword-rich domain name. Your company name and logo will be on the site, so you won’t hurt your brand.
Another way to do this is to use your company domains and then use subdomains with your keywords. You can also do this with the keyword-rich domain name.
Examples:
Your website is built on CoolNameLLC.com and you add subdomains like BicycleParts.CompanyNameLLC.com BicycleWheels.CompanyNameLLC.com NewBicycles.CoolNameLLC.com. With subdomains, keep in mind that you need to add each of them to Google Console and Google Analytics as standalone websites. Just like the www is a subdomain of your domain name. The www and non-www version of your domain name should be combined.
Another example: Someone registered Info.com back in the 90s. They sold subdomains to companies and individuals. So, someone could use realestate.info.com or seo.info.com, etc. Now info.com is just a search engine and the subdomains redirect to their home page. But it is useful as an example.
Domain History can also affect your ranking in Google
Before you register a domain name, you should check the history of the domain name. Who owned it before? What did they do with the domain name? What did their website look like?
To see who all owned it before you, click here. It will open in a new tab or page, so you can come back and pick up where you left off.
To see what kind of websites were built on that domain name, click here. Again, it will open a new tab.
You can also look for other tools by searching the phrase, “how to get the history of a domain name”.
Domain privacy is being pushed by many domain name registrars
They make money selling you their domain name “privacy” services. But Google loves transparency. There are necessary items. A privacy policy, an about us page, and public whois information. Public whois info is more trusted by Google than private info. It may be just a small factor affecting your ranking in Google, but as I’ve stressed in this series, covering as many of the factors as possible is the preferred way to do things.
I hope you found this information useful. Add your questions below and SEO Services Montreal’s staff will be happy to answer them. See how we can help you address all of the factors that affect your ranking in Google here.
- Google Technical SEO Factors to pay attention to
- Google Ranking Factors in regards to content.
- Google Ranking Factors having to do with Off-page SEO.