When creating a website domain name for your business, it’s important to understand that relevancy and consistency is key. It’s important to consider your branding and target audience first, then SEO. Of course, SEO is a key factor for being found online, however, there are lots of ways that this can be achieved, through high-quality and fresh content, an easy-to-navigate website, directory listings, internal and external links and citations on high authority platforms.
Domain Names and Alternatives
If you can find a domain name that matches your branding and provides consistency and relevancy across the board, both with traditional media and your social media platforms, then that’s an ideal solution and an easy one, that will provide you with some benefits for your Google ranking position. However, sometimes, domain names that match your business name exactly, may already be taken. The best way around this would be to include some variation to the domain name, including an additional keyword or location. For example, if MakeWeb was taken, we may decide to choose MakeWebCentralCoast or MakeWebSites.
We ran a second website for several years, called ‘EastGosfordWebsites.com.au’ in order to rank better locally. But over time Google improved its ability to recognise branded domains using other aspects of on-page keywords, so a branded domain name became viable and we switched to our business name as our primary domain name.
Balanced Approach to SEO
The main thing when considering your SEO strategies is to put your target audience first – your objective is to provide your potential clients and existing clients with a user-friendly and positive experience. Balance this with relevant keywords and well-written content for SEO purposes.
So, to summarise, you don’t have to match your business name exactly with your website URL and in some cases, it’s simply not possible. But remember your audience, consistency and SEO when registering your new website URL.