Domain Name SEO: Week 1
Since my last post on domain name seo and my purchase of dnseo.com I have taken my time to have a careful think about how best to approach this new series of posts. I have come to the conclusion that domainers in general could do a lot more with their domain names if they paid more attention to their search engine optimisation efforts; vastly improving their domains placement in the SERPs (search engine result pages.)
So what are the components of domain name seo and how can each one be used to maximise the visibility of your domain names? Lest we forget that a domain names value is heavy reliant on the traffic it receives. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Domain Name SEO: Week 1, I’m your host, Gary Taylor… Now lets see exactly what these components are…
Key components of domain name seo, according to Gary Taylor:
Your Domain Name:
Many people will disagree when I say this, but quite frankly I don’t care, so I’m just gonna go ahead and say it… Your domain name doesn’t mean shit!
Ok, OK! So it does give some weight to your SEO efforts.
By choosing a domain name which contains the keywords you are targeting will always help toward your position in the search engines, but please don’t rely on it. Try to be original, remember any domain has the ability to rank number one, and in fact using a domain name stuffed with keywords will not only look crap, but if not utilised correctly will fall down the rankings just like any other.
Remember, the top search engine in the world is not found at searchengine.com and only 3 of the top ten results for “domains” actually contain the word “domains” in their domain name.
If we flip-reverse this though, using a keyword rich domain in a more niche or uncompetitive market / search term can yield fast results and is often a success way of capturing targeted traffic. For example, lets say you sell umbrellas. You may find that your yellow umbrellas sell very well in Scotland, and a quick check on adwords says that 150 people search for “yellow umbrellas scotland” each month (I made that up).
On this basis it would be a good idea to purchase the domain name name (availability permitting) yellowumbrellasscotland.com, and create a simple one or two page “satellite” site with a link though to the landing page on your main website where people can order your yellow umbrellas. A tactic like this not only generates more traffic for your site, but it is traffic which will certainly have a higher conversion rate than just targeting “umbrellas.” You may as well target 150 people to get 10 sales, than 1,000,000 people to only get one. Its not only easier to monitor but a much more inexpensive way of marketing. Maximising your return on investment is the name of the game!
Content:
Food for thought! Probably the most crucial element of domain name seo. As far as I’m concerned, without good content you can forget about the next three components and may as well let that amazing domain name you have had stashed away, expire, because Gary’s golden rule of content applies:
NO CONTENT…NO VISITORS…
You may be sitting all smug and thinking well I don’t need content, I get type in traffic…Well news for you pal, YOUR DOMAIN IS GOING DOWN…parking is dead, long live development!
As I always say, and infact did say exactly this in a recent post on domain name seo, get out the camcorder. Nowadays, savvy internet users do not want to see just static text and blah blah blah, they don’t want to be met with a barrage of sponsored links and adsense. Its all bullshit that ruins their online experience. They may have visited you site once, but its likely they will not visit it again, nor recommend it to anyone else. Feed the needs of your audience, listen to what they want to hear, get them involved.
When was the last time you wrote some content for your website? If the answer is more than 48 hours ago, shame on you. The key to creating great content for your website which will generate new visitors and keep your existing ones returning is keeping things relevant. Use content monitoring tools to see what your readers are actually reading, what content engages them and what makes them leave the site staight away.
I’ve been monitoring my content for last month with Google analytics and found two things to be true. People like themes and people don’t like bullshit. My most followed posts are the weekly “top 10 domain names sales” and “selling domains on social networks.” Why? Because they are relevant to my visitors, regular and actually have a point to them. They are not just random shpiel…I have actually gone out, researched the market and taken my own personal time to create those posts, something that online users appreciate. Resulting in people linking to my site and my RSS feed, my goals are acheived.
Of course from a search engine optimisation point of view, the more regular your content is updated the more frequently the search egines will return to your site and the quicker posts, articles etc which you add will be indexed in the SERPs. It is not uncommon to have Google revisit your site every 30 mins, the fastest I have had a post appear in the first page of Google was one hour! I’m impressed with that, and if you are reporting on something which is news related or has just happened, if your site is indexed faster than anyone elses you will receive a good boost of traffic before anyone else.
The language you use is also important. Do not stuff your content with keywords in an attempt to trick the search engines that your site is ultra relevant in respect to the subject you are writing about. Now I’m no literary scholar, infact I struggle with writing full stop, but one thing I do do is to write exactly what I am thinking and this, I think, makes what I say more natural and flowing. Unplanned and spur of the moment… and I don’t know about you, but it works for me. Keep things fresh, be controversial…nothing like stirring things up to attract attention…see my post about Al Gore and dot eco domain names.
Be adventurous with your content and people will be interested in what you have to say, don’t just regurgitate news articles and RSS feeds in your own words, thats so old hack!
You want to turn heads in your industry? EXPRESS YOURSELF!
Link Building:
Remember what www stands for? Yes its the World Wide Web…Now its the “web” part which is the most important and the focal point of what I’m about to say.
Link building is all about creating your own web within your market/industry and within your website itself. Building links as part of your domain name seo strategy is the next step to achieving greatness and quality, rather than quantity is key.
Now I’m not going to dwell to long on the subject because common sense should prevail here. As a general rule of thumb the more relevant content you have, the more people will link to you. But there are times when you simply need to ask for good links or do a specific piece of work to gain a look inbound link. Find directories which are reputable and submit your site for inclusion. I have just gained a listing on DMOZ which is giving me a PR4 inbound link. This is great becuase it give more weight than 100 pr 1 links and saves me loads of time and effort.
A prime example of writing good content and receiving a superb inbound link is here. When I wrote my last post on domain name seo. Think about press releases and other ways to get reputable sites to link to you.
Also, don’t worry if you get rejected or people don’t list your site straight away perservernce is key. I just asked domaining.com for a recommendation and got an email back to say that I couldn’t get a listing just yet as my blog was too new and they don’t list PR0 sites. But thats not a bad thing, thats now something I can aim for and once I acheive a good Page Rank and 3ac.co.uk has a few more months under its belt I will ask again. If successful it means I am moving things in the right direction a mark of achievement.
Off-page Optimisation:
Now this is a bit of a techy part. The off page optimisation includes having your site written in clean code with correct use of meta data and H-tags…all going over your head…mine too. Get yourself a good SEO company to give you some advice. you may need to pay for it upfront, but a little investment here will go miles in the long run and remember it is return on investment which is the goal here!
What I am going to invite people to do here is suggest good Search Engine Optimisation companies here, or if you are an SEO yourself, I invite you to comment. Share your hints and tips.
Good karma, what goes around comes around! Remember Link Building and creating your own “web”
Social Media:
Well what can I say. I am a massive fan of social media marketing and believe it to be an absolute must as part of your domain name seo plans. Get yourself registered on the major social networking platforms and start getting involved. Don’t do it though as just a miassive sales ploy. Get involved selflessly, with others best interests in mind and watch the love flow! Monitor which social networks have the best response for you. I personally use Twitter (follow me www.twitter.com/garyptaylor), Mixx and Facebook and stick to these but you may find different social networks work better. The joy of social media is experimenting and it is one huge swimming pool, so don’t be shy, don your goggles, dive in and check it all out!
I’m going to leave it at that for this week. Its been a lengthy post, so I hope I didn’t bore you to death!
I would love to hear any ideas, tips, suggestions or nuggets of gold you may have and encourage you to post your comments below. Suggestions for next weeks post would also be useful. I can then go away and research.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Cheerio
Gary
Leave a Reply
