Selecting a Domain Name
A domain name is the name that identifies a website. For example www.google.co.uk is Google’s domain name.
If your website has already been built you will already have a domain name but if you do not have a domain name consider selecting one with your main keywords included. In our example we could have just gone for www.caledan.co.uk but www.caledantradetraining.co.uk was preferred as it included important, targeted keywords (tradetraining).
Note that the TLD (the extension bit after the name) can be important if you are targeting a particular market place. For example if you are targeting the UK you should go for a hosting company based in the UK and choose a .co.uk TLD.
You will note that this site is called freeseorankingguide.com. We selected this domain name because many people add the word "free" to their searches when using Google. We added the words SEO Ranking Guide to our selected domain name because these are also word that people use when searching for the type of information we have provided on this website.
It is important to note that currently at the time of writing, having keywords in your domain name appears to really help with ranking in Google for these keywords. Like all things in the Google algorithm this may change. It should also be noted that selecting a domain name like this is common practice and (within reason) perfectly acceptable. One example is the large UK based do it your self store, B&Q, who selected the domain DIY.com.
If you search Google UK for "DIY" guess who comes up tops? B&Q are a large company with a large website and as such they would always feature highly for this search but their selected domain name also helps.
Just remember that you should not overdo the use of keywords in your domain name. Google will notice this and may flag it as spam. For example www.caledan-tradetraining-for-plumbers-builders-electricians-joiners.co.uk would be a bit over the top.
Next Page - Interpreting the Search Results >
