Does Your Website’s Domain Name Affect Your Google Ranking and SEO?

Back in 1985, the Internet’s first-ever domain name was registered and throughout the internet’s infancy period, domain names were leveraged to serve as useful mnemonic means of locating specific computers on the Internet. Over the years, with the globalization and commercialization of the Internet, domain names have taken on a new significance as business identifiers.

Domain names such as amazon.com and facebook.com are highly recognizable among the general public and are also used to market brands not only online but also in real spaces as well, such as billboards, magazine ads, and much more.  Nowadays, these online names have become valuable corporate assets and can even cost up to millions of dollars. 

So for those businesses that are creating a new website, choosing a website domain name can be quite tricky. Business owners will have to think about their brand, their business offerings, and of course the relevance of the search. Because without the right SEO optimization, even the fanciest and most expensive website domain names may not pop up on Google search and this could severely affect the brand’s online performance.

Therefore every business owner must understand the impacts of domain names on SEO and also the importance of extensions in a business URL. Because a digital marketing agency can help you with everything from building your website and ranking it on Google, but choosing the name of your brand is all up to you.

But first, let’s address the question that all of you are asking.

Does Domain Name Really Affect SEO?

Back in the day, when keyword relevance and stuffing dominated the online world, picking the right domain name for a website had a significant impact on SEO rankings. But today, things have changed. 

A LOT!  

Google algorithms were used to prioritize exact match domains or EMDs for short. Which meant that Google would boost your results just because the keywords were right in the domain. The keyword in the domain name itself would give the website better validity and ranking power. 

And it really does make sense. Imagine you are searching for a “Digital Marketing Agency” on Google and if there is a website with the domain name digitalmarketingagency.com then it has a better chance of ranking. But what if you sell more than one service or you have more than one target keyword, how can you simply include just one keyword in the domain? Shouldn’t you include all the keywords for a better chance to rank? Well, we know that is not possible and also most EMDs nowadays are already owned. Therefore, if you wish to buy one make sure you have deep pockets because it can sometimes cost you millions of dollars.

Also, there’s the fact that algorithms have changed.

There are several digital marketing websites that are well SEO optimized and rank much higher than digitalmarketingagency.com, even for the search term “Digital Marketing Agency ”. This is because, with the constant updates and algorithm changes, Google realized that authoritative sites needed more than just a keyword relevant domain name. In fact, there are a lot of ranking factors that Google considers nowadays and the Google Core Web Vitals is one of them. More than domain, the emphasis is now on website performance, load speed, content stability, and much more.

With all that said, there is no doubt that keywords in domains are no longer absolutely necessary to rank a website.

But then.

What Else in the Domain Name Matters?

Your domain extension! 

Your website’s domain name alone is not the only part of a URL. The top-level domain or TLD is also a significant element of your website URL and unlike the domain name, the TLD plays a crucial role in SEO. The most commonly used TLDs are the ones that we come across every day while surfing the internet, such as .com, .net and .org, but then there are also country-specific extensions like .ca for Canada and .in for India. Moreover there are an innumerable amount of less common extensions such as .blog, .info, .biz, .io, and several others.

It does not mean that a .net, .org, or .co extension will not rank your website but they probably won’t perform quite as well as the .com version. Also, country based extensions are always best to rank local businesses or websites that are in different languages other than English. For example, if you run a local business such as a restaurant in Canada, you do not have to cater to international audiences, therefore a .ca extension would be enough for you to rank locally in Canada and surrounding areas.

Or if your website is in another language and not English or intended only for a specific country, then it is better to choose the relevant domain extension — such as if your website content is in Japanese and only targets audiences from Japan then you may use the .jp extension and similarly .de for Germany.

Conclusion

Even though your domain name does not significantly affect SEO, always remember to keep the URLs trustworthy and not spammy. Overdoing your domain name with keywords and catchy or cheesy tags such as “CheapServices”, “BestofBest” or similar wording can look intensively spammy. This will make people think twice before they click on your website in the Google SERPs.

Always aim to keep the domain name simple and conveying because a trustworthy domain is more likely to be clicked on when people see it in the search results, which can significantly raise your website’s click-through rate (CTR). 

If you are really adamant about improving your search rankings and optimizing your website for SEO, then there are several other things that you can do rather than focusing only on your domain name. The best option is to hire a proficient website development agency in Toronto specialized in digital marketing that can help you keep your domain name just as it is, but improve other aspects of your website, including web design, content, and speed. 

Also,  Read On SEO {Google Ranking – This is how you can improve your ranking!}