Before launching your first website, you will have to choose and register a domain name. The domain name will be linked to your hosting provider, and it will allow you to have an address like https://www.example.com/ for your website. In a URL such as https://www.example.com/, the domain name is example.com. You can also use your domain name for email addresses like [email protected].
The example.com, example.net and example.org domains have been reserved by the IANI (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) to allow these domains to be used as examples of URLs in documentation like this one. Thanks IANI!
Example.com is an example of a domain that you cannot register because it already registered by another organization. Other examples of existing domain names are google.com, google.fr, seopress.org, radio-canada.ca, coca-cola.com, harvard.edu and hobbies-and-crafts.co.uk. Over 360 million different domain names have already been registered, 160 million ending with .com.
Domain names are made up of two parts, a main name and a top-level domain (or TLD). Top-level domains can be country specific or generic.
The first part of the domain name, the main name, is a series of alphanumeric characters that can be separated by hyphens, but not spaces. It can contain between 1 and 63 characters. Examples of main names from the domain names listed above include “google”, “coca-cola”, “toyota” and “hobbies-and-crafts”.
Top-level domains
The top-level domain (TLD for short) comes after the main name.
Examples of generic TLDs are .com for commercial, .org for organization or .edu for education. There were originally only seven generic top-level domains on Internet, but an initiative by ICANN in 2012 expanded the possibility to create new domain names and there are now hundreds to choose from, including .blog, .info, .io, .site and .coffee.
Confusingly some generic TLDs like .asia, .eu, .london or .scot look like they are regional, but Google still treats them like international, generic domain names.
Examples of the correct country-specific TLDs are .fr for France, .ca for Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom and .br for Brazil. There are 308 country code top-level domains according to Wikipedia and some require proof of residence to register a domain for a specific country.
Some countries require that domains use second-level domains too. For example, before 2019, domains names ending in .uk had to use a second-level domains such as .co.uk (for companies), .ac.uk (for education – academic) or .royal.uk (solely for the royal family).
Some country-specific TDLs like .tv, .bz and .ai have become recognized as generic domains by Google.
Will your domain name be important for SEO?
A domain name is important for SEO on many levels.
First of all, the domain name is visible as part of the URL displayed in the search results and there is a strong possibility that users will notice and memorize your domain name after seeing it in search results. It is worth noting that search result snippets now also display a more prominent Site Name this is often the same as the domain name but does give an opportunity to add a brand name not evident in your domain name.
The words in domain names
There is a strong correlation between ranking for a keyword and the use of that keyword in domain names. In the description of its ranking algorithm the Exact Match Domain system, Google recognizes that “Our ranking systems consider the words in domain names as one of many factors to determine if content is relevant to a search.” However, the Exact Match Domain system was designed to ensure that it does not give too much importance to a domain created to match a very specific search term, giving the example of a domain name “best-places-to-eat-lunch” as being something that would be bad for SEO.
Ranking factors scored by domain name
We can notice that Google groups pages by domain name in search results and that it recommends that Google Search Console accounts are created at the domain level. It is believed that certain ranking factors are rated at the domain level too. Ranking factors linked to E-A-T, where Google needs to associate a website with a person or organization, probably utilize contact information provided during the domain name registration procedure to identify the persons and organizations behind the website.
Domains as an indicator of more relevant local results
Google’s algorithms also favor local results. Google France (Google.fr), for example, will prefer to show results from French websites and one of the best ways to demonstrate that a site is French is to use the .fr top-level domain.
Top-level domains with a bad reputation
Google has also said that top-level domains can gain a bad reputation. If many spammy websites are discovered on one TLD then all future websites created on that TLD may find it difficult to rank in Google. During the June 2023 Search Off The Record podcast, Google’s Gary Illyes suggested that website owners should stay away from the cheapest TLDs like .xyz because of this possibility.
Anchor text in links
In the guide Link best practices for Google, Google recommends writing good anchor text in links to your pages. It gives examples of links with the text “click here” or “website” as bad examples of anchor text. Many links from other websites to your website will simply use the home page URL as the anchor text for the link. For example, people linking to our site will often link to http://seopress.org/ and not link using a phrase like best SEO plugin for WordPress (which would be better for our SEO). By having a domain name containing keywords, you will find it easier to get anchor text containing keywords because many links use your domain name as the anchor text.
What is the best TLD for SEO?
Considering the importance of TLDs for Google, our best advice for small businesses or bloggers is to create a domain using .com or your country’s top-level domain.
If you are a local business or blog looking mainly to attract visitors from your country
- The .com top-level domain is the best for SEO if you are in the USA,
- The local top-level domain is the best for SEO if you are in another country. For example .fr for a site in France
If your site will be in many languages, but still only targets one country (for example a Canadian site in French and English), prefer the local country-specific top-level domain (.ca for Canada).
If you are outside the United States and want to communicate to more than one country, then a .com domain will be the most relevant TLD to choose.
There are some exceptions to these rules for US or international sites. If your website is for a nonprofit organization with a US or international audience, then the .org top-level domain may be more relevant. The .net or other industry-specific top-level domains like .studio, .io, or .app may be interesting but our recommendation would be to make sure that you can also register the .com domain using the same main name if you want to use one of these TLDs.
To take a few examples from fictive case studies,
- The Romantic B&B Hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho = .com domain
- Vegas Fit Zone in Bristol, UK = .co.uk domain
- Barry’s international electricians blog = .com domain
- Small craft brewery in England = .co.uk domain
Best practices for creating a domain name
Before rushing online to buy a domain name, we suggest that you spend some time brainstorming what your best domain name would be.
As a registrar, Google Domains gives the following best practice advice for choosing the best domain name:
- Name length: We recommend short domain names, typically between 3 to 4 terms. Short domains are easier to remember and type which helps users navigate directly to your site.
- Keywords: Make sure the terms in your domain name are relevant to the content you publish. Descriptive words help first-time viewers recognize what the site is about. Additionally, descriptive words can improve the chances that your site shows up to users who are searching for related products or services.
- Location: If your intended audience is in a particular area, you may want to include that location in your domain name. Doing so can help filter out any unintended audience outside your scope.
- Brand name: Your domain name should reflect your brand, and vice versa. A brand is a unique, identifying persona that can help your domain stand out. Brands create potential for distinctiveness and longevity because users can quickly recognize established brands. Brands can take time to develop, but a successful brand can pay dividends for your site’s popularity.
They also advise against
- Numbers or dashes: These characters can make your site name harder to type or remember.
- Misspellings of existing words or business names: These attributes can make your site seem suspicious for spamming or phishing.
- Similarity to an existing brand or trademark: Naming your site and hosting content in a way that appears similar to an existing business may cause copyright or abuse complaints against you, potentially resulting in domain suspension and/or legal action. Visitors may not be able to access your site or send you emails until the dispute is resolved.
At the time of writing you can still use Google Domains to research and register domain names, but Google announced in June 2023 that the service had been sold to Squarespace. You can also use websites like GoDaddy.com, Name.com or Nameboy.com to test domain name ideas against already existing domine names.
If you are working on a professional website, your priority should be to make sure that your brand name is identifiable in the domain name, even if this means putting aside the idea of targeting a keyword (although you should always consider that your brand is a keyword). If you are creating a website for a new fitness club in Bristol called “Vegas Fit Zone” you should make sure to include your brand name “Vegas Fit Zone” in the domain name.
Note: A brand like “The Romantic B&B Hotel” will hit a problem when reserving a domain name because the “&” character is not one of the acceptable alphanumeric characters you can use in the main name.
To hyphen or not to hyphen
Domain name structure gives the possibility of separating words by using hyphens. A main domain name “vegasfitzone” can also be written, “vegas-fit-zone”. Google has regularly said that there should be no difference between hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of domain names, but popular SEO advice says that more than one hyphen in a domain name can make it look spammy and should be avoided.
The only true research on the subject appears to a 2014 study by Bangani, A. & Weideman, M. A comparison of the effect of single word versus hyphenated domain name choices on website visibility. In some cases you must use hyphens to help users read the domain name or avoid mispronunciation of your brand name.
Checking previous history of domains / expired domains
Registering a .com domain should cost around $15 per year. Some hosting companies will include the cost of the domain name in their hosting package. When searching for domain names in GoDaddy.com, you may see offers for premium domains at much higher prices. For example, in the screen shot below a domain name is offered for $750.
These are examples of domain names that are already registered, but where the owner is willing to transfer the ownership for a fee. There is a business in buying and selling domain names that includes buying domain names as soon as they expire (when the owner does not renew). Some companies have found themselves having to pay a high fee to recover a domain name they forgot to renew.
Some domain names have sold for a lot of money on the private market. The Chinese company Qihoo famously bought 360.com for $17 million in 2015 for example.
Before buying a domain, it is good practice to verify what the history of that domain was. Unless you are specifically aiming to take over an existing site, you should target a domain that has no previous history on search engines.
First of all, you could search in Google for the domain you wish to purchase. Use the operator “site:” and your future domain name to ensure that no site with that name is indexed in Google. For sites with no pages indexed, you will see the message “Your search did not match any documents”.
You can search in Google again using just the domain name without the “site:” operator to see if there are any previous links or citations for the domain name. Normally you will see a message “It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search”.
The last check could be in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine which is an archive of the web since 1996. If your future domain has no historic on this site, it will show a message “No URL has been captured for this URL prefix.”
A website with an historic on the Wayback Machine will look something like the screenshot below. You can click on the year slider and then on the highlighted dates in the calendar to show the website as it was archived on that date.
Ideally for SEO you don’t want your future domain name to have any history on the web so if you do find any historic versions of a site on your domain, review them carefully before deciding if you want to continue with that domain name. The language, content and links to that site may continue to influence the ranking of that domain name in Google in the future and this may prove to be a handicap for your SEO.
After buying an expired domain name, you may also discover it has been blacklisted by Google through a manual action. You will only discover this when you create a Google Search Console account for the domain. Normally you only do this once the site is launched.
