Domain Extensions and What Role They Play in SEO
Are you going to create a website? Do you know what are domain extensions and their importance for your website? Hold on and read this article to learn about domain names and their impact on your website ranking.
The first important thing when you are creating a website is your domain name. It can lead to a website’s success or its eventual failure. When you are setting up, you are saying “Hello world! I am here open for business.”
These names and extensions play a vital role in your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. You need to select them wisely while creating your website. It is the first thing people notice when they visit your website listed in Google search results. Therefore, it affects your SERP rankings.
Before we discuss its importance and role in SEO, let’s see what its basic types are and how can we use them as per our needs.
What is a Domain?
It is the address on the internet using which people can find your website. It is like your home address containing the street, block, society, and the city and It identifies one or more IP addresses, it comprises three main parts, i.e. Top-level Domain TLD, the Domain name, and the Subdomain name.
Top-Level Domain TLD
It is the suffix appended with the domain name referred to as extensions. It specifies the type of website at a glance.
For Instance, here are the top five Top-level Domains you might be familiar with:
- .com: for corporate or profit businesses. That is a globally recognized TLD
- .org: for non-profit organizations
- .edu: for schools and universities
- .gov: for government websites
- .net: for internet services websites
Role of Domain Extensions in SEO
Google continuously makes updates and changes in its algorithms for website rankings. The domain name is one of the well-known foundations for an SEO-friendly website. Previously, using keyword-oriented domain names was quite famous. That has some issues as people started exploiting this marketing factor. Nowadays, brandable domain names are the safest solution.
The .com TLD is the most common extension widely used. To get better rankings in Google, use the .com extension.
SEO Best Practices for Domain Extensions
While creating a website, follow these SEO best practices that have a crucial role in SEO:
Use of branding
Currently, there are 4.2 billion web pages on the internet. That is a large number. There is a difficulty for people to find out your website due to different domain names. To make it easy for people to reach out to your website, choose a unique name matching your brand.
Moz.com is the creator of SEO suit, says, “As for optimizing your domain for your target audience…the most important thing is to make your domain memorable. Type-in traffic is highly qualified traffic, and only memorable domains get it. A memorable domain can also be marketed in creative ways that non-memorable domains can’t.”
When you create a domain, keep in mind for better ranking that it should be:
- Memorable
- Catchy
- Relatable
- Purpose of your website
Short and Simple
It should be short and simple that everyone can easily remember and type in the search bar. A few examples are Amazon, Moz.com, Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell, and Nokia. These are multimillion brands and have a simple name. The use of the hyphen may not be correct as it is associated with spam websites.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Keywords have an essential role in SEO. But stuffing too many keywords in your domain makes your URL look fake and spam. People do not click on such URLs. Try to keep it simple and do not make your URL too long.
Age does not Matter!
Google does not rank your website based on the age of your domain. But using an old domain might help you rank your website with good keywords choice if it has a good backlinks profile. If these backlinks are coming from a website related to your niche, it will provide you with benefits.
If you are buying an old domain based on its backlink profile, make sure these backlinks are relevant to your website niche. Otherwise, it will not be beneficial.
Choose a strong TLD
Top-level Domains other than .com are not so famous. But if you are creating a government website, you can use .gov and for education website .edu.
Consolidate your Subdomains
Keep in mind that the number of subdomains should be minimal because it will boost the authoritativeness of your subdomain, not your root domain. Therefore, this will not provide you with any favor in website ranking if you have concerned with organic search traffic.
Country Code TLD
Country code TLD will help you to appear your website in the top Google SERP if someone searches your website in that geographical area. For example, if your website has .us ccTLD and someone searches from the US, your website might appear in the top search results.
Get a Mobile Site for Your Business
Nowadays, people prefer to search from their mobile instead of desktop. A business will have better engagement if it creates a mobile-friendly website. That will help your visitor to have a better vision of your content on mobile.
Final Words
Choosing an appropriate domain name has a good impact on your website’s visibility in top search results. I hope you have a better understanding of domain names and their role in SEO.
If you have any suggestions about this article, please comment below.
