The word is out. You can now register domain names of up to67 ... This is going to shoot your ranking way up onthe search engines. Because if you stuff all your ... your domain name,
Instead of speculating, let's conduct a simple experiment. Head over to your preferred search engine, for instance, AltaVista. Enter your search term, let's say "website promotion," and scrutinize the top 10 rankings. How many of these top-ranking sites actually have the full term "website promotion" in their domains? The results might surprise you.
When the news about long domain names hit the town, with "Special Announcements" urging people to "grab a new keyword-rich domain name and top the search engine ranking," I remained unmoved. This seemed too simplistic an approach to achieving high search engine placements. Here's why:
Search Engines Consider Multiple Factors: Besides keywords in domain names, search engines consider several other factors for relevancy. Don Dodge, AltaVista's Director of Engineering, stated, "Keywords in the domain name do not help much in ranking. We look at half a dozen factors in ranking. The words on the page, their frequency and position on the page, are still among the most important factors."
Search Engines Evolve: Search engines are constantly evolving. Once they realize that such keyword-stuffed domain names are content-poor sites with low relevance, they will devise new rules to prevent such sites from securing the top spots.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not against registering long domain names. However, we should keep things in perspective. If you're getting a long domain name hoping to secure a high search engine placement, based on the facts, don't expect miracles.
When choosing a domain name, I follow a simple "3 Es" guide:
Easy To Remember: Yahoo is certainly easier to remember than AltaVista. No surprise why Yahoo is doing a LOT better.
Easy To Spell: If you have a long domain name, be careful. One spelling mistake by a potential visitor is all it takes to lose them forever.
Easy To Pronounce: If your domain name is hard to pronounce, how can you expect people to spread the word and tell others about it?
What do the 3 Es have in common? They make things simple for your visitors! Our world is complex enough. We don't need another complex domain.
Must your domain name be relevant to your site content? Not necessarily. What has the name "Yahoo" got to do with a search engine or a directory? And is there any real connection between the words "Amazon" and "books"?
Choosing a domain name is a crucial step. So, do it carefully.
