SEO Basics: How to Choose an SEO-Friendly Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name for your website can definitely help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign.  Your domain name should tell both search engines and your website's visitors what your site is about.  There are 3 ways to go about selecting a domain name:

1. By Brand.  If your brand is well known (at least locally or in your general geographical area) then it's probably OK to use your brand name as your domain name.  This works well for large companies and major corporations.  Nike, Kleenex, and Geiko would be good candidates to use their brand as their domain name.  But if you're a new small business, it's not a good idea to use the name of your company as your domain name unless it also describes your product or service directly.  The only way your domain name helps increase your search engine ranking is if it includes words or phrases that people would type into the search engine's search box when searching for your product or service.  If you're a business in Denver that sells USB drives, and the name of your company is Digital Storage, you'd want to pick a domain name like "www.denverusb.com" instead of using your company name.  Which brings us to the second way to name your domain.
2. By Keywords.  The best domain name is one that includes words that people are going to type into the search engine's search box when looking for your product or service.  If you're an internet marketing firm in Denver, you might want to use "www.denverinternetmarketing.com" as your domain name.
3. By both brand and keywords.  This is the method I used for my website.  I have an SEO company in Denver called Mile High SEO, so I named my domain "www.milehighseodenver.com."  This contains both the brand and some major keywords (Denver SEO).

Here are a few more pointers for choosing a domain name that's both user friendly and SEO friendly:

• Make your domain name as simple and short as possible while still keeping it descriptive.  My website, "www.milehighseodenver.com," describes my business without overdoing it.  It would be even more descriptive if I picked the domain name "www.milehighseodenversearchengineoptimizationcompany.com" but who would want to type that into the URL bar?
• Don't use underscores to separate words.  The search engines can't understand them.  In most cases, there's no need to separate words because the search engine spiders are very good at parsing them.  If you need to separate words, use dashes.  An example of a domain name that might need to use dashes is "www.gerdensoftengrow.com."  It's supposed to read "gardens of Tengrow" instead of "gardens often grow," so it would be necessary to use dashes, like so: gardens-of-tengrow.com.  Just don't use more than one or two dashes unless you absolutely have to.
• Don't restrict yourself.  When choosing a domain name, try to think of the future when possible.  If you're a company that sells carpet, don't choose "denvercarpets.com" if you're thinking about eventually adding hardwood flooring and tile to your product line.