Why Picking the Right Domain Name is Important
Posted on January 4th, 2010 in General, Online Marketing & Promotion, Search Engine Optimisation, Website Management & Improvement.
Tags: domain names, importance of a domain name, marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, seo, website addresses
If you are running a website for your music you’ll have a domain name, otherwise known as a website address. Without the domain name people wouldn’t be able to find your website on the internet. But these days with so much competition it’s just not enough to buy a domain name without thinking about the effect this may have on your websites success. This goes for any website, not just ones for bands, musicians, DJs, artists and producers.
Many people online have set up a website using their own name as the website address. I did the same with my own DJ alias but I can’t say that was the best idea, looking back. Nobody knew who I was back then. They probably still don’t.
Fair enough, with the jennifersaunders.com domain, for example, you pretty much know what you will be getting. Jennifer Saunders is an established entertainer and pretty much a household name for a particular generation. But jameswarble.co.uk doesn’t really say anything to anyone. If you saw that website address on a sticker in the toilets at a rock gig or on the side of a mug you wouldn’t think twice about visiting it. It just doesn’t mean anything to anyone out of context. Whereas with rockguitarist.co.uk you know exactly what you’ll be getting – it’s both descriptive and memorable and reaches out to a particular audience just by looking at it. And the chances are, it’ll do exactly what it says on the tin.
A good domain name will ideally capture the imagination of your potential visitors while still keeping it descriptive and informative – and memorable if you can.
Ok – that will do from a marketing perspective. But what about from an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective?
Well, an exact match domain will probably serve you well. If you went out and bought funkbandscotland.co.uk you can almost guarantee (with a little work and some good, relevent content) that you’ll rank pretty well in the search engines for the search ‘funk band scotland’.
Since the domain name is so descriptive, you can also assume with almost certainty that the website content will match the website address – at least to a degree. If it doesn’t then it’s unlikely to rank well under any of the terms in the domain name anyway.
So, if you can find a domain mixed between memorable, descriptive and keyword-rich you’ll be well on your way to getting good positions in the search engines. If you’re struggling, getting a domain that’s an exact match on your chosen keyword, buying a domain name with a keyword in the address will be helpful.
Tip: Picking a niche domain name is good but ensure people are actually searching for the keywords you choose. It’s fine getting the positions but if nobody is searching for those keywords you’re unlikely to get much traffic (visitors). At the other end of the scale, going too broad will make it much harder to get positions under your keywords as there will be much more competition.
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