You can liken a domain to buying a refurbished house. It may look polished and beautiful on the outside, but you better look at the foundation and the wall cracks before committing. It’s the same after you accomplish a domain search. You need to assess the domain to improve your chances for effective SEO. You also need to look at its age, history, and authority.
We will check out domain factors that affect a domain’s future optimization and those that will not make a difference in terms of SEO.
Domain experience overage
The domain’s age won’t directly affect SEO. If that’s the case, many businesses will go around buying old-timer domains to get better search engine results. It will seem straightforward, but according to Matt Cutts, Google’s former head of the webspam team, there isn’t that much difference between a 6-month and a year-old domain.
For a fact, new websites practically never get top ranking after launching. SEO specialists refer to this as the Google Sandbox. This prevents newborn sites from ranking on top. It will take several weeks and even several months to move out from it. Experts believe that there are three reasons why new website rankings get delayed — not enough content, backlinks, and user signals. This is referred to as domain experience.
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Authority can be contradictory
Google doesn’t use a website authority score or indicator. Businesses can still evaluate domain credibility through third-party tools that assess domain and page quality based on multiple factors, including the quality of a website’s backlinks and referring domains. Check the parameters through a Backlink Checker tool, but keep in mind that Google itself doesn’t use domain authority metrics.
Don’t be surprised if you see poor-quality websites having a big domain trust rate. Check domain characteristics and rely on authority metrics.
Domain history is a skeleton in the closet
Checking the domain history can help check its content at different periods. This is crucial because it can affect your site’s karma if you don’t know what you’re getting.
Say you proceeded with domain search and went on to buy a domain with history/trust/recognition. It’ll be wise to check if the name was previously occupied by another business to see how relevant it will be to your niche.
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Don’t focus too much on keywords
Domain names that match an exact search engine query are called exact match domains (EMD). For example, if you’re looking at the best holiday gifts, the EDM would be bestholidaygifts.com. If your site has high-quality content, Google won’t apply the filter because it’s an EMD. Google also clarified that keywords in the domain name wouldn’t provide extra points in the search results.
Make the decision based on your goals
If you’re keen on developing a brand, the best advice is to use its name in the domain if it’s available. If you don’t do it, other entities can take it and use it for their own goals. Not using the brand name and focusing on the keywords can give you more disadvantages rather than benefits.
Getting your preferred name is just half the battle. Now that you know more about what to look out for in a domain name before getting it, the next step is to take action! Accomplish a domain search as soon as you know what you want and snap it up before someone else does.
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