Just a bit about search engine optimization.

When it comes to selecting the best domain name for a new website, it is not as simple as just choosing a name that you like or your company name, although choosing a catchy name can be good for branding. The domain name itself, along with any page names within the site, can all help or hinder how easily your site will be found by the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are several factors to consider when first contemplating a new domain name.

The first consideration is to try and choose a domain name that sufficiently expresses your services and/or products; it also needs to be a broad enough term that will cover any expansion in the products and services offered by the site. Ideally it is best to choose a name that can be easily remembered by people, to encourage repeat visits from customers that come to know your website domain name, along with the products or services that you offer.

Regarding the make-up of your domain name itself. You are going to be targeting specific keywords to generate leads for your business based on terms that are searched for. If there is a high number of terms for “tuxedo shoes” and your business offers rentals of tuxedo shoes, that would be a good keyword to go after. Orienting your on page seo efforts around that keyword may be a very successful strategy, but including it in your domain name may be the best thing you could do.

What method should I use to find my target keywords?

The Google keyword tool will help you choose the best keyword for your niche. It will appear in the search results when entered as the search term in Google’s search engine.

To find keywords that you may want to go after simply enter any pertinent keywords for your industry. In other words, if you are a graphic artist in Reno, Nevada you may try these keywords: Reno graphic artist, graphic artists in reno nv, etc.

Depending on your location and your keyword you may come up with results like; “caterers in Decatur” or “attorneys in Atlanta”. Your keywords should be marked with your business and your location for best results.

The Google keyword tool will provide a long series of suggested keywords you can target. It will also include the traffic numbers for each keyword for each month or day. You can use the higher traffic keywords to nearly instantly gain traffic to your site, if it is available.

So as for the example above, these may include ‘security alarms’ ‘home security’ and ‘alarm systems Nashville’. A great way to include all three of these keyword phrases would be to choose the domain name “HomeSecurityAlarmSystemsNashville” if that is unavailable you could try putting a dash between each of the words.