Domain Name Guide

Age is a major factor on the search engines. Age cannot be faked, and therefore, age is one of the strongest signals of authority on the internet. It is one of the factors that the SERPs look favorably upon when deciding what websites are relevant to the searcher’s request on their systems. Websites that have aged over time and are still around on the internet to this day are given more authority than those sites that come and go within a year of time.

Most of the spammy sites on the internet are bought on a yearly basis. If the site does not make money, then the website owner usually sells them off or lets them lapse. Therefore, the search engines tend to not trust a website that has registered with their web host for one year. This is a red flag to most of the search companies that exist. This red flag tells the search engines that the business owner is not serious and the SERPs should not take their website serious either.

Buying aged domains is big business because of this fact. Aged domains do better in the search engines because the website owner has shown that they are willing to stick it out in the good times and the bad whereas a spammy internet marketer will end the site as soon as they can because it does not make money. Therefore, the search engines are always looking for old domains to rank. An old domain combined with good content is a site that can rank very well in the search engines and will become very hard to dislodge from the top spots in the search engine as well.

A properly aged domain can go for thousands of dollars. This is because the optimization power behind that domain is so strong that the moment it gets good content, it does well in the SERPs. It does not matter if this practice is fair or not, it just is reality. Therefore, the sooner a business person can buy a domain, the better. They should also plan to hold that domain for a long period of time because that will allow the domain to age and gain more authority with the search engines.

However, it is important to note that the search engines frown upon buying domains for linking purposes. Search based companies understand that an older domain has authority; therefore, they frown upon people who buy these domains to “game” the SERPs. Therefore, a business owner needs to rethink doing this before acting on this impulse. If the linking strategy is caught, then the website can guarantee themselves that they will be removed from the search engine rankings. It is a dangerous proposition that should be avoided at all costs.

In conclusion, a business should look at their website not as a short-term fix but a long-term play. If a business holds their website for a long period of time, then that business can give themselves an advantage in the SERPs. If the search engines are looking for anything, it is the longevity of a site. This means that a site should plan to be around as long as possible to make sure that it gets all the authority possible. This results in higher in the rankings and better traffic over time and more sales revenue.

Choosing a good domain name is one of the most important tasks before setting up your website. However, you may neglect some useful tips which will be very helpful for your selection. The first thing you should consider for your website is that if you need a generic domain name for your business. For example, if you are selling cups, do you have to put the world “cups” to your domain name. You may think it is necessary to do so and keep an eye on those expensive domain names which satisfy your needs. However, for the customer’s perspective, you may already know some brands for the product before you start to search. So, some specific names might be more important than some generic ones. Normally, most specific domain names should be much cheaper than generic ones, and they may be more suitable for you especially you just start your business.

Another point to discuss is the length of the domain names. Although a domain name can be as long as 67 characters, nobody will use them all. The advantage of the short domain names is that they are easier to remember and have less typo. However, since most easy-to-remember short names have been registered, we are not likely to get a domain name which is a normal word or something you can easily think of. So, a longer domain name with good meaning and explanation may be a better choice. Also, most modern search engines will take the keyword in domain names into consideration when they rank websites.

The third thing for the domain selection is if you need to put hyphens inside your domain name. Putting a hyphen into a domain has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage would be that domain names with hyphens might be confused with domains without it. So, users are very likely to forget to type it. Most people are prone to type a domain without any hyphens, and this fact may take your users into your competitor’s website. The good thing about using hyphens is that a long domain will be clearer if all words are separated by a hyphen. Also, you have a better chance to get your favorite name when the hyphen-free domain has been taken.

Regarding the prefix and affix for a domain name such as mydomain.com or thedomain.com, it is highly recommended to avoid using them since people are not easy to confuse them with other domains. If this is only choice for your website, you should bear in mind that you should promote the full site name. Otherwise, people are not likely to remember these prefixes and affixes.

The choice of TLD is another commonly discussed topic. Dot com is the most popular TLD and it is more recognizable than other domain names. However, most good names have already been taken. If you are looking for a domain name for your business or profitable organization, you’d better choose a com domain. Otherwise your domain might be considered as a non-profitable organization. So, if you are running a non-profitable organization, you should choose corresponding TLDs to suit for your business such as dot org or dot net.