Which Domain Name Would You Choose: keywordblog.com or keyword.net?
One of the neverending discussions on the internet marketing grounds is choosing the best domain name for your niche website. Many things have been said about this and there are many different opinions. In fact, there is no right way to go when deciding on a domain name as long as you focus on the content and marketing of the site.
I want to give an example here: ICanHasCheezburger.com may sound a very nonsense domain name at first; however, the site is one of the most successful fun sites and being visited by millions of people each month.
You can build your site around whatever domain name you like and make it a great site. However, if you want to target mainly search engine visitors, then your domain name should be search engine friendly to some extent.
As you all know, one of the main ranking factors that search engines check about a website is its domain name. The more related your domain name to your target keyword, the higher your site will rank in the search engines (unless it has rubbish content). So, including your target keyword in the domain name is a very good idea to start with.
For example, if your niche is audio books than going for a domain like audiobooks.com is a very good idea. This is called an exact match domain name. (I know that domain is not available, just giving an example here.) And depending on the competition in your niche, the exact match domain name may not be available for registration.
Most of the .com domains are already taken for almost all the niches you can think of thanks to fellow internet marketers. But, sometimes, it is possible to find the .net or .org version of that domain name available.
So, the question is which one would you choose in that case?
keywordblog.com vs. keyword.net/org
If you have made some preliminary research before landing on this post, I am pretty sure that you’ve read many different arguments. And the truth is, there really is no best way. Some internet marketers will claim that it is always best to go for the exact match domain whether it is a .com or .net, some others will say that having an additional word like blog, tips or guide will be just as good. Some wouldn’t register a .net domain if its .com version is already taken, some would go for a .net domain and build a very popular authority site around it. It all comes to how you develop and promote your website.
What Would I Choose?
I have registered some .net domains in the past, but at one point I decided to go with only .coms if I can because having a .com website sounds much better to me. I might add blog or another word depending on the nature of the site and how relevant that site will be to my niche.
In conclusion, it is not so good to waste a lot of time on choosing a domain name. Make your market and keyword research properly, find an acceptable keyword rich domain name (better if you can find an exact match, but don’t limit yourself to it), build a quality website and profit.
So, which one would you choose?
Hi, I'm Nail. Welcome to my personal blog. I work full time online as a designer, coder and internet marketer.
I think everyone would choose .com. It is the first one that comes to mind when thinking about websites. But I don’t think it is the prerequisite to success online. If a website has quality content, it’ll be popular. My brother had a free blog and it was so popular. You know the argument about free blogs and how they don’t convey quality and trust. I think quality content is the be-all and end-all. It doesn’t matter whether you have a .com or .org or even .wordpress.com.
Take care.
Mouh
: o)
Great post Nail and I’m in agreement with you. Dot coms are the most popular but like with my particular main site, it wasn’t available. People just automatically will type that in when they are searching for something so why not make it easy for them.
But as Mouh said, if the content is great the people will find it and it will speak for itself. But when creating niche sites, definitely go with the keywords that will bring you the most visitors.
Have a great day!
Adrienne
I would choose neither.
Putting the word “blog” in the domain is like putting the word “website” in the domain. superkeywordwebsite.com sounds bad, doesn’t it? That’s what keywordblog.com sounds like to me.
However, I agree with you about sticking to the .com TLD. My reasoning is that there are still many people who’s Internet knowledge level is somewhat low, so they won’t always remember if your website was a .net, .org, .info, or .somethingelse.
If they remember your domain name, and you’re a .com, then it’s all good. This can even happen if they’re web-geniuses, a person can forget a small detail more easily than a big one.
I would always chose the .net version if the .com is not available. Because it is always difficult to brand keywordblog.com than keyword.net. Getting fewer number of letters in the domain always helps in branding. I prefer to keep domain name under 10 letters. So if the .com is not available I will go for .net.
I think .com is much better then the rest. Most people will click on .com first before they go to other options that they can see in search engine.
Ummm Nail!
Many here said just keyword.com but I would like to say keywordblog.com.
As Adrienne just said many of us just type few words of domain and it just comes up automatically, so it fine with direct visitors but as regard to search engine I guess keywordblog.com will do even more good.
Of course, it is much better to select domains which include keywords and key phrases. It also makes sense to buy existing domains. If you select good domain names you manage to simplify the SEO work signifficantly.
Good one! Nail. I personally prefer to get dot com domains but it is getting so hard nowadays to register for one. Nowadays I look for expired domains which is great for SEO too.