The right domain is really one of the most important things you need to look at and consider before you launch any type of web site... You better spend some extra time on picking the perfect domain to match up with your online business/presence. There are many reasons to choose a relevant keyword domain but I will talk about the SEO aspects. First of all the domain name should be directly related to whatever it is you are planning to have the website about.
If it is mainly about Flowers then the domain name should certainly contain the keyword flowers in it. Not having the keyword within your domain is stupid. Real stupid. If you pick a domain such as JamiesShop then you probably won't get much natural/organic traffic. Now on the other hand if you would pick JamiesFlowerShop then you will definitely get some free natural and organic search traffic related to flowers searches.
A good keyword domain name is about 50% of the best and ultimate 100% SEO score. A score which sites such as GAMES.com, TV.com and HOTELS.com have and demonstrate if you look at how they are setup and rank within the search engines. So let me break it down further, the right domain is 50% so what is the other half? Well, content is another 25% or so and the rest is quality on-topic textlinks from similar on-topic sites, age of your site and a couple of other tricks but I am just mentioning what matters most and what you need to focus on.
If you have the main keyword which is directly tied up to your business within your domain name then you are already 50% ahead of all of your competitors who do not follow this practice. It is much easier to establish yourself in the organic search results index with Google, Yahoo and MSN when you have a relevant keyword domain. It describes and pretty much summarizes or should I say categorizes your website to the search engines and tells them that your site is about one unique topic and that you are serious about what you do. Why? Because you purchased a keyword domain, setup a specific website to cover that topic in detail and frequently update it. Makes sense? Yea... well this is how things work in the search engine world. Not all that complicated.
So, picking a keyword domain is a must if you want to have a competitive advantage. There isn't a reason why you shouldn't and I don't know why some people tend to be smart asses and use totally irrelevant domains. I guess they wanna stand out? Right! Oh well... The search engines will reward you greatly if you do pick the right one. I recommend going with com/net/org and using a dash or two within your domain is OK if you really want to or have to.
Avoid numbers within your domain. Avoid "the" as well in the beginning. This word gets ignored and doesn't help much anyways. Keep your domain short and sweet and to the point. Having something like TheBestBrooklynNYFlowerShopOpen247365.com isn't really a good idea. Yea it may be cool and maybe even a little catchy but there are just too many negatives about it that outweigh the positives so you need to avoid it. Brooklyn-Flowers-Shop.com would be a much better choice or even BrooklynFlowerShop.net --- and it just so happens that both are actually available.
Articles at WannaDevelop.com
05/08/2010: Dozens of exact match product / shopping related sites at auction now @ Latonas.com 03/19/2010: All domain development = $99 per domain... Pretty good deal, don't you think? 02/18/2010: New year.. New products... New prices.. New staff... Lots going on in the development biz! 02/06/2010: Must see auctions at Bido! Five days, back-to-back all this week.. Over 100 keyword domains priced to sell! No offers will be turned down 12/01/2009: Domain Stryker pre-registration now officially open... Launch date set for later this month!
