Every website has a domain, which acts as your website address. Believe it or not, your choice of domain, as well as the history of the domain, can positively or negatively affect your SEO results.
We’re not focusing on the website itself, but only its digital address for now.
In order to analyze a website’s domain name, you need to know what Google looks for as far as domain names are concerned. Keep in mind that you’re not just analyzing the actual name – the word or words that come before the dot – you are also gauging domain meta-data. This includes the following elements.
Most experts put forth the idea that domain age doesn’t matter all that much when it comes to search rankings. Do a Whois search to determine the age of the domain, if only to conduct a thorough audit.
Google previously bolded keywords that appeared in the domain in the SERPs. While Google no longer does this, it is still important to have a keyword-rich URL.
If your current URL isn’t keyword-optimized, it might be best to start fresh with a new domain. Some clients are reluctant to switch domains for a new SEO campaign, but I highly recommend it.
This is one of those common-sense techniques. If a user is searching using a keyword, it makes sense that a URL with that keyword contained within would show up prominently in the SERPs.
