How important is domain name and URL in terms of getting traffic to your website

1. 88

   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   How important is domain name and URL in terms of getting traffic to your website?
   
   And how do you go about choosing a name? Keywords? Also, what's the difference between using a .com, .org, .net, .us, etc.? Are one of those in particular better to use?

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2. 78

   purnimamoh1982posted 11 years ago

   choosing a domain name with a particular keyword certainly make a different in terms of its search engine optimisation and driving targeted traffic. However, it should also have certain other parameters. Keywords in domain names do matter when you are playing short run. But in long run, what is done in the site itself matters more. As far as key words are concerned, they have a short life and are quite seasonal in nature. You may not find a key word that may always work for you for all times to come. Thus quality content is what drives traffic in the long run. Have a domain name that is more search engine friendly. Having very long domain names in order to have the key word incorporated may not be a very good idea. Take the example of google, one of the most searched key word. When google was started, what it would have meant for others? probably nothing. But now it means a lot. It is synonymous to searching. On the other hand, suppose the most searched keyword for the year 2012 is "recession". And one gets a domain called recession.com. Firstly, you may have to add some other things to it as it is very likely that such a domain already exists. So you may have something like recessionxxxxx.com. It may get a huge traffic as long as the keyword is really searched by many. After that, it would calm down and after years, very few people may be searching for the terms and your traffic would decline. So, in the longer run, it is the contents that matter ad not the specific domain name.
   Secondly, if you are targeting specific locations, different extensions like .us, .net etc may matter. Otherwise, .com, .org and .net would be the most appropriate things to go for.

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   1. 88

      NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for that very detailed answer. And it makes sense. Content is the factor because of changing keywords in the search engines. Totally makes sense. Good information.

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3. 75

   KevinTimothyposted 11 years ago

   This is extremely important. One side will argue that you should choose short domains that are catchy and easy to remember. The other side with argue that it is best to used relevant keywords in the URL/domain. Now if you manage to satisfy both then, dude, you're in luck...grab it!
   
   Me personally will go for the hot searchable keyword in the domain for the simple fact that search engine traffic is the best. I believe that more traffic will go to the website that way than people actually typing in your short (and catchy) domain.

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4. 49

   venedictposted 10 years ago

   A Domain name is a string of words that identifies a website.We should be very careful with the naming conventions
   * The domain name is very important for any business and it should be easy to remember without much punctuations.
   * It should be unique and related to business.
   * It should be short and catchy.
   * If it is of universal accepted TLD's like .com,.biz,.info
   In choosing the registrar also one should be very careful.The registrar should be reliable and provide services at affordable cost.I chose http://www.9cubehosting.com/cheap_domains/ since the cost is low when I get the domain registration and hosting as a package from them.
   A .com is used for any kind of website and represents to the whole world.It is not region specific.
   A .org represents organizations and used for schools,communities generally.
   A .net represents network and used for those involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers.
   A .us represents the US country and is region specific and mostly used by companies that represent U.S.

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