Whether you’re starting a brand new practice, looking to rebrand, or building a new website, you’re going to want to take some time to thoroughly map out the purchase of your domain name. You may be thinking that this should be the easiest part of the whole process, or that you can “just pick one,” but then you’d be ignoring some of the most important aspects of your entire online marketing campaign. The truth is, there’s a process you should follow to make your final domain choice an impactful one.
Domain Buying Basics:
Domains are, quite literally, digital real estate. Buy now while the buying’s good! If you wait too long before buying a domain, it may not be available when you check back tomorrow.
When searching, know that .com is king. That being said, in some cases you may want to consider alternate Top Level Domains (aka extensions). Top Level Domain (or TLD) is the suffix at the end of a domain, such as .com or .org. There are currently 1,547 top-level domains available such as .solutions, .ninja, .pizza, .onyourside, etc. If you’re curious, check out this list for all of them.
Here a few additional tips when buying domains:
- Buy common misspellings.
- Make it unique (but not TOO unique). Being memorable is arguably the most important aspect a domain can have
- Invest in domain privacy. It’s worth it.
- Avoid words that are easy to spell wrong.
Try to check at least 4 of these boxes. “So, this domain I’m thinking of buying for my practice…”:
Is it easy to remember?
Does it accurately describe my practice or fit into my branding in some way?
Is it relatively short?
Is it affordable (or for that matter available)?
Does it contain any advantageous keywords? (more on that below)
Are common misspellings and alternate TLDs available?
Domains and SEO:
Keywords in your domain can help with the overall SEO of your site, but don’t overthink it. Keywords in the TLD are NOT considered in your SEO score, but can be advantageous for branding as the potential patient may remember the domain based on the keywords.
When thinking about your competitors, age, or authority, used to matter more than it does now. That being said, older sites probably still have an advantage due to the fact that they’ve been indexed more times and therefore probably have more backlinks than a newer site. Don’t worry too much if an older site outranks you in your first few months. Focus on creating a strong presence around your site and domain, and time will be your best friend.
With regards to those same competitors, buying up a bunch of domains and pointing them all to your site is not as effective as people may think. While it does keep them out of the hands of your competitors, they may just sit and collect dust and cost you money. Focus on buying the ones most important and useful for your practice.
Helpful Domain Articles:
- Best Practices For Corporate Domain Name Management (searchengineland.com)
- 10 tips for choosing the perfect domain (searchengineland.com)
- Google says keywords in the TLD part of your URL are ignored for ranking purposes (searchengineland.com)
- Domains – SEO Best Practices (moz.com)
- 5 Ways Domains Impact SEO (practicalecommerce.com)
If you’re still running into issues, or just want to put trust in the experts to pick the right domain, contact Practis today! We’ll be happy to help you through the process, and educated you on our methods at the same time.