The INTco.biz Search Engine FAQ
Domain Names
and their effect on
Search Engine Performance
Your choice of domain name can have an effect on your search engine performance. It's not something to get too hung up about - but, if you are choosing a new domain name, if may be worth keeping in mind.
There are said to be over 100 factors which affect your website performance in search engines - some factors have a minor effect, other are very important.
One of the key factors is search engines trying to match the phrases which people type into search engines with the websites which are relevant to each phrase.
If your domain name happens to include a word which someone is searching on, then it may make a small difference to your performance.
For instance, try doing a search on Google for the word "vacation" - at time of writing this piece this produces a number 2 position for vacation.com (we have seen it at number 1 previously). But change the search phrase to "golf vacation" and vacation.com vanishes down the rankings!
So, don't get hung up on keywords in your domain name.
But if you are choosing a new domain name, and if there is a key word which is strategic to your business, there may be value in including that word in your domain name.
For instance, if your company name is "Bloggs" and your business is the manufacture of "Widgets", you might want to consider the domain bloggswidgets.com !
But, and this is very important, if you already have a website which is recognised by the search engines and which has achieved some sort of ranking - don't go changing your domain name. Achieving any ranking takes time and effort - changing domain is likely to knock that process backwards.