A keyword domain name uses the words you would like your website to rank well for in Google. For example, a dog trainer might register dogtrainer.co.nz. In addition to getting a keyword domain name, you should also register your business name or brand name.

When ranking a website, Google takes into account the words used in a link to the website. So if links to your website contain keywords then the link text is going to help with your rankings, as Google will consider your website to be ‘relevant’. A relevant website is one that uses the keywords someone searches for (either in the HTML code or in the web copy).

And it’s not just the words used in your domain name that can help with rankings; the words used in the page names of your website can also help considerably, so a page about dog training services should be called dogtraining.html rather than services.html.

To get the full benefit out of a keyword domain name it needs to go to a website and not just be a ‘redirect’. A redirect is where a domain name goes to a website with a different domain name. Google will ignore the domain name if it’s just redirecting to another domain name.

The solution is to use a keyword domain name for your main website, or to set up a secondary website. This secondary website could be a blog, a forum or a new website that is about a specific topic. To continue with the dog trainer example, the trainer could write a blog about their training experiences with tips for dog owners, set up a forum so dog owners can swap information, while the specialist website could be about training a particular breed of dogs.

If you are thinking that all the good domain names have probably gone then you might just be in for a surprise. We regularly discover premium keyword domain names that have expired and are now available to be registered.

If you’d like help finding a keyword domain name give us a call on 03 366 3340 and speak to one of our web consultants. We can also help you develop a blog or website for the new domain name.