There are numerous myths and misconceptions regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The influence of the website’s domain name on its SEO performance is one of the famous myths. Does the name of your website or domain have the power to make you appear on top of search engine results? Let’s find out.
The Domain Name Myth
Search Engines favour your website if you have a catchy, relevant or keyword-rich domain name. This has led many to think that a domain name chosen smartly can guarantee high rankings on search engines and online visibility.
The Reality Check
Back in the day, having “cheapcars.com” would be the BEST possible way to rank on the search term “cheap cars”. However, in the modern era where Search Engines are dispatching “crawlers” to scan your website and its content (as well as various compliances). Thereby understanding the context of your business, as conveyed by your website.
Search engines like Google state that the reality of good domain equals good results is far from the truth. A domain name can provide a slight advantage to context, but does not guarantee top rankings. No matter how clever or relevant, a domain name cannot make up for the lack of quality content, good user experience, and proper SEO practices on a website.
Quality over Name
There are a few factors that are evaluated by Search Engines to determine the valuable impact and relevance of your website to the audience.
Those factors include:
The Quality of Your Website’s Content
Is your content current, relevant and are your users engaging in events (performing at least one interaction, such as a click)?
User Engagement
Are the pages your users land on allowing for them to follow a journey of interactions? Have you measured your bounce-rate to see where and why users are falling off? This could be the answer to your lack of conversions.
Backlinks
We’ve discussed this many times. Backlinking is super effective, Google looks at is like getting testimonials from other websites, thus, building your website’s credibility and overall domain authority.
Page Load Speed
This is where things get a little blurred. Page load speed can affect the “perception” of SEO in two ways. Firstly, users who are stuck loading to your website may drop-off, thus increasing the bounce rate. On the other hand, Google wants to deliver quality results and therefore, uses speed as ranking factor in order to prevent users from bouncing before even reaching their, potential, destination website.
Overall User Experience
A good brand name, no doubt, has an impact on your potentail for success, but it doesn’t play a significant role in determining the value of your website. A website with a brilliant domain name but low-quality content and poor user experience will not trend well in search results.
SEO’s Complex Landscape
SEO is complex, and primary reason is because we all live somewhere between “how SEO actually performs” and “our perception of SEO”. But with the tools we have been given by parties such as Schema.org, we are able to apply factual compliance to our websites and measure the results of those implementations in order to make further educated decisions on how to improve our website’s SEO.
Domain names, however, are not the sole driving force. The quality of your website’s content, user engagement, backlinks, page load speed and overall user experience play a pivotal role in the website’s success and attract the audience.
Conclusion
A catchy domain name might help with brand recognition and user engagement, but it does not play any role in guaranteeing the success of a website on SEO. The now-myth that a well-named domain alone can ensure high rankings has been rejected by the complex reality of search engine algorithms. The most appealing factors for SEO are quality content and user experience. So, remember, it’s not just the name that matters, but the substance behind it that truly counts.
If you’d like to have a 1-on-1 with Matt to see how your business is affected by SEO, reach out to the contact form.
