Lies Gurus Tell About Domain Names
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
What Is The Best Domain To Buy?
Be careful what you believe from every so called ‘guru’. Many are not telling you the whole truth about ideal domain names. They are either leaving something out like a missing piece for your success or telling you things that are not exactly true in order to just sell you something.
Once you do your research on a niche, complete your keyword research, it is time to buy a domain if you are going to drive traffic to that squeeze page or blog. Here is where you have been lied to. It is in your choice of domain names.
The first question I am often asked is whether a “.com” is the only type of keyword domain to purchase and should you only purchase exact match keyword domains? But first let’s consider all of these questions together.
How important is a domain name?
How should you pick one?
Is the “.com” better than the others?
Are hyphens okay in the domain? What about numbers? Characters? Trademarks?
And do you need an exact match domain?
Do I own .org and .net sites that have ranked? Yes and I have even ranked them in the #1 position on the first page of Google for that exact keyword term, but Google is changing the way the algorithms crawl and this is becoming more difficult to accomplish. My suggestion is to stick with the ‘.com’ domain names.
Here are 12 suggestions for a perfect domain that I learned from a very successful marketer.
#1 — Stick with “.com” ONLY
‘Guru’ answers I have received when I was learning internet marketing was .com, .net, .org and even the keywords separated by dashes would all rank. Some opinions even included .info and .co. I recommend sticking with the .com for this one reason. It looks like it is the official site.
#2 — Buy the “.com” and the other extensions
If all 3 are available, I recommend buying them all to eliminate the competition and just forward all to the .com site. Do I own .org and .net sites that have ranked? Yes and I have even ranked them in the #1 position on the first page of Google for that exact keyword term, but Google is changing the way the algorithms crawl and this is becoming more difficult to accomplish. My suggestion is to stick with the .com domains.
#3 — Only dopes use dashes
I recommend not using hyphens (a.k.a. dashes) in your domain name. While they may not do you harm, there are significant drawbacks to putting the “-” symbol in your domain.
Often the searcher forgets to add them or adds them in the wrong space. When that happens, you have just given your potential free traffic and attention to more than likely your competitor.
#4 – Have one possible spelling
Just don’t do it. Act like you have a brain and use correct spellings even though most people are poor spellers.
#5 — Yo, avoid slang dawg
What works in a shortened text message should not be used as a domain name. Don’t use slang. Don’t use “u” for “you” or anything else you’d do in a text message.
#6 — Be easily understood
Don’t go for cutesy domain names unless you have high dollar advertising budgets. Leave that to the big boys like Amazon, Godaddy, etc. You should pick keyword domains that convey what people are searching for.
#7 — Don’t be a jerk
Unless you want to have a court judgement like John Zuccarinini avoid trademark infringing domain names at all cost.
#8 — Avoid numbers and characters
Just as if with slang, you should never use “4″ in place of “for” or “2″ for “to”. Unless a number is part of the name or is the keyword itself like in this keyword rich domain leave the short code for texting only.
#9 — Singular or plural?
Use this rule of thumb. Which sounds more natural? Use that unless your keyword research shows otherwise.
#10 — Exact-match domains are not required
Recently with the Panda updates and everything else, Google has devaluated the exact match domain because sites such as getmedicaladvice.com were giving lower value than WebMD. Call it spammers or whatever, but Google wants the experience for the user to be the very best. This is really a benefit to all. Write relevant quality content and you can rank without the exact match especially on an authority site like I have here with Empower Network.
11# — Does size really matter?
It is interesting that shorter domains do appear to rank higher maybe because they are easier to remember, say and type into the search engines.
#12 — Buy it now
This can be a costly lesson to learn. If you find a great domain and do not snatch it up immediately, you may live not only to regret it but it could cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Often when you come back later to purchase it, it is gone. I have even had ones bought out from under me when they were in my shopping cart before I could even check out. That really raises one’s blood pressure.
Stay tuned for future posts on how to use your blogging on Empower Network to drive quality back links to your niche sites. If you have not purchased this Empower Network blogging system yet, do so today.
How Authority Domain Sites Like Empower Network Are Able To Rank For Keywords
The power of a domain with the number of page views per day that Empower Network has is powerful. You can rank for keywords just by using your Empower Network domain name alone without another niche specific domain.