Rank Higher on Search Engines with a keyword-rich domain name.
Your website’s domain name should be an integral part of your search engine optimization strategy. Google and other search websites will look at your website address – the domain name – and use it to rank your site in their search results. That’s why a keyword-rich domain name should be one of your first steps in creating a real estate niche or neighbourhood website.
So, what domain should you pick? How to decide?
PRO TIP #1: Domains should always cost less than $15 per year. If you’re paying more than that, shop elsewhere. Look to Godaddy.com or 10dollar.ca for low-cost domain registrar options.
When considering which domain to buy for a farm-area website:
- It doesn’t have to be catchy or clever.
People will be finding you through a web search, not because they’re typing your domain name into the address bar of their web browser. - Shorter is better, but don’t force it to be overly short.
Keyword use is more important than brevity. - Add a descriptor to your domain name that clarifies non-unique names.
Town names are not as unique as you’d expect! For example, Kitsilano is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, and it’s unique to Vancouver. “Brentwood,” however, is a very common name, so you may want to pair that neighbourhood with the name of the town that it’s in.
For your business card (personal/generic) website, it’s very normal to pick “your own name dot com,” but for this targeted website, your name is less important than your niche.
When purchasing a domain name, choose something descriptive that includes your website’s keywords.
Here are the steps to purchase a domain:
- Pick a domain registrar that you like.
Godaddy.com and 10dollar.ca are reputable registrars. - Refer to your list of website niche ideas/keywords.
Use the domain registrar to review available domain names. Many registrars suggest alternatives if your first choice is already taken. - Make a shortlist of available domains you like.
Ideal domains are short and descriptive. Your choices can be as simple as just the name of the community, and/or you can add the keywords “condos,” “townhouses,” “houses,” “real estate” to your domain. There can be dashes. You can add a “my” or “your” or “the” to the start of the domain.
If you are considering buying an alternate domain extension, double check the site at the .com address. If .com isn’t available, you may also purchase a different extension, such as .net or .ca. However, if the .com belongs to a local competing website, consider choosing a domain name that is slightly different.
Purchase only one domain – and only for one year.
There’s no need to buy hosting or anything other than simply registering your chosen domain for one year. Remember that it should cost less than $15.
PRO TIP #2: Owning more than one domain pointed to a single site does NOT improve your search engine optimization.
The only benefit to buying more than one domain for a single website is to prevent others from buying it. For example, owning the same domain name with .com, .ca, .net, etc extensions. This wards off copycats, but won’t improve your search engine rankings.
PRO TIP #3: It’s not just the words used in the domain that search engines take note of, it’s also how long your domain has been registered for.
I would recommend starting out by buying your domain for one year. This gives you the opportunity to research your niche firsthand. If this target works for you, you’ll have the opportunity to renew your purchase at the one year mark, and extend your ownership for another few years (up to 10 in total).
Now that you’ve got a domain, it’s time to gather the content BEFORE you start the real estate website build. This will make the website creating go a LOT faster… which means you’ll go live sooner, and get traffic flowing to your farm area website sooner.