A domain name is the address of your website, for example: www.websites.co.uk. Many people request a ‘short and snappy’ domain name like the one above, one which will be easy to remember and quick to type in. However, while it is important to keep domain names fairly concise, it is far more important to create a domain name which is keyword rich, i.e. one which contains popular search terms which your potential customers will type into Google in order to find a relevant service provider. Remember, very few of your customers will be typing in the domain name letter by letter; rather, they will search for you through Google then click on the link which appears.
The domain name is a really important place to have keywords, as it is one of the places in which Google searches for keywords first. Therefore, two sites with well optimised content (i.e. containing many keyword phrases) will both have a high chance of being picked up on by Google, but a site with a great keyword phrase and a location in the domain name, e.g. www.websitewritinginkent.co.uk would very likely rank higher than www.websites.co.uk.
Many of your company’s existing customers will contact you by telephone or email without needing to view your site, as they will already be aware of the services you provide. New customers who have been recommended to you by a friend will likely type in your company name into Google. Other new customers will likely type in a service, e.g. ‘home decorators’ and a location e.g. ‘Brighton’ into Google.
Bearing these facts in mind, it makes the most sense to create a domain name for your business which contains your company name, a key service and your catchment area. We usually advise people to have at least two of these three facets in their domain name in order to maximise the chances of a high Google ranking whilst keeping your domain name a reasonable length. So www.websitewritinginkent.co.uk would be a highly effective domain name.
