A search engine result page (SERP) is the list of links you see when you query on any searched keyword or phrase into Google, Bing, or other search engines. Higher ranked places are displayed first on SERPs; therefore, having a good SEO rank means getting more clicks and more sales.
Many people think that their website ranks well because they have a lot of backlinks on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. They share it with friends or followers, and their websites have some unique, appealing web design elements.
But if this is not the case, they wonder, what causes their website to be highly ranked? The answer lies in understanding the components of SEO ranking factors. It has been seen that domain names play an important role in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking factors.
Understanding How SEO Works
Domain names and website ranks work hand-in-hand to help you drive traffic to your products and services. When people search for products or services online, they use keywords such as “cameras” or “car insurance.”
The search engine looks through all of the pages with that keyword. Then, it gets a list of URLs with the most relevant results for you. Now businesses need to know how domain names determine their presence in SERPs for multiple reasons:
- First, a domain name helps build credibility and authority by establishing a product or service offering as an ‘online entity.’
- Secondly, people can easily find your website by typing the domain name into the browser’s address bar instead of typing in a complicated URL. This is because the domain name is shorter and easier to remember.
- Lastly, a domain name helps with search engine rankings. Search Engines prefer authoritative and trustworthy sites. They want to ensure that their users get reasonable prices, good service, and more. This is where they can use keyword-rich domain names to help boost the SEO ranks of their website.
A Deep Dive into the Role of Domain Names in SEO Ranking Factors
Search engines rank websites higher when relevant to the words or phrases people type. If you have keywords in your domain name, it will help your SEO rankings. But some search engines do not let you use keywords in a domain name, so that might not work.
Messing up is not good. Google does not recommend using a keyword-rich domain because it is bad. It makes people think that they will find more information on the site, but they will not find anything.
Google does not like websites with keywords because when people use automated software to create spam links, the backlinks are bad.
Another reason for its crackdown on these domains is the high number of spammy websites that often use generic domain names with hidden keywords to trick search engines for high rankings.
How Do Keyword-Rich Domains Rank Higher in SERP?
Now that we have established that having keywords in a domain name can increase website ranking let’s clearly understand how it works.
Google uses the keyword meta tag as one of the main ranking factors for its search results. When you type any query into Google’s search bar, it searches through indexed data on web pages. It decides which ones are highly relevant to your destination URL, the page you want users to browse after clicking on your result.
There are many reasons people recommend using the right keywords in H1 tags. The words are bolded and in large font, making it seem like the content is relevant to your keywords.
So what exactly happens when you type any query into Google? It goes through the list of words present within indexed pages and ranks them by finding out which one appears most often. The more times a keyword appears in indexed pages, the higher it’s rank.
If your website has a high ranking for specific keywords, people are searching for those phrases often. SEO companies will take this into account when optimizing sites.
This is where having keywords in the domain name becomes essential. If you use the right keywords, more people will find your website by searching for it directly on a search engine.
Does Having Keywords in Domain Name Help SEO?
So, does having keyword in domain name help SEO? Having keywords within a domain name has its benefits, but it is not a silver bullet that will guarantee high rankings on search engines. Exact match keywords can help improve your website’s ranking, but this depends on other factors like your website’s backlinks and how old it is. The “niche” is the specific industry where the website operates.
Google wants to show its users websites that are useful to them. That’s why the company works hard to eliminate spammy content from its search results. If it finds any chances of manipulating data, its algorithm also filters them out.
Search engines have a type of list to show people when they are looking for something. They rank websites higher if they are easy to use and have good content.
Conclusion
Now that you know the basics of keyword domains, it is up to you to decide if you want to use them. You can also think about what kind of domain name should have keywords.
If you are starting a new website in any industry, it is helpful to have the keywords for that industry in your domain name. But if you already have a website with a generic domain name, there is no need to change it unless it becomes available.
If you are not getting good results from your strategy of ranking websites, it is time to get help from experts who know Google’s latest algorithms.