Open Arms Marketing Web Site Design and On-Line Marketing Services

One of the easiest and most effective things you can do to increase your SEO mojo (more SEO mojo means better rankings) is to use a domain name that has an exact match for your targeted keyword. Say for instance you sell bicycles. The best domain for you could be bicycle.com. Of course that domain is already taken as is all of the short, easy and common domains. So now what can you do? You may consider using one of the other domain extensions such as .net, .biz, .us or .co etc. For a keyword as common as bicycle, these domain extensions are more than likely also taken. But for other domains this may be an option. If you want to stick with a .com domain name then your choices become less, but you still have choices!

It’s now time to start checking for some variations of a .com domain name with the keyword bicycle in it. As I would quickly find this would not be an easy task! I should have used an example that was easier! Go to the openarms.co site and you will find a spot on the home page to check for domain name availability. I also use a keyword tool to give me ideas on variations and also show me the amount of searches a particular keyword or phrase receives each month. (more on the keyword tool to follow in a future article) after typing “bicycle” into the keyword tool I find other search terms such as bicycle shop. I then type in “bicycle shop” and receive even more ideas such as; the bicycle store, bicycles online, bicycle warehouse etc. Problem is the domain names with these phrases are already taken!

I still have a trick up my sleeve… the dash! I begin using a dash between words in my domain name. For example I check bicycle-shop.com. Already taken! This was a hard example, but I am determined to find a suitable domain. Using a dash is a great way to open up additional possibilities and the dash does not affect the search engine rankings at all. After several more attempts I arrive at what looks to be a winner. the-bicycle-store.com is not taken and has a high search rate. In fact, this term is searched on google alone 1.2 million times a month. Plus it has a low competition rate, which means there are not a ton of other sites competing for this key phrase.

Many of you may already have a domain name in place. It probably is not a good option for you to replace this domain, but at the low cost of domains you can aquire a second domain name and forward it to your main domain (make sure the forward is done correctly to avoid duplicate content penalties). When creating backlinks use this secondary domain in your link when it makes sense.

Will this instantly put you on the top of the Google search results? Probably not, but for the effort required is holds a lot of SEO value. You see getting to the top of google’s search results, especially for high competition keywords, takes a combination of efforts. Keyword matching domain names are a great start and should be considered whenever it makes sense for you and your business.