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Is There Any SEO Benefit in Adding Keywords in Domain Names?

Choosing the right domain name for your business website is one of the most important decisions you will take. You must keep in mind many factors before you finalise a domain name. It is critical to choose the right domain name as it is one of the identifiers of your business. 

You can find more information from the blog post How to choose a domain name for your business website?

Is it important to choose a domain name with your target keywords in it? Is there any SEO benefit in adding keywords in domain names? Many business owners have this doubt, and we are going to discuss if there are any benefits to adding keywords in the domain names.

Possible SEO benefits

There have been many studies in the past that mentioned that adding keywords in your domain has many SEO benefits. In one of the articles published in Moz, they mention that adding keywords in the domain name has SEO benefits as it is one of the ranking factors.

Logical reasons are there that may strengthen the claim that keywords in domain name can have SEO benefits. When you have your keywords in your domain name, there are higher chances of users clicking on your domain during a web search.

Google says keywords in domain names aren’t needed

At the same time, Google has advised website owners that there are no benefits to adding keywords in domain names. Google’s John Mueller was asked if there are any SEO benefits in adding keywords in a domain name and his answer was a resounding NO.

Search algorithms of search engines have become smart, and they can easily identify that having keywords on a domain name can no way guarantee that the website content will be relevant to the keyword. There could be keywords in the domain name and the content could be completely unrelated to the keyword.

It means that Google contradicts what many studies in the past had unravelled. Also, this must make website owners understand that there are no SEO benefits in adding keywords to their domain name.

Things to remember if you want to add keywords in domain name

As there are no SEO benefits in adding keywords to domain names, business owners must always try to include their brand name in their domain names. Or else, if the keyword also happens to be a part of your brand name, then there are no issues in using it.

For example, this blog appears on a website with the domain name, seowitharavind.com. However, here the word ‘seo’ is not used because it’s a keyword that the website focuses on, but because it’s part of the brand name.

Many spam websites used to include keywords in their domain names earlier. Therefore, if you have keywords in domain names, search engines and users may doubt if it’s a spam website. So, if you are using a keyword in the domain name, then try to add content on the website on the keyword, so that the website appears to be a genuine one to the search engines and users.

If you must add keywords to your domain names, make sure you are not using hyphens to separate the keywords. That is another trick that spam websites used in the domain names earlier.

Conclusion

If you were under the impression that adding keywords in your domain name would bring SEO benefits, then now is the time to change your belief. Google has categorically made clear that there is no benefit in adding keywords to domain names. So, it is sensible to stick on to your brand names in domain names.

If you want to know more about adding keywords to your domain names or the relationship between domain names and search engine rankings, please contact me.