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When choosing a new domain name for a project, how do you decide if you should use SEO-focused keywords in the name, or if you should pick something that is more brandable?

Let's assume that any of the domains you would want are available.

In my specific case, I'm planning to start a new blog about tips for getting more web traffic. Would you go with a domain like "traffic-tips" (all keywords), "traffic-tangerine" (keywords + brandability) or "gatejumper" (all branding). Note that these domains aren't actual considerations for my project, but I'm just listing them for examples.

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Thanks for all the great answers everybody! I'll be using a more "brandable" name for my new project, although the domain name does have a keyword in it. More on that shortly... – Corbett♦ Dec 20 at 0:41

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This is a great question! This was one of my main concerns when I was pondering which domain to choose for my latest "nomad couch" project. I chose brandability. Why? Let's see.. From the NC project point of view:

  • I wanted a domain name that's short and easy to remember and brandable
  • While the domain name I chose doesn't really give that much clue about the site's content, it can be rather easily understood with a brief introduction (i.e. "Sit on our couch and we'll talk about your nomadic entrepreneurship/business") -> it's a case study site and contains a lot of interviews
  • Like Kenn said, there's a lot other ways to do SEO, so I'll focus more on those (post headlines, backlinks, good site structure, and so forth.)
  • I didn't want the domain name to be too generic. I would hate it if I would have chosen something like "DigitalBusinessCaseStudies.com" or similar. (I did actually register lipcasestudies.com and thought I'd use that, but I dropped it. Don't really like it.)

While I (in most cases) value branding over SEO domain, there are a few exceptions. If I would be selling a spesific product, let's say an e-book product that aswers some spesific question (i.e. "how to raise a disciplined husky herd"),THEN I would definately try to choose a SEO domain. Later, (if needed) I could also start blogging about the subject and do all the other SEO tricks out there. But just from the product selling angle in this case, I would start with a SEO domain name.

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Branding, definitely. People need to remember the domain name in order to find the site, send you email, or anything else. You've got plenty of other SEO opportunities in the rest of your URLs, not to mention in the actual content.

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It depends on what you want the site to do. If you are intending to sell products and get your traffic via SEO, PPC or media buys - then you want something more keyword driven. The person looking to buy off SEO or PPC traffic isn't looking for branding in an eCommerce store.

If you are looking to build a long term brand - with social aspects, advertising, etc - than having that catchy brand name is going to be more important.

Do some research in your niche and see what sites are ranking well for keywords. See if and where they are advertising. It's always best to test as well. Buy 2 domains and send some traffic to both (via PPC) and see which converts better.

Hope that helps

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I definitely agree with Greg - if you are building a more retail oriented business with specific products, then a keyword domain might be more useful in terms of SEO, type-in traffic, and building trust with a customer (i.e., a customer is more likely to buy a bedroom set from bedroomsets.com than corbettsbedroomemporium.com).

I did this for my main project right now and it's a lesson I learned from a company I used to work for that has hundreds of niche retail sites, including dutchovens.com. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.

If you are developing a content rich project such as a blog, I believe branding is more important to make it stand out. The name "Free Pursuits" first drove me to Corbett's blog because it was so interesting.

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If the project allows for it I would do both. There are many variables as to whether or not this is possible but I have many different sites using keywords, branding and both.

So when you take your one project (tips for getting more web traffic) and are only using one domain for the project I would utilize keyword only. Not only will this complement the project but will also lead to great content for the blog in choosing the domain name to get more web traffic.

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