Seo considerations when choosing a business name

[stevon]

Hello there,
I have a question open to discussion;

When choosing a business name what SEO considerations should be made?

Example - would it be better to have a targeted geographic name (Manchester Auto Body Repairs) to a unique 'brand' name say Autotailsol as an alternative.

Am I right in my thinking that it would perhaps be easier to obtain coverage on the search engines for a portmanteau word such as "autotailsol"?

However, would the benefits of this be outstripped by having a more targeted "ronseal - does what it says on the tin" name which I can only assume with a relevant domain name would be picked up easier?

Or would compensating by having references to "Autotailsol - a Manchester auto body repair specialist" or something to that effect balance this out?

I don't know if there's a definitive answer to this question but I'm interested to hear schools of thought from those who know far more about the intricacies of SEO and would appreciate anything you can point me in the direction of in terms of evidence/research/articles on this.

Cheers,
Stephen​

 

[Shopclicks]

Hi Stephen. The domain name you choose will have little bearing on how your site ranks, if you get all of your on-page site structure and content structure right.
However, choosing a domain name that is both unique (branded) and says something about the service or product you offer is an advantage. That's going to identify your site as relative to the search query and encourage the user to click on your search result.

EMD's (exact match domains), can restrict what users associate your website with, if you wanted to offer different products or services at a later stage.

A branded website may not identify you as relative to the search query for the user and you may be skipped over in favour of a site that says what it does.

If you can find a domain name that strikes a balance between the two, you give yourself a better chance of capturing the users you are targeting. Ideally, you create a theme from your major keyword/search term which runs throughout the site, from the domain name and the meta title/description through to your landing page and call to action.

So in a nutshell, the seo value of the domain name is negligible, it's more about whether users find it relevant/useful and about the site structure and content quality/structure of the site.
Good Luck!

 

[InFront Digital]

When it comes to issues like this, picking with your target audience in mind is a good place to start. Have a look at your nearest rivals and see what they have opted to do also.

 

[RobertScott]

Hi Stephen,

The days of exact match domains ranking easier than branded names are fast disappearing. Unless it's a very low competition keyword.

In my opinion I'd stick with something branded that people will remember. One thing you need to consider is over optimising the exact match domain if you decide to use SEO in your marketing budget.

A good seo professional will use the brand/business name in the inbound links to the site and in the case of using for example "manchesterautobodyrepair.com" you will have a lot of anchor text using that same phrase/keywords. The name of the business will likely be in your title tag "Manchester Auto Body Repair" and it's in your domain name. That's an over-optimistaion penalty waiting to happen.

Stick with something that's catchy or easy to remember and then some good on page/technical seo can help you optimise for the keyword related to yous business. You don't need "Manchester2 in the domain to tell Google that's a relevant area. Use your title tags, content, images, local schema markup etc to tell Google what the site does and which area you serve.

Hope that helps. Feel free to PM if you need some advice.

Kind regards
Robert

 

[fisicx]

Even better, choose a domain name that is generic. If you business changes over time from body repairs to pimp my ride services you don't need to get a new domain, all you would need to do is tweak the site contents.

 

[Paul Murray]

Pick something branded, short and memorable, alongside a domain a customer can easily recite to a friend over a phone call (avoid hyphens and numbers if possible to make it easier to understand phonetically).

Personally I find a lot of EMDs come across as spammy, and they can actually lead to confusion in some cases (it's expected the domain name to match or link to the business name in some way).

Pick a name you're happy with, develop a strong marketing strategy, please your customers and build a trusted brand.

 

[websensejim]

Brand wins over keyword every time. Pick something short, memorable, and easy to pronounce (can't be misheard or misunderstood).

 

[UKSBD]

I can't see anywhere in the OP where he mentions domain name

Nothing to stop you using a brand name for your Business Name and then using other names for different purposes (provided you're not doing it to mislead)

 

[StevePoster]

When selecting business name it should be optimized for the targeted audience (most of the time within the conversation from related active online community) along with your keyword and easy to recognize but as much as possible unique or interesting.