Do domain names play a part in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? The answer is yes. Your domain name is the starting point for your keywords. It is also your first golden anchored text link to your site.
But all the good generic keyword domains have gone you say. If you choose a domain name with words together like “Freshfish.com”, Google and other search engines cannot read the two different words. If the domain is hyphenated e.g. “Fresh-Fish.com”, then they can. This is good news for domain investors and businesses. Yes most of the good generic names have gone, but insert a hyphen and your path to page 1 domination is just starting.
Many domainers think hyphenated domain names have little value, but I disagree. Many are domain snobs and will only use certain extensions too. A quick example: I just typed ‘cars for sale’ into Google.co.uk. On page 1 was a site called ‘car-sales.org.uk’, this is hyphenated and has a frowned upon .org.uk extension. But they are still on page 1 of the SERPS and will be getting good traffic! I have also just type ‘one way link building’ into google.co.uk. At the time of writing the #1 site has this as its hyphenated domain name. Some say this is keyword domain spamming – but it seems to work and in SEO every little bit helps.
Common practice is to buy keyworded hyphenated domains and build links to that site. The site is then redirected with a Google friendly 301 redirect to the corporate branded domain name. This technique is also used to hide backlinks from competitors. You can also do this in reverse and redirect a branded domain name to your hyphenated keyworded name, which you would then carry out your SEO strategy on.
