Your real estate domain name plays a crucial role in the overall branding strategy of your business. Choosing a domain name is not something that you should take for granted because it can have wider implications on your entire business.
Today we are going to share some tips that you should keep in mind when choosing your real estate business domain name. We’re also going to dispel some myths.
Domain Names Do Not Account For SEO (Sort Of)
It’s true. As of 2017 domain names do not hold any significant power in determining the rank of your website for a particular keyword.
So, why did we use the word “Sort Of” in our heading?
In order to truly understand how domain names impact your SEO and branding, you need to understand the history of Google algorithms.
A few years back, lots of professional marketers were snatching up exact keyword domain names.
An example of Exact Keyword domain name would be “housesforsaleintoronto.com”.
Digital marketers and web enthusiasts quickly found out that exact match keywords are way easier to rank in the top 3 position for that exact search query. Many people started creating lots of low quality websites using exact name domains hoping that they would rank for those keywords and they did.
Eventually Google took notice of the trend and rolled an algorithm update to target exact keyword domain names.
As of today, you can rank your website with pretty much any domain name. We suggest that you focus on your overall branding rather than going the SEO route. Do not compromise your domain name branding with the sole purpose of SEO in mind.
Do Not Use Hyphens In Your Name
Domain names that have a hyphen are much harder to remember and not ideal for branding. When you need to share your domain name on posters and banners it literally looks bad when you have a hyphen in your domain name.
Sometimes, you may be tempted to see if your ideal name is still available with a hyphen between them. Chances are, it will be. Take our advice and try to find another variation of your domain name.
Your SEO is not directly affected whether there is a hyphen or not.
Go with .com or the new generic TLD’s
.com and .realtor are what you call TLD’s (Top Level Domains) in the world of the Internet. .com should be your first priority since it’s the most common form of TLD.
The newly released .condos and .property is something that a lot of real estate brokers are using to secure an easy to remember domain name.
Examples: {your area name}.condos, {your target area}.property
Some of the TLD’s to avoid are .biz, .us, .org. These TLD’s will not rank well compared to other ones. Although Google will not publicly admit this, several tests from different digital marketers across various industries have proven that some TLD’s are associated with low quality websites and are at a disadvantage when it comes to ranking for certain keywords.
Do Not Go With Your Own Name (Unless your branding plan is crystal clear)
Personal branding is super tough and tricky to pull off, especially in the world of real estate. The biggest problem going with your own name is that you need to put in additional effort to rank it for generic keywords in your local area.
People are not going to enter your name unless you are a popular real estate agent. Having a real estate domain name with your name means that you need to treat it as a brand and generate lots of backlinks that will do some serious on-page optimization in order for the Google branding signals to kick in for related organic search terms.
Buy Old Domain Names At An Online Auction
Domain age plays a small role in determining how well your overall website will perform for local search results. If you can’t get any of your preferred names then it’s time to hire a domain broker.
Domain brokers help you score a domain name already taken by someone else. Often, people buy multiple domain names when they are brainstorming or starting a new company. Most of these domain names never get used and your domain broker helps you secure them through a secure escrow platform.
The owner sets their own price for selling the name. If it’s a premium one or two word name it can be expensive. However, if you are going local, chances are the broker can get a good deal for you.
Some websites to search for taken premium domain names