Is the domain name still important?

Domain names are associated with many advantages and disadvantages. Exactly matching domain names like schoenenkopen.nl (example) could be sold for many thousands of Euros in 2010. In fact, this was an important factor for ranking in search engines like Google. However, in recent years this influence has changed and its value has also decreased compared to before. Nevertheless, domain names are important, which we will explore in this blog post.

Domain names are less important

Domain names that are precisely aligned with a particular search term or service are no longer considered as valuable by Google itself as they once were. As recently as 2011, a Google software engineer confirmed that domain names play an important role in search engine rankings. However, in the same interview, he also pointed out that this value will be determined differently in the future. Moreover, a mixture of other signals will be used.

This can be seen, for example, in the large Dutch party Coolblue. It first became big in the Dutch market with a huge mix of exactly matching domain names. You couldn't think of anything crazy when it came to home appliances, electronics and more, or there was a domain name for it that led you to Coolblue. However, nowadays and for some time, this is no longer the case and the main domain name is coolblue.nl. The value of quantity and exact match is now better when you focus on 1 main domain name. On which you can establish your brand.

Also, fewer domains are directly surfed or even clicked on via homepages. Pay attention to this yourself or take a look at your browsing history. There will only be a handful of domain names that you go to directly. The rest of your browsing behavior is further determined by social media, search engines, and the ads you see on those platforms. If you work in IT yourself, you may not notice this shift right away, but take a look at a less tech-savvy acquaintance or family member. These, of course, make up the bulk of Internet users.

Domain names are important

Domain names are still important, however, as they serve as the address for your business or website. Without a domain name, you would have to enter an IP address to reach your website hosting. Obviously, this is not desirable for websites that need to be found. If it is not the darknet.

A domain name can also look professional, be related to the theme of your website and thus provide a pleasant user experience for your visitors. All this is a positive signal for Google as well. If your domain name contains a lot of strange characters or spelling mistakes, it can look unprofessional and provide your users with a less pleasant experience. Therefore, domain names should be shorter, correspond to the content of your website and not contain strange characters that are hard to remember. For a freelance website, this is often circumvented by using your own name as the domain name, but technically it still matches the content of the website. Because you're trying to sell yourself and your services.

If we take a search as an example, we can consider the following search term: Cafetiere coffee
Here we can see the following domain names and search results
.

Here we see a number of similar things, we see several websites using affiliate or content marketing to inform you about the best ways to make coffee with the device. Results for choosing the best for you and a party that everyone is familiar with. Bol.com to buy your coffee maker right now. Here I see in my personal search results that the domain name "bestekoffiezetapparaten.nl" is in fourth place and "koffiekwaliteit.nl" is in first place. So where the theory is true, the practice is also true. However, Google takes into account more than 200 factors to determine which website is placed where. So always make sure you don't focus too much on one factor. But do your best to serve the search term as well as possible.

How do you choose your domain name?

To make sure your domain name choice is well thought out, ask yourself the following questions.

What content do I want to put on the site?

What names are out there and how does my competition handle them?

Can I easily transfer the domain name over the phone?

Make a list of possible domain names and go directly to MijnHostingPartner.nl to register your domain name in real time. You can also see right away if it is still available; if after entering you see domain transfer as the only option, unfortunately it has already been registered by another party.

Register your domain name now and launch your website!