Written by Phil Chow

This post follows up on my post of April 17, 2013, How to create the right domain name/web address for your business in five easy steps.

In that post I discussed how to create the right domain name/web address for your business by combining your business name with keyword(s) that describes what your business does.

Google’s advice on creating the right domain name

In the video below, Matt Cutts of Google Webmasters (opens in a new window) answers how important is it to have keywords in your domain name.

He suggests going with your business name only as your domain name where possible, as you can then brand your name to people. He cites, for example, Facebook is a famous brand that doesn’t have any keywords in its domain name, Facebook.com.

Towards the end of the video, he points out Google now places less weight on keywords in a domain name as a criteria for search ranking.

What does this mean for you?

The key take away from Matt’s video is that a keyword only domain name will no longer give you a favorable search ranking in Google.

Combining keywords with a business name as a domain name

So is it okay to combine your business name with keywords?  Matt addresses this at the 1.24 to 1.38 mark of the video. He said there maybe an advantage “depending on what your goals are”, but he adds he still favors a domain name only containing a business name where possible.

My take on this

My take on this is to create two domain names: one containing only your business name and another that combines your business with keywords associated with your business. That way you “hedge your bets”.

Having a business name only domain name covers you if your business ever becomes well known worldwide 🙂 or at least in the areas that your business serves.

And having a domain name that combines your business name with keyword(s) covers you for any possible advantage that Matt suggests above. It also covers you for people who type in keywords related to your business into Google or any other search engine as they search for your business.

What is your take?   If you have any comments or questions, please reply below.  We welcome your feedback!