Domain names

Wardy

Well-Known Member
I know this stuff has been mentioned before (hello Scotty) but I wanted an up to date answer (and I can't be bothered to search).

I'm thinking of a couple of off-shoot portfolio sites alongside my general illustration site.

Is it still important to include keywords in the domain name for search purposes? For instance, if I was looking at 'bookillustration.com', that's either going to be very expensive
or not available. If I stuck my name in front of it would that be better if it was a lot cheaper or does it make it less searchable? How does Google split the words up anyway, would I
come up in a lot of 'kill' searches for instance?!

How important is a .com? Any enquiries I get from outside the UK I tend to be too expensive for anyway, so should I stick to .co.uk or will this be worse for general Google searches?
What about different extensions? I saw a very good name but with .org, would that be worth it or would it be less likely to come up on searches?
 
Keywords in the domain name have very little value.

I’ve got .co.uk domains that rank well in America. It’s the content that matters more. Nothing wrong with .org but people still tend to gravitate to the .co.uk or .com when searching. You could get one of the many new tlds but people are a little wary of them still.
 
My main rules are:

1. Avoid hyphens is possible – they can be confusing and are a good way to send people to the original domain
2. Say it outloud – imagine you're telling someone the domain over the phone, does it sound long or confusing? Do you need to clarify the spelling of a word (for example specificying "write" instead of "right" or even "wright")?
3. Avoid awkward letter placements when conjoining words – I opted for studiocosmos over cosmosstudio becase it didn't read clearly when written down (unfortunately it sounds somewhat pretentious)
4. Stick with .com or .co.uk (or both if you can get them – avoid using fancy knew extensions unless you also have the .co.uk or .com (or both!) variant too. People still get confused and will try something like domain.agency.com
5.
Don't worry about keyword domains – bookillustrator.co.uk may be sought after as a domain but it's pretty bland and forgettable. I often find most domains with the perfect keyword phrase are severely lacking in other areas, namely the services they offer! Pick something that feels right for you.

Don't think so much about SEO and think more about the user experience – fast page load speed, clear and obvious hyperlinks, a logical site structure with easy to find content, etc, etc. This will eventually all trickle down into SEO.
 
fast page load speed, clear and obvious hyperlinks, a logical site structure with easy to find content

How does one know what to look for when choosing a Wordpress theme for example, for things like good hyperlinks, etc? Apologies if this is a stupid question.
 
Things to avoid:
1. Pretty much anything on themeforest (usually loaded with bloat).
2. Any theme that comes with a page builder
3. Themes that require you to install plugins before they work
4. Themes with sliders and hero images

Themes you should be investigating:
All of these: https://wordpress.org/themes/

Hyperlinks are the things you add yourself. It's how you build the site that matters. You could pretty much use any of the free themes and be OK.
 
Sorry, should have said, don't have time to search at the moment!

How did you get on doing your new site, Scotty, any tips?
 
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