For example, if you sell hand-painted china, www.hand-painted-china would be an excellent choice since you are trying to attact people who are looking for your product. Conversely, www.handpaintedchina.com would be okay, but less desirable, since most people who search for hand painted china will put spaces in between the words that are the target of their search. However, including hyphens in your domain name seems to be of diminishing importance as search engine technology evolves, so your primary consideration should be to use a domain name that is easy for your customers to remember that matches your branding.
The decision to change your domain name should not be taken lightly. If your website has been out there for several years already, changing your domain name can actually hurt you in the end because the search engines typically include an aging factor in their algorithms so that an older domain could well have better ranking power than a newer one.
Any domain name registration service will provide a lookup tool you can use to see which domain names are available.
More DIY SEO Tips in this Series
- DIY SEO Tip 1 - Select the right keywords
- DIY SEO Tip 3 - Use keywords in file names and folders
- DIY SEO Tip 4 - Use your keywords in your page titles
- DIY SEO Tip 5 - Use keyword text in your navigation
- DIY SEO Tip 6 - Create useful keyword content - repeat often
- DIY SEO Tip 7 - Make keywords part of your META Description
- DIY SEO Tip 8 - Secure high quality incoming links
- DIY SEO Tip 9 - Use keyword text (not "click here") in your links
- DIY SEO Tip 10 - Create a site map
