Brand Name vs. Search-Term Domain

One of the major decisions when initially creating a website is the domain name. The two general approaches are either a search-matched domain name or a brand-centric name. Search-matched domains have search related keywords in the name itself while brand-centric approaches typically use the company name as the domain name. We’ll discuss the benefits of each and help you decide the best approach.

Let’s create a pretend company named Delicate Creations that sells jewelry in Chicago. Let’s say we did some research and found that people searching the internet for this type of service typically use “Chicago jewelry”. We could choose to create a search-matching domain or use the company name and create a brand. Assuming we’re not limited to a domain choice for a local business, then combining a geographic location with a service or product works well. The address www.chicagojewelry.com is sure to get noticed for that search phrase. In this example, since the domain name matches a target search, the website will see a bump to their search results. This is because there is relevance in the URL to the search. There any many such factors the search engines evaluate when returning search results and since this is only one component, the benefits may taper off long-term.

There may also be some negative effects of choosing a search-matching domain name. Savvy internet customers may see those names as an blatant attempt at advertising. In addition, if a customer wants to branch out to other products or services the domain name should still be relevant. Perhaps the biggest impact of a exact match domain is the inability to create a branding with your website address since your website address and company name have nothing in common.

The alternative is to work with a brand as the domain choice. This typically means using the company name as the domain name. Doing so creates a brand that customers can associate with and they can use again and again to find your webpage and your company. Some of the largest brand-names have nothing at all to do with their products. Names like Nike immediately make you think of sneakers, but the name itself isn’t associated with any product. In addition, a popular approach is to use keyword-friendly URLs on internal pages to keep relevant in searches. A URL like anystore.com/archery-targets-nyc can both retain a brand name as well as cater to the search engines.

Using a brand specific name is likely what most businesses would rather do. Creating a brand image is very important in today’s long-term marketplace. However, often the benefits of choosing a matching domain are too obvious to ignore. More and more people find companies on the internet and the URL is not often the most scrutinized element. More times than not, however, the perfect domain name choice isn’t available. This can often limit your ability to choose a geography or keyword-rich domain name without having it be long or difficult to read. In the end, you want a domain name choice to suit your customers goals and needs.

What do Headers do?

Headers are intended to provide structure on a webpage.  Typically, the most important items on a webpage are the largest and most obvious. H1 tags, or Header1 tags, are an HTML term used to indicate the most prominent text or image on a page.  These are followed by other H tags, H2 through H6. These tags ordered from most important to least. These are not only important from an SEO perspective, they also make the page easy to read. An great analogy would be a newspaper.  Important things, like the papers title or front-page feature, is the most obvious.  Other article titles might be H2, then maybe a subtitle as H3, and then finally the article text which is usually handled with a ‘p’ or ‘paragraph’ tag. Google expects a webpage to be laid out with a series of headers that makes sense to the reader.  Contact the New Jersey SEO Firm. for more information.H1 Tags: An SEO Guide

But, is it OK to have multiple H1 tags on a single page?

This is a contested topic among SEO professionals.  Some will argue that it’s fine to include multiple H1 tags on a page, within reason.  Others will insist that only one, the most important element, should exist. One thing that they agree on is that abusing H1 tags will definitely get a webpage penalized by Google and Bing.  So creating multiple H1 tags on a page for the purpose of trying to improve ranking is definitely frowned upon.  In 2009, Google made a statement that multiple H1 tags on a page are not a problem as long as kept within reason. For example, look at WordPress.  It’s widely accepted to be a great web platform for SEO. Their default theme, Twenty Eleven, creates two H1 tags by default; one for the site title and one for the page or post title. That’s a pretty clear message that having two on the page is not a problem. Of course, just to throw things off, Bing recommends only one per page.

Should I use H1 tags on images?

Often well-ranking websites utilize these tags. Bing suggests that all H1 tags are text only. So, it doesn’t appear as if using H1 tags as part of images is a huge problem, but should be avoided when possible.  If they truly appear to be a prominent part of the page then a Header1 tag may be a sensible approach.  However, typically it’s preferred to leave H1 tags to the title of a page or post, and leave images without them. This is because the same image, whether it be a logo or other image is displayed on multiple pages. SEO specialists may want to use a unique H1 tag on every page from an SEO strategy perspective, and not repeat the same phrase multiple times.  This is much easier to achieve by reserving the H1 tag for text.  One could, however, choose to use two H1 tags on the page, one on the logo and one for the title.  However, since the logo appears at the top of the page it would be evaluated first.

How much SEO benefit will I get from using Header tags?

Tags are proven to help gain positive search results and on-page search engine optimization. On-page SEO only goes so far. However, if your only means of promoting a website is organic, on-page SEO, then page layout and tags are the most important factors. In this scenario, designers would certainly want to take advantage of whatever tools are at their disposal.

What have we covered?

H1 tags are certainly important to the search engines. Of equal importance is that they make pages readable and accesible. They break a webpage down into sections that catch the eye. Also true is that Google and Bing both disapprove of abusing H1 tags on a page. So, while there appears to be no penalty for using two, it’s typically recommended to use only one. Using an H1 tag is a great way to focus the reader and the engines to a page’s purpose. These can also be kept different from the page title since this is also considered by Google (and the reader). Using this method, when Google and Bing evaluate a page, developers can create unique keyword phrases in both places and take advantage of as much on-page SEO as possible.