How important are URLs these days? There was once a time when exact match domains were a great influence on search engine rankings. If your URL contained the exact keywords people were searching on Google, you were almost guaranteed a page 1 listing, if not no. 1 altogether. But nowadays, with Google changing its algorithms, are well-optimised URLs a necessity or do they just look nice?
With these continuous changes from Google, a lot of website owners are understandably confused about where their URL stands in terms of getting good traffic flowing through on a regular basis. Well, in short, the perfect URL isn’t quite the must-have it used to be.
Google are now aware that websites are being built in a way merely to manipulate search results, not providing any value to users who have searched for those particular keywords in a genuine attempt to find useful information on said subjects. Aware that serious website owners have a goal to provide high quality content to users, Google are now focussing on such, and URL structures are therefore not as influential.
So, before you spend £2500, and hours of your time labouring over the perfect combination of words to make up the most successful domain name you can think of that will boost your rankings and have users flooding to your website in their hoards, stop and ask yourself: will it make a difference?
The cat and mouse game of search engine optimisation (SEO) is pushing URLs further and further from search rankings. In fact, the vast majority of traffic to your website is now coming from long tail words. These account for over a whopping 80% of searches on Google. Targeting all of your long tail keywords in your URL would not only be impossible but also foolish to try and attempt – so we wouldn’t recommend that approach either!
Long tail keywords do have better conversion and click-through rates however, and as such it’s easier to rank them over shorter keywords which usually create more traffic individually. So, it’s critical that the written content of your website is well considered, bumping up your SEO. That doesn’t mean just having interesting written content – although that will help keep visitors on your page once they have landed – but having well written content: words that have been carefully selected and crafted with bumping up your visitor count firmly in mind. If writing isn’t your forte, we would recommend looking into hiring a copywriter to take care of this for you. Some web designers and developers offer this as an extra service, or sometimes included in your web design package. Otherwise, sole freelance copywriters are readily available and more affordable than you think.
Some website owners are even asking if dot com domains are as important now, especially considering recent gTLDs which are being said to improve your rankings. So, do you need to be buying every possible version of a domain to capitalise on the situation? The answer is no, even this won’t have as much weight as your site’s content.
If you’re looking for a team to help build you a successful website, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the contact form below. We’re always happy to chat.