• SEO Book , Monday, October 6, 2008 2:15 PM

Aaron Wall gets into domaining, noting the top three factors to think of when choosing a name -- brand, rankability and linkability.

Branding means choose a name that's easy to remember, and search for. "It is easier to build links to branded domain names," he says. "People take these names more seriously [than] keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword.com, which looks spammy and isn't fooling anyone." The downside to choosing a branded domain is that it will likely be more expensive to own and to drive paid search traffic to.

Meanwhile, rankability and linkability come in next, and are tied to the keywords within your domain name. "Take your chosen keyword, and simply add another word on the end," Wall says. Think SeoBook, Travelocity and Citysearch. "These words have SEO value built into them, because people are forced to use your keywords in the link," he says. "Also, Google (currently) values a keyword within the domain name for ranking purposes. Finally, such a name retains an element of unique branding."

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