Experiments & Expressions

I often receive questions about “good” real estate domain names. Here are a few of the key topics:

• Short domain name or long domain name?
• Company name or descriptive, city keyword-laden names?
• One domain or multiple domains?

I will share my point of view on these domain questions. My goal here is to help you to understand a bit of marketing strategy, business planning, and search engine optimization when it comes to buying domain names.

Domain Information: Getting Started

Domain name

A unique name that corresponds to a computer (i.e., web server) on the Internet. Examples are google.com, yahoo.com, and ungos.com.

Purchasing a domain

You can purchase a domain through a domain registrar such as GoDaddy.

Domain costs

Buy domains for 10 U.S. dollars or less. Anything more is a rip off.

Web hosting

Buying a domain doesn’t automatically give you a website. You need to purchase both web space for your website (hosting) and a domain name. Some services will bundle these. Be sure to know what you’re getting.

On to the questions…

Short domain, long domain?

As a rule of thumb, short is better. A short domain name is easier to remember, less likely to be misspelled, and can fit easily into both print and online marketing pieces. Regarding SEO, domain names play a very limited role. The length of a domain name, for search engine optimization, is trivial.

Company name, keyword-laden name?

Both. For people that know your company, you definitely want to have your-company-name-dot-com. Web surfers will assume you have a website and guess your website’s domain. So if you are First Rate Real Estate, try to get both FirstRateRealEstate.com and FirstRate.com.

A keyword-laden domain such as your-city-name.com is even more important. It can be used for marketing your site to buyers and sellers that know your area, but do not know you. City domain names are also more susceptible to viral marketing. This may even include links from your competitors!

And what about SEO? Don’t worry about it. Good content and good inbound links play a more significant role with search engines.

One domain, multiple domains?

One domain is obviously much easier to manage. However, multiple domains can open various marketing opportunities. You can place dot-com newspaper ads for specific townships or subdivisions. You could even have a unique domain for each of your listings. You could then hang the unique website as sign riders.

Note: Be aware of the dangers of duplicate content.

The Best Real Estate Domain

With all that said, there is no perfect domain name. By now many of the really good ones like SeattleRealEstate.com have been taken. Notice that they’re not currently in the top 10 for “seattle real estate” searches. The most important thing is to get started. Buy a domain. Setup your website. Market it like crazy. And while you’re at it, get more!