Domain Names and Google Search Engine Ranking

You need to choose your domain name very carefully if you want to ensure that your Web site ranks high among search results and if you want to avoid being excluded altogether from Google results.

In their site-ranking criteria, Google now gives higher ranking to Web pages for which a search keyword is part of the domain name as well as in the third-level domain name. Some of the implications for domain names are:

1. If possible, include the most important keywords that define your company in your domain name.

2. Use of secondary domain names as a doorway to specific pages will increase. The new demand for keyword domain names will boost the demand for domain-name leasing. This will, in turn, put upward pressure on leasing rates and domain-name prices.

3. Since keyword-based ranking is blind to a domain name’s extension, the value of extensions other than dot-com will rise, as will leasing demand for active domain names with keywords that have considerable traffic.

4. There will be an increase in the use of third-level domain names such as appraisal.DomainMart.com, escrow.DomainMart.com, and so forth, where “appraisal” and “escrow” are keywords.

Google’s algorithm also ranks more favorably search keywords in an Internet address’ directory name and file name. As with domain names, a hyphen to visually separate the keywords is not necessary, as the algorithm looks only at the string of characters.

On the other hand, Google's SafeSearch feature, designed to filter out links to Web sites with adult content, completely blocks Websites that have adult words imbedded in them, according to a study by CNET.com and a report by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

SafeSearch marked as unsafe for children PartsExpress.com, an audio, video, and speaker components Website; JewishSussex.com, a religious Web site; EssexCountyBeeKeepers.org of Topsfield, Mass.; BluesExcuse.SouthBurnett.com.au, an Australian blues band's site; BassExpert.com; and the Anglo-Saxon history site RomansInSussex.co.uk.

The Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society reported last week that SafeSearch excludes many innocuous Web pages from search-result listings. The thousands of nonpornographic sites that are excluded include The Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography. News sites take a hit too, with articles from Fox News, Wired News, The Baton Rouge Daily News, and some Web logs affected.

SafeSearch can be enabled or disabled through a preferences page. The feature uses a proprietary algorithm that analyzes the pages and classifies them as safe or unsafe for children.

If your site is blocked and does not have a "robots.txt" file, which is designed to limit automated Web crawlers in various ways, you should first contact Google. If you are unable to satisfactorily resolve the issue, then contact us.

1. “A method for scoring a document, comprising: identifying a document; obtaining one or more types of history data associated with the document; and generating a score for the document based on the one or more types of history data.”

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of history data includes domain-related information corresponding to domains associated with documents; and wherein the generating a score includes: analyzing domain-related information corresponding to a domain associated with the document over time, and scoring the document based, at least in part, on a result of the analyzing.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the scoring the document includes: determining whether the domain associated with the document is legitimate, and scoring the document based, at least in part, on whether the domain associated with the document is legitimate.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the domain-related information is related to at least one of an expiration date of the domain, a domain name server record associated with the domain, and a name server associated with the domain.

If other search engines are not yet using similar criteria in their ranking, it is highly likely that they will do so soon.

Related Article: Language, Country Search Engines: Implications for Domain Names, PPC Ads. Below.

Alex Tajirian, President & CEO

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[1] Thanks to Rob Garner at agency.com for providing me this information.

Language, Country Search Engines: Implications for Domain Names, PPC Ads

Study Description

We examined:

1. Two search engines: Google and Yahoo.

2. Result-page languages in German and Spanish.

3. Two country groups: German speaking (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and Spanish speaking (Mexico, South America).

4. Four types of keyword-searches: words in the countries' native language that contain an English component, places, acronyms, and brand names.

Selective Results and Implications

1. On Google, using advanced search for German language, Sponsored ads pick up non-country related ads. Thus, Google might be charging such advertisers for irrelevant clicks.

2. On Google, one can use advanced search to select German language, but does not offer country selection. The results showed a bias toward .de - country code domain name (ccTLD) for Germany. Thus, businesses in a German speaking country other than Germany are disadvantaged and need to also register domains under De to increase their online visibility. On the other hand, for Yahoo, a user can control German language by country.

3. Search for geographical, US-based brand names, and acronym keywords, Google results include non-country related Sponsored ads. Thus, Google might charge such advertisers for irrelevant clicks. There are no such ads on Yahoo for German when a country is also specified. However, with Yahoo a user cannot specify a Spanish speaking country other than Spain, location-irrelevant advertisers showed up. Thus, such advertisers may pay for irrelevant ad clicks.
   

Related Articles: Domain Names and Google Search Engine Ranking

Alex Tajirian
President & CEO