A keyword domain no longer carries a site in search, and it is hard to say and easy to confuse. When customers know you by name, move to a domain that carries it, with page-by-page redirects.

A domain chosen for search years ago

Years ago, a roofing company registered a domain made of its city's name and the words roofing and pros, joined with hyphens. At the time, domains like that seemed to rise in results almost by themselves.

Today the office spells it out on every call, letter by letter, hyphen by hyphen. Customers type it without the hyphens and land on a competitor who registered the same words.

The trucks, the yard signs and the invoices carry the company's name. The website's address carries none of it.

What changed in 2012

In the fall of 2012, Google announced a change aimed at low-quality sites on exact-match domains, those whose address simply repeats a search phrase.

The words in a domain did not become worthless: searchers still read them in results, and links often use them. What ended was a domain's ability to carry a thin site.

A strong site on a keyword domain can still do well, for the same reasons any site does: useful pages, a good reputation and a business people mention and link to.

What a domain does for search, and what it does not

In other words, the domain is an address and a label. The work of being found is done by the pages, the listing and the business's reputation.

The everyday cost of a keyword domain

A keyword domain is hard to say aloud. Callers ask whether there are hyphens, whether roofing is singular, and whether it ends in .ca or .com.

It is easy to confuse with competitors, who often register near-identical names. Emails sent to an address at the wrong one reach a rival or bounce.

And it says nothing about who the business is. Email addresses at the domain look generic, and a customer who remembers the company's name cannot guess the address.

When moving is worth it

Moving makes sense when customers know the company by its name, when the trucks and signs already carry that name, and when a site rebuild is due anyway.

Doing both together means one round of work: new pages at new addresses, each redirected from its old one, rather than a rebuild now and a move later.

It is also worth moving when the keyword domain keeps sending email and enquiries to competitors. That cost recurs every week, and nothing about it improves with time.

Choosing the new domain

Use the business name as people say it, short and without hyphens: .ca for a Canadian business, plus .com if available, with one redirected to the other.

Register it in an account the company owns, under a company email address, for several years at a time. Domains registered in a former employee's personal account are a common reason moves stall.

Moving without losing what the old domain built

Every page on the old domain should redirect permanently to its counterpart on the new one: the old gutters page to the new gutters page, not to the home page.

Those redirects carry bookmarks, other sites' links and search results across to the new pages. Pointing everything at the home page throws most of that away.

Verify both domains in Webmaster Tools and use its change of address setting. Then update the map listing, directory listings, social profiles, email signatures and anything printed.

Keep the old domain registered and renewing, ideally for years, and keep its email addresses forwarding. A lapsed domain can be bought by anyone, including a competitor.

A worked example

A vinyl deck membrane installer in Nanaimo, a crew of six, waterproofs sundecks, balconies and walkways over living space for homeowners and strata buildings.

When the company started, it registered a domain made of the words vinyl decks and its city. Two competitors later registered near-identical names, one with a hyphen and one with an s.

Customers' emails went to the wrong company, and a homeowner once phoned to complain about a deck the company had never touched. The trucks carried the company name; the domain did not.

When the site was due for a rebuild, the company registered its name in .ca and .com and built the new site there. Each old page redirects to its match, and the old domain is renewed years ahead.

The map listing, directories, email signatures and truck lettering were updated in the same month, and the old email addresses still forward.

The address now matches the name on the truck and the yard sign, while every link and bookmark built up on the old domain still leads to the right page.

What not to do with the old domain

Do not serve the same pages on both domains. Two identical copies compete with each other in search, and neither collects all the links.

And do not keep the old site running alongside the new one, to be safe. Two live sites drift apart within weeks, and customers find whichever is out of date.

The counter-case

Some keyword domains have become the name. A company that has traded under its domain for a decade, with it painted on every truck, may now be known by it.

And a business whose own name is generic, such as a city name and the word roofing, gains little by moving to a domain that is just as keyword-like.

In those cases, keep the domain and put the effort into the site's pages and the map listing instead. The domain was never what made a site worth finding.

Moving to the name on the truck

  1. Ask staff and customers which name they remember.
  2. Register the name in an account the company owns.
  3. Plan the move with the next site rebuild.
  4. Redirect every old page to its new counterpart.
  5. Keep renewing the old domain and its email.
  6. Update listings, profiles and print in the same month.
  7. Use the change of address setting in Webmaster Tools.

Step four decides whether the move keeps what the old domain built. Page-by-page redirects carry links, bookmarks and search results to the right place; a single redirect to the home page loses most of them.

Why old domains should be kept and redirected rather than left to lapse, for an event that registered a new one each year, is explained in a new domain for every year of the event.

Frequently asked questions

Do keyword domains still help in search?

Much less than they once seemed to. Google changed how it treats low-quality sites on exact-match domains in 2012, and the words alone no longer carry a site.

What does a domain do for search now?

It names the site, shows in results where searchers read it, and collects links over the years. The pages, the map listing and reputation do the rest.

When is it worth moving to the business name?

When customers know the company by its name, when that name is on the trucks and signs, and ideally when a site rebuild is due anyway.

How do I move without losing what the old domain built?

Redirect every old page permanently to its counterpart on the new domain, use the change of address setting in Webmaster Tools, and update every listing.

Should I let the old domain expire?

No. Keep renewing it, ideally for years, and keep its email forwarding. A lapsed domain can be bought by anyone, including a competitor.

What if our domain has become our name?

Then keep it. A domain customers already know by heart is worth more than a new one, and the effort belongs on the site and the listing.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Spelling out your domain on every call?

Send us your current domain and your business name, and we will outline what a move would involve and what it would keep.

Start a Conversation