Ok so I often have people asking me what keywords or keyphrases they should build a site around and one of the points they always make is that they want a target phrase with low competition. I ask them what they actually mean by competition and they start to spout varios measures they have come across such as using intitle:keyword, inurl:keyword and inanchor:keyword in a search engine such as Google.

I tell you now that this is a waste of time.

Why? Well I really don’t care if there are 10 million other sites using my exact target phrase in their page title and url and it doesn’t even bother if there are just as many building links for it too. All I care about is can I beat them?

Let’s face it, if your site is not on page 1 of Google for your target keyphrase then you are nowhere. So surely the only sites we should be judging for competition are the current top 10, no? Asking yourself whether you can displace one of these sites is the only question you need to answer.

What I really keep my eye on is if there are any results which are homepage links and that have the target keyphrase in the domain and page title? These are like goldust when it comes to judging competition especially if you are considering a similar domain and page title because then it really comes down to backlinks and possibly site age. A quick check of these will tell you how much effort it might be to beat this site.

The keyphrase “blue widgets” for example might show the site http://www.bluewidgetshop.com in position one. It has the term “blue widgets” first in it’s page title, 2,000 backlinks and is 18 months old. Unless some of those backlinks are of very high quality I would consider this a manageable target site to beat.

Of course it all comes down to commercial gain and effort. I would weigh up whether or not I think that I could make a return on my link buying outgoings based on the estimated search traffic for that term. I would also consider the opportunity cost on my time should I go ahead and build and market a site.

So please just remember that you don’t need to beat 100 million sites to rank #1, you only need to beat one site and that’s the one that is already in first position.

If you want to build a website and have a rough idea of the theme the first thing to do is decide upon the domain name. This could very well be the most important decision you will make for your website so here are some things to consider when choosing a domain.

Your domain name choice really boils down to two main options:

1. A domain rich in the keywords you wish to target - those that best describe your product and that are searched upon in the search engines.
2. A domain that is memorable, if not specific to your chosen topic,

The main advantage to using a keyword rich domain name is that it will unquestionably help you rank well in all the major search engines. My experience of this is that a domain containing your targeted phrase will massively aid your ranking for that phrase in far less time and with far fewer links pointing towards your website.

The advantages of a brandable domain name can be just as big. If the building of a brand is a success you will undoubtedly achieve a higher percentage of return visitors and are likely to receive backlinks from other websites as your company is quoted as a source of trust in the industry.

You must also pay attention to the limitations of a keyword domain in terms of the markets you will be able to expand into. Take a look at the following comparison that illustrates this point:

• Insurancewide have focused on a stringently defined niche (insurance) and have thus chosen a domain name which indicates this point. With this domain they have an advantage when ranking for any keyphrase that contains the word “insurance”. They may find it hard to expand into other markets.
• Moneysupermarket decided that they were going to offer a broad range of comparison services in fields stretching from loans to credit cards to banking. Their domain name does little in the way of aiding natural rankings for any of their targeted keyphrases. They have, however, built a very strong brand and using this they have expanded into other fields (all still focussed on saving money) such as broadband, utilities and mobile phones. They receive thousands of visitors through type in traffic and from people searching for their brand in search engines.

Should I Go For Keyword Or Brand?

Choosing between the branded and unbranded options for your domain name should be a carefully made decision and one that will require some time but here are some things you may want to consider:

1. Building a recognisable and trustworthy brand can involve huge costs - dependant on your target market, the number of competitors you will face (and the strength of their brands) and the forms of advertising you use.
2. The greater the range of products and services you wish to offer, the harder it becomes to find a keyword domain capable of encompassing the entire range.
3. Unless you are very lucky, all of the good generic domain names have been taken in almost every market and purchasing one of these can prove expensive. For example CreditCheck.com recently sold for $3 million.
4. Having a targeted keyword or keyphrase in your domain name may aid search engine positioning now but this advantage is not guaranteed to last.
5. When someone links to your website they will usually do so with your company or domain name as the anchor so a keyword rich domain will infer keyword rich backlinks.

So there you have it; a brief guide to choosing a domain name. I am not going to tell you to use a branded or a keyword-based domain name as it is totally up to you. There are many successful websites and businesses out there on both sides of the fence so don’t loose sleep over this decision.