We often receive questions regarding purchasing domains that contain the city/area name that each realtor wants to target, such as livingwhiterock.com, or westvanlife.ca, etc.
This has almost no effect on potential rankings on Google for the neighbourhood keywords, and here's why.
Too many early SEO tricksters who wanted to fool Google into giving them better ranking for specific product/city names started abusing domains, Google started reducing the importance of keywords in domains dramatically.
A simple example proves how little importance keywords within domains have:
If you search "west vancouver luxury listings" on Google, for example, majority of the first page results contain domains that are the names of each real estate agent or brokerage, and none of them contain "westvancouver" in the domain itself. The top ranking sites include:
Note that none of these domains contain "West Vancouver" in it.
To gain ranking for specific cities/neighbourhoods, you are better off to focus on on-site factors through active SEO efforts (mentioned at the end of this article).
But, there are times when a vanity domain such as LivingNorthShore.ca can really help!
- If that domain is an exact match of your brand (in this case, Living North Shore is the brand name that is meant to be widely advertised - it's an easy phrase, rolls off the tongue)
- If you want to print this domain on brochures, business cards, outdoor/bus ads, and be memorable - this may be easier to remember than your full name as a Realtor, especially if your name is difficult
It's important to consider these facts when deciding what your primary domain should be for your real estate website.
If it's search engine ranking you are after, we have plenty of resources on Do-It-Yourself SEO tactics that leverage the great features that Brixwork real estate websites are built with:
DIY SEO for your real estate website (Part 1)
DIY SEO for your real estate website (Part 2)
If you don't have the time for these everyday steps, we offer dedicated & ongoing Search Engine Optimization services for real estate websites that have brought in proven results already and continue to do so!