Yes, a domain name is important. It is your domain after all, where you reside and make the rules. It is a reflection of your tastes, your intent and your customs. It is your internet homestead.
But is it important to have the right domain in terms of ranking on search engines?
Well, once again, yes it is.
A domain name affects human behaviour, and so it is important. After all, all of the AIs involved in the modern query interpretation, indexing, ranking and production of the SERPs are simply trying to predict our behaviour, what else could they do?
Certainly they control our behaviour to a certain extent, but then so does the television, so does the news, so do the road signs. None of this is a surprising idea.
They can make us click certain ads in terms of placement, they can control what interests us by bombarding us with false ideas about people we admire. But there is an innate desire to have something we can rely on that pervades throughout our lives. We will always trust certain things like we trusted our guardians when we were young. This is why the idea of a brand name sustains.
A brand name is something you can show off to others. It is an identity that you can latch on to. It is a label that you can associate with to align yourself, your tastes and your social standing with.
And this is what a domain name is, a brand. And so it is a very important aspect of your internet presence. As I said, it is your domain.
More and more, the domain name has become a short, sexy, stylized idea, like smaq.me or yoush.it. These sorts of domain names are cheeky, outrageous, a little rebellious.
But they are therefore memorable. They leave a little dent of shock. You remember where you where when you first heard of them, or at least you remember the shiver of excitement when you did.
These domains are perky, youthful and enticing. They are what make a person wish to associate with you, and that it important.
Whether you decide to go for a 'does exactly what it says on the tin' type of approach to domains like berkshirecomputers.co.uk or a more obtuse domain like epia.uk doesn't matter. What matters is that you have thought through what kind of audience you are entricing and that you have the domain name brand to match.
