Clients who are starting a new business often ask if having keywords in their domain name will help their new website rank better in organic search results, particularly in Google.
In the past and most recently, Google has confirmed that having keywords in your domain name and web page URLs could help to a small degree.
However, from what we know, having keywords in your domain (and web page URLs) is one of many factors (ranking signals) that can impact your website’s ability to rank well.
What Does Google Say About Keywords in URLs?
The implementation of your targeted keywords in general is considered by many to be a best practice. That in part is because it tells your web visitor what that page may be about. In fact, Google states on their own SEO Starter Guide:
“If your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would.”
So, we can conclude that it’s better to have your keywords in the URL if it provides more information about that page.
Example of Good SEO URL Structure
Which provides the user (visitor) with more useful information about the page:
https://prominentweb.com/blog/post?id=10930
or
https://prominentweb.com/blog/what-type-of-web-hosting-do-i-need/
Should I Use Keywords in my Domain and URLs?
Ultimately, we can conclude that yes, using keywords in your domain and URLs can be beneficial from an SEO standpoint. However, it is arguably a small benefit and therefore, should be used primarily from as a best practice to improve the end user experience.
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