SmartCodeIT
SEO
by SmartCodeIT
What is an Internet domain?
An internet domain is simply an alias. This is a nice name for the real address of the server where your website is hosted. Imagine that I dictate to you the address of our website over the phone, giving it the hosting IP address: 66.249.66.1... It's difficult to remember, by giving the domain name (smartcodeit.co.uk) you will easily find the website. In the past, the prefix www was used before the domain address, for example www.smartcodeit.co.uk. Now this practice is being abandoned, no one needs this prefix. In fact, hardly anyone names their website this way.
What types of domains do we have?
Domains come in several types. Choosing a domain type is important from an SEO perspective, so it's worth knowing which ones are right for you. This information will be useful if you are interested in website positioning.
Top Level Domain (TLD)
A TLD is a domain that has no other domains above it. The top-level domain is part of the domain name. The TLD is written after the last dot of the page address. TLD domains are located highest in the DNS hierarchy, i.e. domain name system.
Global domains (gTLDs)
gTLD is an abbreviation for "Generic Top-Level Domain". This is one type of TLD. gTLDs are available to users worldwide, regardless of their location, and have no specific geographic restrictions.
The most famous gTLDs are:
.com – Initially intended for commercial websites, but is now used by various types of websites.
.net – Initially intended for the web, but now used by various types of websites.
.org – Initially intended for organizations, but now used by various types of websites.
.info – Mainly used by websites offering information.
.edu – Intended for educational institutions, mainly universities.
.gov – Intended for government institutions.
Recently, however, many new gTLDs have been added, such as .blog, .shop, .app, which provide greater possibilities for users in terms of personalizing their web addresses.
Country TLDs (ccTLDs)
ccTLD is an abbreviation of the English "Country Code Top-Level Domain".
ccTLDs are assigned to specific countries or territories. Each ccTLD consists of two letters representing a country or territory in accordance with the ISO 3166-1 standard.
For example:
.uk – for Great Britain
.de – for Germany
.fr – for France
.us – for the United States, etc.
ccTLDs allow Internet users to understand where a website is registered or what region it is targeted at.
Companies often register their website with an appropriate ccTLD to show that they operate in a specific country or region.
However, it should be noted that some ccTLDs have been globalized and are used around the world due to their attractive abbreviations, such as .tv for Tuvalu (often used for TV-related sites) or .me for Montenegro (often used for personal sites).
Domains and SEO – the most important questions
In SEO, there are some recurring questions related to domains. In this part of the article I will try to dispel them all. Thanks to this, you will be able to make the right decision.
Choosing a domain – ccTLD or gTLD?
If you are now in the process of purchasing a domain, you may be wondering what type it will be for you. Of course, I say this from an SEO point of view.
To make a choice, you need to answer two questions: In what area do you intend to operate? Will this situation change in the future?
The first question concerns the region of the world. Will it only be Greater Europe, maybe Europe, or do you want to operate internationally? The first question checks what your plans are now.
The second one is more about plans. If you intend to operate only in the UK and will not change this in the future, choose a domain ending in .uk. Such a domain will only be visible in English Google, but that's enough for you. Any language versions on such a website will be available to people who speak another language, but only if they are in our country.
Therefore, if you intend to reach people in other countries, you need a domain with a different ending. For Europe it will be the .eu domain, and for the world it will be .com. If you want to reach customers only in one foreign country, choose the domain of that country, even if you want to reach English people.
Does the keyword phrase in the domain make sense?
In the past, websites containing keywords in their names were very popular in SEO. It was enough to buy a domain like keyword.co.uk to appear relatively high for this word. It doesn't work like that anymore.
Google no longer rewards such domains. Your website cannot be visible only for one or a few keywords. Potential customers use many phrases and ask Google in different ways. Only visibility of many business-related phrases provides real business benefits.
I believe your company should have a name. This allows you to build a brand. This is the basis of customer acquisition. Having such a simple domain makes it much more difficult to build an image on the Internet. Additionally, if the scope of the company's activities changes, you have to change the website and start the whole process again.
Is it worth having a website with multiple domains?
What I mean here is a situation in which multiple domains are pointed to the same server. As a result of such a situation, the same content will be available at different addresses. This is a classic case of external content duplication. Only one domain will be considered by Google. The rest will be just copies that may reduce the authority of the original.
The rule here is simple: one website, one domain.
What is domain authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that aims to predict how well a website may appear in Google search results. Domain authority is calculated based on several factors, including the number of incoming links and the quality of those links. The DA scale ranges from 1 to 100 - the higher the score, the better.
Domain authority is often used in the SEO industry as an indicator of a website's overall health and competitiveness in search results. I try to approach it a bit more broadly and apply the E-E-A-T principle. Not as a quantifiable indicator, but as the level of Google's "trust" in a given website.
It works like in life, the more we trust a given person, the more often we will recommend him. This is exactly how Google works - the more it "trusts" a website, the higher it ranks.
Should I use the www prefix?
In my opinion it's not worth using. The www prefix only extends the address and does not add anything to the website address. From a technical point of view, it is an ordinary subdomain under which the website is located.
Theoretically, instead of www.smartcodeit.co.uk we could use bbb.smartcodeit.co.uk or ppp.smartcodeit.co.uk. The use of this prefix dates back to the beginnings of the Internet. Of course, using it is not a problem, provided that we choose one version. From the SEO point of view, if a website is available in a version with and without a prefix, there is duplication.
In such a situation, you should select one version and perform global redirects.
Should a blog be on a subdomain?
I get this question very often. Entrepreneurs wonder where to place a company blog: on a subdomain, as a separate entity, or as part of the website.
The answer to this question is actually very simple. If the blog concerns your business, it should be part of the website and located at an address such as: domain.co.uk/blog or domain.co.uk/guide.
The nomenclature doesn't matter. What is important is that the content published on the blog will strengthen the main domain and thus offer websites will improve their visibility.
A blog in a subdomain (blog.domain.co.uk) is used mainly due to technical limitations. For example, when the website is hosted on a system that does not have a blog function. This is not the optimal solution, but the only possible one in this case.
Language versions in subdomains or as separate domains?
International SEO is a complex process that requires proper planning and implementation, especially regarding domain structure and language versions. It is important that the website is adapted to the specificity of Google's operations in different countries, taking into account differences in the activities of competing companies.
When deciding to expand internationally, you should carefully consider the structure of international domains. There are several possibilities, such as using a separate domain for each country (ccTLDs), subdomains for each country with gTLDs, directories for language versions with gTLDs or URL parameters.
The choice should depend on your business goals, budget and available resources. Remember that international SEO success is not just about translating your website into other languages. It's important to include hreflang tags to help Google understand what language and country your page is for.
Correct use of these tags can help your site rank better in search results for specific regions and languages.
