Here\u2019s a question I get all the time by contractors building their own websites<\/a>; \u201cwhen setting up my website, should I use my company name or a keyword-based domain name?\u201d<\/p>\n

For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Should I get something like SlaughtersPainting.com or HousePaintingSchenectady.com?<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know if either one of those domains actually exists, but the answer I always give is this; while yes, the search engines do like the keyword-based URL a bit more than a generic one, I\u2019m going to say that I would rather see your business name as your domain name.<\/p>\n

I would rather see something that represented your business name as the URL and here\u2019s why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because you do a lot of other things offline. There are other places besides social media<\/a>, blogging<\/a>, and YouTube where you market your business.<\/p>\n

You may even still be using the Yellow Pages\u2026just kidding. But you get my point, your business name is in a lot more places than that one place on the web where you might have a keyword rich domain name.<\/p>\n

So for me, I would much rather have the name of my business than what I do, and if you look up there in the navigation bar you\u2019ll see that I am eating my own dog food. It\u2019s DarrenSlaughter.com, not some generic keyword-soaked domain.<\/p>\n

My name is my URL, and I\u2019m using my name because I\u2019m branding me as a business, which is what a lot of contractors do too.<\/p>\n

When you just do the keyword thing, you\u2019re branding that one type of work you do. What happens if your business changes? Or you expand? You gonna change your name again? Nope, you\u2019re stuck.<\/p>\n

So think about your whole business, not just some search engine who may or may not bestow upon you a few more visitors a month just because it likes your name. Take a 360-degree view of your business and think in terms of you as a brand, not a keyword.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a question I get all the time by contractors building their own websites; \u201cwhen setting up my website, should I use my company name or a keyword-based domain name?\u201d For example: Should I get something like SlaughtersPainting.com or HousePaintingSchenectady.com? Now, I don\u2019t know if either one of those domains actually exists, but the answer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"category-contractor-websites","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n