How to Choose Domain Name for a Real Estate Website

Choosing a domain name for your real estate website is the first step towards ensuring your brand’s presence in the online universe.

It is a very important step because a lot will depend on it. A domain name will impact an array of things. They include, but are not limited to:

• Your website’s search engine optimization (SEO)
• Traffic to your website
• Your brand’s online identity

All these things can have an impact on your website’s ability to generate leads, so it is quite obvious that you need to give a lot of consideration to choosing the right domain name for your real estate website.

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Brand name Vs SEO

Most real estate professionals choose a domain name exactly matching their real estate agency’s brand name. For example, if your agency is called Max Properties LLC, you will likely go for a domain name

www.maxpropertiesllc dot com

It sounds like a natural thing to do, but is this a good strategy in terms of SEO?

Probably not!

Let’s assume you are a realtor in Princeton.

You head over to Google Keyword Planner tool and get to know that ‘homes for sale in Princeton’ is a high competition keyword with a lot of search volume.

Wouldn’t you like to put this keyword right in your website’s domain?

If this keyword or a variation of this keyword is available, you can surely choose this as your domain name.

Some examples are:

• Princestonhomesforsale
• Homesforsaleprinceston
• Princestonrealestateforsale
• Princestonpropertyforsale

If you type ‘homes for sale in Princeton’, I am sure you will find a website matching these keywords on the first few pages of search results. This will happen even if the website has few pages of content.

In fact, I found a website:

http://www.princetonbcrealestateforsale.com/

It’s a decent website, but listings make up the majority of the content. Even the blog on this website has listing descriptions only.

Put this website in Majestic.com and you will find that it has only 13 referral domains (domains which are linking to this website) with 167 backlinks.

So, why is this website ranking so high in Google, right next to some high authority websites like Zillow, Turalia, Realtor and REMax?

Well, Google gives a lot of importance to keywords in a domain name. So, it is possible that this website is ranking high for this keyword due to the matching words in its domain name.

If you are planning to spend thousands of dollars on marketing for brand awareness, then you can surely choose your brand as your domain name.

But if you want to rank for high competition keywords, then try to include those keywords in the domain name.

The step-by-step process for creating a keyword-based domain name

If you have decided to choose a keyword-based domain name for your real estate website, following are the steps you need to take:

• Location

Your domain name should include the location. If you serve a particular community in a city, you can include both – the community name and the city name – in the domain name.

• Niche

Are you an expert in a particular niche? For example, you may specialize in luxury condos or multifamily homes. You can include you niche in your domain name.

• Keyword

If you want to target any specific keyword like ‘homes for sales’ or ‘apartments for sale in…’, you can include that keyword in the domain name. You may have to choose between the keyword and the niche to keep the domain name short.

• Search volume

The next thing you need to check is the search volume for the domain name consisting of your niche and location. Search your target domain name in Google Keyword Planner tool and find out the search volume. If you find that it’s a highly competitive keyword with a lot of search volume, you can have that domain name for your real estate website.

• Variations & availability

It’s possible that the domain name exactly matching your keywords is not available. So make a list of variations like realestateforsale, propertyforsale, apartmentsforsale etc. in place of homesforsale. If the domain name is still unavailable, try adding something like your brand name or a catchy word in the end.

• Extension

You should always go for .com extension. It is universally accepted.

• Buying a domain

In some cases, it is possible that what you choose is a premium domain name. In other words, you may have to spend more than the regular price for buying your preferred domain name. You can visit sites like like Valuate.com or EstiBot.com to get an idea of how much a domain name is going to cost you.

There are a lot of domain registrars where you can buy your domain name. Some of them include:

• Godaddy
• 1and1
• Sedo
• Name
• Buydomains
• Domainnames
• Enom

Conclusion

These are the ground rules for choosing a domain name for your real estate websites. You should always try to keep your domain name short as people will find it easy to remember. You shouldn’t use hyphens. Besides, as a real estate professional serving local communities, you should try to include your location in the domain name. If you specialize in a niche or property type, it’s better to be specific and include this info also in the domain name.