SEO – Search Engine Optimization Helping the search engines to discover your site, to index it correctly and to show it to the right user / searcher. SEO Aspects of Top Level Domains Sybille Yates

Terminology SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Telling the search engines what your website is about. Indexing – What a SE does to your website. SERP – Search Engine Results Page – What a SE does for an user. Keywords – Tags of the website as well as queries a user runs in the SEs. EMD – Exact Match Domain – The main keyword(s) for a website is the domain name.

How Does a Search Engine Work? All (web) search engines work after similar principles. Czech Republic: Google (54.69%) Seznam (42.84%) Search engines work like old-fashioned libraries used to do: They index / tag web pages and try to match a given keyword query to the best match result in that index. They take 200+ factors in account when ranking a web page, both positive and negative ones. The information contained in a domain name + the, appropriate, TLD are one, or more, of these factors.

Why does SEO matter? Choosing the right domain name and corresponding TLD is the first step towards the success of a website in terms of search engine generated traffic and ease of sharing via social media, etc. Organic traffic from search engines is, in most cases, a major part of overall website traffic and one of several ways how people discover a new website and therefore a business.

How to choose a domain name &TLD 1 Three different types of domain names: Business/Personal Names, Main Keyword(s) / topic, 'non-sensical': 1. yourname.com, yourcompany.cz, yourtrademark.eu 2. svatby.cz, praguelaundromat.cz, svatebni-dorty.cz 3. trover.com, pinterest.com, google.com The TLD you should choose depends on where your market is and (keyword) availability. Local: country specific TLD (.cz) or 'neutral' TLD (.org.com.net) Europe:.eu or 'neutral' TLD (.org.com.net) Worldwide or multi-national domain network set-ups: Neutral TLDs: 1.choice:.org.com.net; 2.choice:.info.biz

How to choose a domain name &TLD 2.com is a button on many hand held devices and redirects can be used to take advantage of this fact. Example: Buying also the.com domain and redirecting it (301) to your.cz domain. Avoid 'spammy' sounding domain names. Example: Bestlaptopgames.com Checklist for deciding on a domain name: Ease of spelling, length, easy to remember / memorable, descriptive, possibly contain main keyword(s), brand-able non-sensical domain names and chances / difficulties branding them.

Common Mistakes / Problems / Misc. Decide if you want or not want to use www. in your domain set- up. Use a 301 redirect to tell SE which one is your canonical url. Hyphens in a domain name are not very common in the English speaking world and too many can be a 'negative signal' for the SE. Registering a new domain name versus buying an 'aged' domain. Avoiding penalized Domains and how to recognize them prior to buying by checking its rankings and its, previous, content. EMD and website content not matching.

Summary SEO is part of the overall development of a website and, subsequently, of acquiring organic traffic to a business. The right domain name and TLD can help with this, but should be only considered the beginning of an ongoing effort.