Should my domain name be an exact match of my brand name?

[goforgreen]

This post is deleted!

[danatanseo]

Before I answer, I have two questions.

1. Do you sell your products outside of the UK (i.e. internationally?)
2. How many years have you been on your current domain?

[SparkplugDigital]

There are pros and cons to making the switch:

Pros:
A shorter URL is generally better for link building, SEO, and social sharing
Customers may assume your site is brandname.co.uk and type that directly into their browser (they probably won't guess that they should add "shop" at the end)
The URL would be easier to remember
The brand URL might look more trustworthy and help with click-through-rate and conversions

Cons:
You will lose a little link authority by using a 301 redirect to the new site (a 301 redirect will pass a majority of your link authority to the new domain)
You will lose some trust by switching to a new domain that hasn't been around for years but you can make this up over time and by earning high quality links

[goforgreen]

Hi Dana,

Thanks so much for the reply.

1. Yes we do sell internationally, however, most of our customers are in the UK. We sell a lot internationally on Amazon. On our current website it is mostly UK customers. We are trying to expand into the international market, however.

2. We have been on the current domain since Dec 2009.

Hope that helps!

[IainReloadMedia]

100% agree with Sparkplug on the Pros & Cons here.

However I'd go with brandname.co.uk for the long term win. The reason being, you'll need to develop product related content on the site, which will attract links. A commercial aspect to your domain will put some people off linking to you.

Iain - Reload Media

[ivordg]

Related to this question: i have a client who has a short brand name as the domain name (www.onli.be). They ask me if they should register a new domain name that describes their core business better. I.e. www.anchortext.be instead of the present url containing their brand name. Basically, their brand name is not that recognised although it is a short and catchy name.

Should I let them keep the old domain name and focus on the on-site optimisation rather? I should optimise the pages still, as right now it does contain the brand name 'Only' too many times. We will also expand to other countries afterwards, so that's why i posted my question in this topic!

Thank you