We hate to be the ones to break it to you, but most prospective homebuyers aren’t searching for YOU on the web: they’re searching for properties. They’re not going to Google (or Bing or Yahoo!) and typing in “Joe Agent real estate.” Instead, they’re typing in things like “Boston homes for sale” and “houses for sale in Boston.” It’s not the “who” that they’re focused on, it’s the “where.” So, when choosing a domain name for your real estate website, what kinds of search terms do you think you should you focus on? If the word “LOCAL” just popped into your head, you’re 100 percent correct.
Keeping these local search statistics in mind, let’s dive into the 6 steps for choosing a real estate domain name:
1) Start with the location you want to target (e.g. Boston)
2) Add what you have to offer (e.g. homes for sale, luxury condos, etc.)
3) Do your research! Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to see how much monthly traffic your search terms receive (e.g. “Boston homes for sale, “Boston luxury condos,” etc.)
4) Choose a few of the highest-ranking keyword combinations, add “.com” to the ends, and do a quick search to make sure they’re not already taken. Pro tip: if you’re having trouble finding available domain names, try adding on a word that describes you or your brand. A great example of this is The Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s domain name (phoenixrealestateguy.com).
5) Head to a site like Valuate.com or EstiBot.com. Enter in your domain name candidates and you’ll get an idea of how much each domain name is going to cost you.
6) Pull the trigger. Once you’ve decided on a search engine-optimized domain name that fits your budget, buy it from an online vendor.
Here are some of the most popular domain name vendor options:
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