Should the keywords be in the domain name? My domain name is not in any way related to my industry, which is SEO, but some articles here are within the top 10.

For sure, adding the main keyword helps everyone, even AI robots, know what your website is about, but it is not required. So the answer is no.

In this article, we will discuss the following:

• Should the keywords be in the domain name?
• What to do if the keywords are not in the domain name?
• Can you outrank competitors even with an unrelated domain name?

Let’s get started!

Should the Keywords Be in the Domain Name?

Should the keywords be in the domain name? Nah!

Look in the address bar, and then the title bar. My domain name and my target keyword are not the same, right? But it works.

If you search for “Alexia Dominique Reyes” on Google, this website is the first result. Of course, my name is unique that is why I am competing with no one.

I saw on Facebook that there is a child whose name is “Alexia Dominique Reyes” (I don’t want to accuse her parents of copying my name but that is suspicious) but she is not a competitor.

I am building my place in the digital world while she is probably playing with her friends, enjoying her childhood.

So as my only competitor for that keyword — my full name — is not in my industry, I am obviously the winner by default.

If you want to rank for a keyword others want to rank for, that is a different case. Do you want to be the top result for “digital marketing agency”? That is tough.

But still, the target keywords don’t need to be in the domain name to be able to outrank your competitors.

In fact, many of the digital marketing agencies use their company name as the domain name. Have you noticed it?

What to Do If the Keywords Are Not in the Domain Name?

If you bought the wrong domain name but are too broke to buy a new one, or if you want to start from scratch using the old domain you have, add the keyword in the title or the tagline of the website.

I had a client, and I did technical, on-page, and off-page SEO as well as website development for him. So all the services I offer, I offered to him.

The domain name was too broad for the niche of the blog, and it was not even close to the niche.

If I told you the domain name and asked you to guess the niche, I am confident you would answer it wrong. That is how disconnected they are.

But changing the domain name is like starting from scratch.

The blog had lots of ranking blog posts in the chosen niche despite the disconnection, so that was not the right way to go.

What I proposed to do was to keep the domain name but add the keyword in the tagline. He agreed.

After all, what makes this website rank for the keyword “Alexia Dominique Reyes” is the title and the tagline, not the domain name. That solves it!

Can You Outrank Competitors Even With an Unrelated Domain Name?

Search engines pay more attention to the content than the domain name of the website where it is published to understand what the page is about.

If having the target keyword in the domain name were a huge ranking factor, then websites like Forbes shouldn’t have been appearing on the front page of many different search queries.

Outranking competitors is at a page level.

You will analyze each page on their website and look for areas that can be improved, and then you will publish a better version of that page on your website.

You may not get it right the first time. If you did outrank them, they might make improvements on their page and outrank you. So monitor the page’s performance constantly if you want to stay ahead of the many.

Conclusion

Should the keywords be in the domain name? The answer is no. While it is ideal to put something like “agency” or “publishing” in the domain name for clarity, that is not required to succeed in SEO.

Many of the top websites actually don’t have keywords in their domain names.

Think of the top search engines Google and Bing as well as Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn, Facebook, and many more. If those websites were not popular, everyone would misunderstand what they are for!

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