Domain Names & SEO

Why your domain name matters for SEO and GEO

Your domain name is one of the longest-lived decisions you'll make for a web project. While Google has repeatedly stated that keywords in a domain name have minimal direct ranking impact, the domain still influences many indirect factors: click-through rate, brand trust, link acquisition, and memorability — all of which affect both traditional SEO and how AI agents perceive your site's authority.

Choosing the right TLD

.com remains dominant

.com is still the most trusted TLD globally and the default expectation for English-speaking audiences. It consistently achieves higher click-through rates than alternatives in search results.

When to use other TLDs:

.org — non-profits, open-source projects, reference resources
.io — developer tools and SaaS (widely accepted in tech)
.dev — developer-focused products (HTTPS enforced by Google's HSTS preload)
Country-specific TLDs (.fr, .de, .co.uk) — if your audience and content are primarily local

Avoid low-trust TLDs

Certain TLDs have historically attracted spam and are treated with more suspicion by both users and AI systems: .xyz, .click, .loan, .work. Unless you have a strong brand, they will make link acquisition harder.

New gTLDs as category signals

Generic TLDs like .ai, .tech, .blog, .agency can serve as a category signal. For an AI-focused project, a .ai domain (e.g. example.ai) communicates niche relevance. These can work well when combined with a strong brand.

Keywords in the domain: reality vs. myth

Google reduced the impact of exact-match domains (EMDs) after the 2012 EMD update. However:

Partial-match domains (brand + keyword, e.g. web4agents.org) retain some benefit by reinforcing topical relevance
Exact-match domains (e.g. best-seo-tools.com) without quality content perform no better than non-keyword domains
Brand domains (e.g. stripe.com, vercel.com) are the strongest long-term choice

Recommendation: choose a memorable brand name that is also topically relevant, rather than forcing a keyword-only name.

Domain age and history

Domain age itself is not a ranking factor, but the history of a domain matters:

For new registrations

A brand-new domain starts with zero authority — expect a 3–12 month period before significant organic traffic (sometimes called the "Google sandbox")
This delay is shorter if you publish high-quality content quickly and earn early backlinks

For purchased or transferred domains

Before buying a used domain, audit its history:

Check Wayback Machine — was it previously used for spam or low-quality content?
Use Ahrefs or Semrush to inspect historical backlinks
Check Google Search Console indexing history if possible

A domain with a history of spammy backlinks or manual penalties will inherit those signals unless thoroughly disavowed.

HTTPS is mandatory

HTTPS has been a confirmed Google ranking signal since 2014. In 2026, any HTTP-only domain is penalized in rankings and flagged in browsers. It also:

Triggers trust warnings that dramatically reduce click-through rates
Is required for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (speed improvements)
Is required for Service Workers and PWA features

Use HTTPS for everything — including subdomains, API endpoints, and redirects. See HTTPS & Security for implementation details.

Subdomains vs. subdirectories

A long-debated question: should blog content live at blog.example.com or example.com/blog?

	Subdomain	Subdirectory
SEO authority	Treated as separate site by Google	Inherits parent domain authority
GEO / agents	Crawled separately	Part of main site context
Setup complexity	Slightly higher	Lower
Recommendation	Use for truly separate products	Use for content sections

Recommendation for most sites: keep blog, docs, and glossary as subdirectories (example.com/blog, example.com/docs). This concentrates link authority on one domain.

Domain consolidation

If your site is accessible at multiple URLs (http://, https://, www., non-www.), ensure:

Pick one canonical version (e.g. https://example.com) and 301-redirect all others
Set <link rel="canonical"> on all pages to the canonical domain
Use HSTS to enforce HTTPS permanently: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload

Duplicate domains split your link equity and confuse AI crawlers about which version to index.

International domains (ccTLDs vs. hreflang)

For multilingual or multi-region sites, two main approaches:

Approach	Example	SEO signal
ccTLD	`example.fr`	Strongest geo-targeting signal
Subdirectory	`example.com/fr`	Good, simplest to maintain
Subdomain	`fr.example.com`	Acceptable but splits authority

Whichever approach you choose, always implement hreflang tags to signal language/region variants. See Technical SEO for Agents.

Domain name best practices summary

Use a .com (or relevant TLD) with a memorable brand name
Avoid hyphens, numbers, and excessively long names (max ~15 chars)
Enforce HTTPS with HSTS and preloading
Audit domain history before purchasing a used domain
301-redirect all non-canonical variants to one canonical URL
Use <link rel="canonical"> and avoid URL parameter duplicates
Keep content on subdirectories, not subdomains, unless it's a truly separate product