Yesterday’s Domain Name Scenario

Yesterday, I created a scenario in which Dr. Doakes is interested in getting found on page one in the major search engines when people in Bloomington, Indiana do a local search for the various keyword phrases:

• physician in Bloomington
• Bloomington physician
• doctor in Bloomington
• Bloomington doctor
• physicians in Bloomington
• Bloomington physicians
• doctors in Bloomington
• Bloomington doctors

Then I listed the following two domain names as Dr. Doakes’ only choices:

Here were Dr. Doakes’ two domain choices:

• BloomingtonDoctors.com
• DoakesMedicalClinic.com

Finally, I asked which domain name Dr. Doakes should choose from a strictly “local search” perspective.

Here’s My Answer

All things being equal, especially regarding the amount of search engine optimization that will be done for the websites that will be built on each domain name, Dr. Doakes should go against the conventional wisdom and select BloomingtonDoctors.com.

Why did I mention “conventional wisdom?”  For many years, it has seemed to be the prevailing rationale for doctors, attorneys, and other professionals to use their last name when naming their business.

For instance, a Lawyer named Sidney Spandanko (a fictitious name) would probably consider naming his legal business something like the following: Spandanko Law Firm. And if he had a website, it would most likely be built on the following domain name: SpandankoLawFirm.com. The problem with this, from a local search perspective, is that his potential patients and clients don’t know where Dr. Spandanko has his legal practice. Not only this, but the vast majority of Dr. Spandanko’s potential clients and patients don’t have a clue that Dr. Spandanko or his business exists.

Therefore, Dr. Doakes can avoid this local search problem if he selects BloomingtonDoctors.com for his domain name.