Can we have differnt Domain name and Busienss name?

[AlexanderWhite]

Can we have different domain and Business name for website?

I want to create real-estate website.  I want to registered domain name ‘Nycityhomes.com’ and want to my business name (in logo as well) is ‘Sunny Associates’. Can we do that for local SEO?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Alexander,

Google says that one website is better than two, and I almost never recommend that any local business publish more than one website, because of the risk this puts them at for NAP inconsistency, duplicate and merged listings as well as often creating thin/duplicate content risks.

Google's opinion, as voiced by John Mueller, can be found here:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/rOb2jIctBLQ/discussion

So, honestly, my advice is to go with just one site, Alexander.

[AlexanderWhite]

Hi Miriam,

Thanks for a great advice. What If I create 2 websites, first with brand name "SunnyAssociates.com" (business portfolio website) and 2nd "Nycityhomes.com" with SunnyAssociates logo?.

Nycityhomes.com will have all the property listing and SunnyAssociates.com will have my business details, about us, services, company history etc.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Alexander,

Great question. There is no one, right answer to this question. On the one hand, it's true that having keywords (like 'homes' and 'ny') can give you a bit of leverage in the search engine results. On the other hand, having a generic keyword-oriented domain name always stands out as having been chosen largely for search engines rather than out of company pride or with the user in my mind.

My personal preference is generally to go with the brand name. This is name the you're trying to promote as 'the' authoritative resource in your field and a branded domain shows a lot of confidence and pride in your brand.  After all, Moz.com doesn't contain a keyword. The domain name for this company isn't  terrificinboundmarketingresource.com. Rather, Moz has put in the years and effort to build a brand that stands for something with its community and, at this point, it would actually be negative rather than positive if the domain name was keyword-oriented rather than brand-oriented.

So, I would encourage most businesses to reflect on the fact that their domain name is going to be their home base for years to come, and that having one that matches what the phone receptionist says when she picks up the phone is a good plan for building a recognized brand. You're going to have to make a superior effort to surpass competitors in the SERPs, anyway, and while some SEOs may feel that any little bit of leverage can help (such as a keyword-oriented domain), chances are this won't be enough to help you pass up the competition in a tough market.

An alternative is to build some keywords into a domain name, like sunnyassocnyhomes.com, but that can start to get rather long and messy. Some people are good a finessing this. You could try brainstorming a bunch of domain name ideas and see if you can come up with a good brand-keyword combo so that you're showing both pride in your brand and sensitivity toward keywords.

In the end, this is a highly personal choice. One last thought. When I'm looking at real estate and I see domains in the results, I'm personally more likely to click on Century21.com, that's earned its place in the SERPs through building a strong brand, than I am to click on homesforsalemycity.com, because I feel immediately suspicious that this may be just another low quality aggregate site (so many of which clutter up the results and provide little satisfaction). So, were I to see SunnyAssociates.com coming up for my search, that would signal to me that your brand has earned its place in the SERPs based on merit, rather than having squeaked into the mix with keywords.

Hope these thoughts are helpufl

[benjaminmarcinc]

Branding a business name with the domain is is always key but if you like that domain name that go with it, i would buy sunnyassociates.com if its available and point it to your other domain name so you have both in case one day you decide to use it.

[dwebb007]

Actually for marketing on the web, it is smart to do that. If you domain has keywords that are important to your marketing keywords, it is better. Sunny Associates could be anything, whereas a real estate website called "nycityhomes.com" is of good value immediately for the keyword or phrases like NY City Homes for Sale or Rent. On your expansion pages you might even have some that look like this. www.nycityhomes.com/new-york-city-homes/rent.php or manhattan.php My company name is Diversified Freight, and I have that domain, but I also have www.freightetc.com which has the keyword "freight" in it. The only thing with the example above is you don't want your URL's too long so watch that. I am fairly new on here, and have a lot to learn myself, but you can never go wrong with a domain that directly uses your keywords needed in the market place!

[TheeDigital]

I don't see why not, I can think of many examples where the business name does not match the website address.