Choosing a domain name for your tow company can be as easy as hopping over to Godaddy and doing a search. But hold on there, don’t click away just yet. There are some important things to consider before choosing a domain name, namely how your domain name can impact your ability to properly market your business online.

Choosing Your Tow Company Domain

I know you’re excited to start out with your new business venture, building your new towing business. But before you spend a bunch of money on lettering your truck, and having shirts, & business cards printed, all with your new domain name, you need to understand that marketing your towing business online requires strategic planning from day one.

Many of you reading this have been in the towing business, as an employee, for quite a while, and understand the terminology that exists in the industry. Which means you know the difference between a basic tow and a motor vehicle accident recovery. So let me ask you, which of these gets your adrenaline going and blood pumping faster?

Right…Recoveries. Because they’re challenging.

And…due to the satisfaction, we derive from having the ability to provide recovery services, and the natural desire to paint our business as different than all the other towing companies out there, many new tow company owners choose a business name that reflects this.

Many choose names like ABC Recovery Services, and JD’s Recovery and Repair, while others go a different route, in hopes of attracting a larger clientele. Choosing names like Bill’s Automotive Services, Quality Auto Services, or Service One.

The problem with this is that 99.9% of motorists would not use these terms when seeking to obtain the services of a towing company.

So, what’s the big deal?

Your Tow Company Domain Name Impacts SEO

For your towing company to be found online you need to employ the correct SEO strategy. One of the factors that help the search engines know that your business provides towing services is your domain. What Google’s robots see in the URL string of your website has a huge impact on how well your SEO strategy is working, but more importantly, it helps them to match your towing business with people who are looking for towing services.

How to choose a tow company domain

Now that you understand that it’s important to choose the right domain name for your tow company, I’ll give you a few tools you can use to do it the right way. The first thing you will want to do is use Google’s Keyword Planner in Adwords to learn which keywords motorists use more often.

To do this, go to your Adwords dashboard, you must be logged into your Gmail account first, then login to Adwords to get there.

Once in your Adwords account, you’ll want to then click on Tools> at the top. Then, from the dropdown choose Keyword Planner> From there, under Find new keywords and get search volume data> click on Get search volume and data trends>

Then where it says Option 1: Enter Keywords, you’ll want to start off by entering the keyword “Towing.” Below that, where it says, Targeting, ensure that the entire United States is selected. Then click the blue button that says “Get search volume.”

The next page that you see will provide you with the average monthly search volume for that specific keyword.

When I did this for “Towing,” it said that the average monthly volume was between 100,000 and 1,000,000. I know that’s a wide swing, but what it means is that keyword was used many times by motorists searching for your services.

When I did the same search for “Recovery Services,” the average monthly search volume was only between 100 and 1000. Quite a big difference huh?

Another free tool you can use is on wordstream’s site.

What’s in a tow company domain name?

So, the first key takeaway for choosing a domain name for your towing business is that you’ll want to include some variation of one of the most popular terms people use when searching for the services of a towing company. Terms like: Towing, tow truck, towing company, towing service, roadside assistance, and others.

The next step in choosing a domain for your tow company begins with understanding how the search engines determine what towing companies show up when a search is performed. Here is an example of a towing company domain that works www.aertowing.com.

When it comes to local search, Google uses three basic criteria when deciding what towing company pops up when a search is performed.

They are Location, Keywords Entered & Prominence

Google uses signals from a wide variety of sources to determine which towing companies to present during a search, they are:

– A Properly Structured and SEO’d Website
– Large Numbers of Positive Online Reviews
– Complete and Accurate Directory Listings Across the Web
– An Engaging Social Media Presence
– Clicks to Your Website (Are the lights on?)
– A Commanding and Authoritative Local Presence Online

Location considerations when choosing a domain name for your towing company.

Now that you know that “Location,” is one of the criteria Google uses to determine what towing company to present when a search is performed, what are you going to do with that information? The answer, of course, is to try to obtain a domain that includes your location.

If you are based in Miami, for example, you might try to purchase www.towingmiami.com or www.dadecountytowing.com. If you are in Chattanooga, TN, you might want www.chattanoogaroadsideassistance.com or even a suburb of Chattanooga, like www.eastbrainerdtowtruck.com, something that tells the search bots where you are and what you do.

Not A Silver Bullet

Including the most popular keyword and your tow company’s location in your domain name are just a few pieces of the puzzle. Doing this will only aid in search engine optimization IF you are doing everything else right.

You must treat your presence online like a piece of real estate, or a brick and mortar institution. If the lights are on, and you’re continuously engaged in, not only maintaining the “store-front,” but also making improvements along the way, the value of your little piece of online real-estate will go up.

What this means for your towing business is, these little bits and pieces of digital data you’ve sent into the online world will eventually pay-off in the form of being presented more often. If you do it right, when customers in your area use a WIDE VARIETY of keywords, your business will show up more often. Because Google knows where you are and, due to the work you’ve done online, they’ll believe you have a good reputation, and you’ll be found more often. This means more phone calls and more money in the bank.