I. How to Select Your Domain NameBy:J DuboCopyright 2006 business-cards.com
There are many different opinions on how to select the best domain name for your business online. You want to draw the maximum number of customers to your site, and selecting an appropriate domain name will help you achieve that goal. A really good domain name serves not only as a piece of the technical jigsaw, but more importantly, it is your identity, brand and personality online.
At the present time, there seem to be two main theories on the best way to go. One belief is that you should use keywords in your domain name, for example, if you are selling extra size shoes in Chicago, then you may choose something like “bigshoeschicago.com”.
The other school of thought is that your domain name should reflect your brand, and most people seem to favor this approach. An example of a branding style domain name is this. If you own a company called Asian Art then your website would be called “asianart.com”.
The power of branding is greater than all other considerations, providing that you are willing and able to spend a vast amount of time, effort and money on it. Compare an auction house called “williamsofwales.com” with the mighty “eBay.com”. If you were searching for an online auction house, even if you lived in Wales, which would you choose?
Another consideration is if you decide on a keyword rich domain name, will your customers remember it? Will it look easy on the eye? How long should it be? If you go for four or five words, will your customers remember them? Will they remember if you have hyphens between words, or underscores?
You will need to strike a balance with this consideration against the fact that search engines do look at your domain name and analyze the content. It is important to understand the basic workings of various search engines. They are more likely to list your domain name in search results if the name contains common search keywords for the area of interest to which your site belongs. But not only do you need to consider the search engines behavior, you need to consider internet users behavior too. You would be wise to keep it simple.
If you decide to go with the simple classic branded domain name, but you see the sense in using keywords, then how about using your favourite keywords as directory or page names on your website? You could use: www.brandname.com/keyword/ for example.
Whatever you decide about selecting a domain name, whether you go for keywords or branding, remember that it is your own personal brand and personality when you are online and that, as important as it is – and it really is – content is king.
Article Source:http://www.superfeature.com
www.business-cards.com is one of the leading business stationery websites on the internet today. For more business related articles please take a look at their journal at www.business-cards.com/business-cards-journal
II. Domains: Buying an Existing Domain Name Vs a New Domain Name by:Chris Le RoyNo one can deny that the Internet is here to stay and that businesses who do not embrace the internet are going to struggle in the coming years. With the Internet and Search Engines reaching a new level of maturity, I have noticed in their rankings that they are beginning to put more and more weight on the age of the domain in their index and because of this we have now reached a crossroad for many businesses to evaluate whether they are better off buying an existing domain versus registering a brand new domain. But Buyer Beware!
I have met many many people who have benefited and also been burnt by buying existing domain names. The major disadvantage of buying an existing domain name is that it may have been banned from the search engines for in appropriate search engine tactics, better known as black hat techniques. My own personal experience with the search engines and trying to talk to a human being in the past to plead my case over an issue with one of our own domains has made me come to the realization that none of them have a clue of what customer service is and they do not care what they do to you and this is where the problem lies when buying existing domains.
If you purchase a domain that has been banned for either Search Engine Black Hat techniques or for click fraud then you can pretty much write off that domain ever getting into the indexes ever again. Which means that if you are relying principally on traffic from the search engines, then you are going to invest a lot of money and get absolutely no outcome? In fact one of our own clients was caught where the domain they had purchased was banned in just about every index and by many of the pay-per-click engines as well. Literally the money they outlaid for this domain were totally wasted.
Look, there are many reasons why domains can be banned and in some cases they are banned by indexes for the owners simply not understanding the rules that the various search engines place on the websites that they index. Whilst that is no excuse in the scheme of things, as a buyer it is something you need to be aware of.
The key advantage of buying an existing domain that has been indexed is that it is often easier to optimize that site for certain keywords than it is for using one that is a brand new domain. If you believe the stories of Google's sandbox rule, then all new domains will take 6 to 12 months to rank well which means for a business that is purely internet based that could send you bankrupt and I can assure you I have seen that happen. Whether or not you believe or do not believe that the Google sandbox rule exists, in most search engines, the age of the domain in the index does play a role in your ranking. I have seen webpages in the index that have been there for 10 years and have less than 20 back links on extremely competitive terms and rank in the top 5 of those competitive keywords.
The bottom line is this, where possible and if you can afford it, buying an existing domain name that is already in the index is a valuable commodity. Even more so if there is an associated website to go with it. Just look at the money Google paid to You Tube for their site.
Over the last few years my team and I have helped many clients broker existing domain names, usually associated with their companies name, that have been in the index by people creating adsense accounts for Google or Yahoo and once they get control of the domains they have seen vast improvements in their traffic flow and search engine positions because the domains they had bought had been in the index for some period. In fact every one of them that has done this now has top 2 rankings in all the major search engines.
When we are evaluating domains that have been owned for some period there are a range of elements that my team and I look for. The general elements we review include -
1. Is the website currently working?
2. Does the domain exist in any of the major search engines
3. Can you verify ownership of the domain or is the domain details blocked?
4. Where is the domain currently residing?
5. Is the domain in an area on the Internet that is used by black hat people or organizations that use questionable techniques?
6. What is the IP Number of the server the domain resides on?
7. Can we find any indications of references to issues with this domain name on professional search engine forums or bloggs?
8. Does the domain reside on any black lists for spam or for activities related to advertising? We also look to see if the domain is on any number of white lists as well (this is a positive issue)?
9. Does the domain have a history in traffic tools such as Alexa? Have there been any comments or statements placed in the Alexa Register or similar registers?
10. Is the domain registered with a reputable domain registration company?
My team and I will also look at whether or not this domain has been owned by a range of different companies or individuals and in particular if it has been deleted or pre-owned before today and resold.
I should note that there are many other issues we look at but the ten above are the key issues everyone should look at when deciding to buy an existing domain. There are many reasons why domains may not have positive findings for each of the issues above, but just like you were trying to buy a business you need to see if there are any issues and if there are can they be dealt with and are they likely to cost you money. Nobody likes to lose money on a deal, especially me, and when buying domains you need to make sure that you have done your homework and that the domain is worth the money you are investing.
Sometimes, you are better off simply paying a few dollars and putting in a lot of hard work with a new domain then buying a domain for a few thousand dollars to find that you can never rank well in the search engines because it has been banned.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
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III. Website Traffic And Search Engine Optimization: The Domain NameBy:Donovan Baldwin
Whether for business or personal use, before there can be a website, there must be a domain name, and one of the most important steps of a search engine optimization plan is to pick the right one.
So what IS a domain name? A domain name is that thing that people give you when you ask for their website. anything.com, for example, is a domain name.
Some things to consider in choosing a domain name are:
1. Keep it short and simple. If your website is for your business, a short domain name has its advantages. Whether you want to print it on business cards or display it on a billboard, making the domain too long or too complicated may make it too hard for potential customers to catch in one reading or recall later, if they did not have a chance to write it down. An exception to this is if you can get a phrase which will be remembered into the domain name (Example: buytwogetonefree.com) ...which leads us to point number two.
2. Make it easy to remember. Your customer won't always have a pen with them, or maybe they won't even think about your domain name or website until later. Short, simple, and easy to remember can be important, but you normally shouldn't just opt for something like qdipe.com, and we are about to tell you why.
3. Relate it to your business or organization. If you sell bicycle parts, try to put "bicycle parts" in the domain name. This is not only for the eyes of internet surfers, but for the search engines as well. They use various factors to rank the pages they visit, and sometimes the words used in the domain can increase the rank of the page. This brings up another point.
4. Think about keywords. Although we are not going to get into Meta tags in this article, keywords are important. Even if hardly any search engines look at the "keyword" Meta tag any more, they are still searching the content of your site for keywords found within the text of the body, "alt" tags on the images, and "title" tags on anchor text and other links. Taking number 3 and number 4 together, the best of both worlds is to have a business name that is a keyword or phrase relevant to the business and use that as the domain name.
5. Cute's nice, but...! Some people try to make their domain name memorable by using puns, jokes, wordplay, or number combinations. Just be careful. A few years ago I needed a domain name for a weight loss product. I went through all the "short" and "easy to remember" names I could think of, but they all were taken! I then came up with the domain name NoDiet4Me. It made perfect sense to me! I went to have a magnetic sign made for my car, and the lady read it this way..."No 'die' t 4 me" with a lot of stress on the word "die" and shook her head with a worried and confused look on her face! The site worked fine and got a lot of traffic and made me a lot of money, but now I wonder if I lost any traffic because of my domain name.
6. To dash or not to dash. There have been a lot of discussions about whether to put a hyphen in the domain name. I can't honestly answer based on my own experiences, as I use both, but the consensus seems to be from my research that it is easier for a search engine to categorize and rank a site that has a hyphen than one where the words are run together. Example: chickensoup vs. chicken-soup.
There is one danger to be recognized if you choose to use the hyphen. You must make sure it is clearly shown in any printed advertising or representations, and if giving the domain name verbally, go to great lengths to make sure that your listener understands the hyphens MUST be inserted. Many people are not that internet savvy and will hear "bobs dash bicycles" and still type in "bobsbicycles".
7. Alphabet soup. Ever wonder what's best? Should you get a .com or .net? Will it be okay to get a .biz or .us? What the heck do those things mean anyways and does it matter? Well, in today's world, most people entering the internet world are familiar with .com and .net. After that, they tend to get confused. I will not get into country specific top level domains at the moment, as this article is primarily directed at those either doing business in the U.S. or those doing business worldwide with a generic type product where a country-specific domain name would not matter. So, in most cases, .tv, .ws, or .org will not matter one way or another. By the way, .tv is the top level domain for the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and .ws is the top level domain for Samoa.
Just to continue this discussion on extensions for a moment. When passing someone your domain name whether verbally or in writing, make sure they see or hear the extension. To use my earlier example, simply saying, "My website is bobsbicycles", will probably cause people just to type in the .com on the end as that is what they are most used to hearing.
8. Branding. In some cases, a domain name may be associated with an easily recognized, or branded, product. Wal-Mart and Ford do not have to worry THAT much about such niceties as keyword density or "easy to remember" names. However, if you are working with a product or company which has or is in the process of branding itself, some of the information given above about selecting domain names might not be relevant.
I am going to assume that most people who read this little article are probably trying to do some SEO (search engine optimization) themselves, and one of the best places to start is with the domain name itself.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and network marketing professional. He is a graduate of the University of West Florida, a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army. He also has a website that provides information about the Global Domains International business opportunity and domain name registration service.
