Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-09T21:19:18+0100 2010-09-09T21:19:18+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/5-reasons-why-a-good-domain-name-is-your-first-step-towards-online-success-273/ When choosing a name for your business in the past, the process would have been to create the business idea and check out any related trademarks, the information at Companies House and conduct local business searches to make sure the business name is unique. With the advent of the internet as an exceptionally powerful marketing tool, today the starting point is making sure you have the right domain name, a name that provides customers with an easy way to remember and find you. It's your location, brand and email on the web. Helps Build Credibility: Using your domain for your website and to personalise your email helps establish credibility and professionalism. For instance, an email address such as tim.roberts@i-com.net is a lot more professional than timroberts.icom@googlemail.com! This kind of consistency creates authority for your brand and builds trust in clients, as they can see the direct relationship between you and your website. Protects and Builds Your Brand: Purchase the domain name that best represents your business name. This is the starting point; you should then secure alternatives to protect your brand and increase your reach. This is achieved by directing the associated domains back to your website; you can direct as many as you like back to the one website. A Good Domain Raises Your Profile Online: By choosing domain names that are catchy, short, and easy to spell, say and remember, you could potentially increase the amount of traffic to your website and ultimately, the amount of revenue your business generates. Potential clients are much more likely to opt for the short and catchy URL; they are also much more likely to remember it. When choosing your domain name pronounce it three times aloud. Does it sound natural? Imagine yourself telling a potential customer about your website. Is it easy to convey and remember? Ask family and friends what they think of your potential domains give them a few options and see which one they remember in a few days time. Pay Attention to the Extension: .com/.co.uk are the most popular. Others that are well-known and can deliver value such as .net, .org, .biz, and .info. If you sell products to an international market, consider country-code domains. In this case, you might secure the .com, the .net, and the country-code, as appropriate (e.g., .fr, fi etc). Its important that you choose the right extension for your business, as the wrong one could give internet-savvy clients the wrong impression about your business. A Good Domain Should Indicate the Nature of Your Product or Service: This is a benefit from a client perspective as they have a good idea what theyre going to get out of your site; its also good from a search engine perspective. Search Engines such as Google like to see good descriptive domains that link up with page content if you have a domain name that hints at your product or service, your website will appear more authoritative to search engines and is therefore more likely to rank well in the results. A good domain name for your business website can help you acquire more traffic, particularly if you choose to buy a domain that already receives a good amount of traffic rather than coming up with your own, and can vastly improve your brands strength online. Its also important to remember that, from an internet perspective, your domain name is often the first thing potential clients find out about your business make it a good one and watch the conversions come rolling in. Search Engine Marketing 2009-10-27 10:44:10 http://www.i-com.net/blog/5-reasons-why-a-good-domain-name-is-your-first-step-towards-online-success-273/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-makes-a-domain-name-valuable-14/ During the past week, two of my clients have been approached by domain name vendors offering 'prime domain names' that have relevant keyword terms for their business within them. The emails the client receives often contain bold claims that these domains will "pay for themselves within weeks rather than months by virtue of the extra business that they drive to their websites by means of type in traffic and greatly enhanced search engine positions". "Great!" the client thinks, "The domain names offered have keywords present, that's got to help our existing website rank for those terms in the natural listings hasn't it?" Well, actually, the answer is not necessarily. There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration when purchasing domain names. Having keywords within a domain name is certainly a bonus, but purchasing a domain name to help an existing website rank well within the search engines solely on this basis is not advisable. First, lets take a closer look at the claims in the email. The term type in traffic, I can only assume refers to people typing the domain name directly into the address bar at the top of browsers. Hmmm, when was the last time you typed directly into the address bar? Probably google.com or bbc.co.uk- brand names, not search terms. People use search engines for that, so I think we can safely say the extra traffic the domain name will generate from type in traffic will be very small. Next up, greatly enhanced search engine positions well, possibly, but lets take some other factors into account before we start getting excited. I have briefly outlined these main factors below: Domain Age Search Engines take this factor into account when ranking websites on relevant keyword terms, as an older domain name has more trust about it than a brand new domain - the older, the better. Domain History This is an important factor when it comes to search engines determining how trustworthy a domain, and therefore a website, is. There are tools that allow you to view the history of a domain, so you get to see a snapshot of what content was on the domain in the past. If the site has had a good amount of relevant text content on it in the past, thats a definite plus. Indexing by the Engines Is the domain recorded within the search engines? A site command in the engines will allow you to see the current indexed version of the website sitting on that domain name. Backlinks Backlinks (links pointing to the domain from other websites) are an important aspect of ranking well within search engine results. Checking to see how many backlinks the domain currently has and whether they are of any value (determining this is a whole other blog post) in the eyes of the search engines will give a better idea of associated value of the domain. After taking these factors into account, we will have a much better idea of value. In my experience, really good domain names are hard to come-by and cost a lot of money, so be suspicious of emails making bold claims that buying these domain names can help improve search engine ranking results. Search Engine Optimisation 2008-05-20 10:18:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-makes-a-domain-name-valuable-14/