2bqPFzAKM9A7VXuF8JAQR4IqVOlEkub: Domain

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

How to Pick the Best Domain Name for Your Site

When attempting to decide upon a good domain (.com,.net., etc.) name, there are a number of considerations you'll want to make. The 1st thing you will need to do is think of the purpose of your website. For instance, if you're creating a family blog, the amount of traffic that Google searches provide to your website (if you make it easy for Google to crawl it in any way) matters hardly any. But if you're producing a website intended to offer a good or advertising directed toward a particular market, your domain name could make a substantial difference in your success.

If search traffic is very important to you, then you'll wish to think of a domain name that contains the types of keywords folks search for when looking for solutions and ideas related to your market. For instance, if you desire to develop a website in which you review all the newest best-selling thriller novels, you'll need to choose a domain name that reflects typical search words utilised by the readers of such novels.

A tool to support you in the process of obtaining the kinds of search terms you'll wish to take into account is Google's keyword tool. You can key in a keyword phrase such as "thriller novel review" and it will yield a number of several other keywords connected to this phrase. The keyword tool furthermore generates details about the traffic size specific keyword phrases give, and the amount of competition there is from various websites for that search term.

If this type of search traffic is less critical to you, you may opt for a domain name that is clever or funny, possibly a name which reflects your individuality or your site's objective in some way. For instance, you could select some nickname you've been called to function as your site name. Think about a number of choices, because most likely you will have to come up with some variants of your ideas given that several domains are already taken.

Once you have some ideas nailed down, you should visit a domain registrar online and see if your name is available. It's possible that your preferred domain won't be available as a.com domain but it will be as a.net domain. This part of the process is trial and error, so just spend a bit of time narrowing down your top choices and then decide.

How To Get a Domain Name and Hosting For Free For 1 Year The Domaining Home Business Model for Entrepreneurs Secrets To Having A Successful Online Domain Need a Great Domain Name - Ask a Domain Name Generator

A Good Domain Name Is Prime Real Estate

This is the first in a series of articles that will attempt to demystify important seo factors by drawing direct correlations between the steps you'd take to open a store on main street and the steps you'd take to launch a website to do business online.

In this installment, we'll be discussing why choosing a good domain name is the same as picking out the perfect address for your new retail store, office building, or manufacturing facility.

Location, Location, Location

You want a prime location for your new business. Some place that's easy to find and easy to give directions to. Your clients should have no trouble locating you in the busy retail/office/industrial space where you're setting up shop and they should be able to easily guide their friends and family there when they tell them what a great experience they had doing business with you.

In online terms, this is your domain name. In other words, this is what people type into the address bar to get to your website.

The trick here is deciding whether you want your domain name to reflect your brand or your business. In almost every case, I recommend you choose a domain name based on your industry rather than your name.

For example, "Grass Masters" might be an appropriate and catchy name for a lawn care company, but GrassMasters-dot-com tells the search engines absolutely nothing about what you actually offer. A better choice would be LawnCare-dot-com. But, of course, that address is already taken, as is just about every imaginable iteration of that name.

So you'll have to find a compromise. One good way to do that is to include the name of your city or state in your domain name. After all, when people are looking for someone to mow their yard and trim their hedges, they are most likely to search for something like "lawn care company in... " So why not make that your domain name?

Of course, even then you may find that many good domain names with your city or state and your business already belong to someone else. Don't let that discourage you. With a bit of thought, you will be able to register a domain name that reflects who you are, where you're at, and what you do.

In some cases, you may find that it makes sense to secure a good domain name first and then let that dictate your business name. That's precisely how I approached it when naming my internet marketing firm. Just be sure to choose a name that is easy to remember while making it pretty clear (to both people and search engines) what service you offer and where you do business, if that's applicable. In other words, find a name that feels like a good location to set up shop.

Brand Over Business

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. And I'm certainly not going to be the guy tell Jeff Bezos that naming his online bookstore after the Amazon river is a bad idea domain name because a river in Central America has nothing to do with selling books and CDs.

Thus, I offer you "The Amazon Exception," which states quite simply: If you have Jeff Bezos' budget and marketing savvy, you can name your company and your website anything you want.

For the rest of us, the simple recipe of where we are and what we do tends to offer the best search engine rankings and the corresponding website traffic.

Ask An Expert

If you're at all anxious or stressed out over selecting a domain name, good. It's no small decision and it can be costly and difficult to undo once it's done. For that reason, you should seriously consider consulting an internet marketing expert to help you make this decision and to lay out your online marketing strategy.

Is Your Domain Name and Brand Protected?

Securing your brand identity is one of the most important things you must do as a business owner. In order to effectively manage your brand name and prevent misuse, slander or discredit of your reputation; you must not only conduct good business practices and maintain high ethical standards, but also ensure that your identity as a business is well managed.

Social media identity protection is the solution!

In today's high tech digital universe, the internet and specifically social media networks have made private information much more readily available on the web; which as a result presents a security risk for both personnel and organizations alike. This is why we all need some sort of social media identity protection.

More and more we are seeing not only personal identity theft cases on the internet, but also those of businesses; as criminals attempt to profit from the misfortune of others online

With an evolution in search engines comes an evolution in optimization. Branding and social media have become a major influence in the ranking system of every major search engine on the internet. Whether you're seeking online reputation management, brand awareness, or search engine optimization, a strong Social Presence is essential for any business that is communicating through the internet.

The industry has multiplied over the past decade. An inux of interest, funding and support have helped Social Media communities grow and prosper in the 21st century.

Thinks of the following possibilities.

Imagine your business name being registered as a profile or fan page on a major social network by someone other than yourself. This would eliminate you getting that user-name for yourself and increases the risk for misuse, as well as misrepresentation of your brand by others.

One of your competitors could register your brand name as a profile or fan page on a major social network and use it to discredit your business.

Your business name could be registered as a profile or fan page on a major social network and use it to attract customers under false pretenses, bringing discredit to your brand name.

Social media has become the Wild West for cybersquatting, with no regulations or a central control system for taking down names. We usually advise our clients that the best offense is a good defense.

This kind of service is also good for companies that want to control the trademarks or brand names but do not necessarily want to have a presence on the various social media sites.

As such, it is a good idea to look for a Social Media Identity Protection company that can help reserve your company name or brand on over 300 websites.

Cool And Tricky Domain Names - Not As Valuable Internet Real Estate These Days

Five or ten years ago there was a domain name that I really wanted, I probably would've paid in excess of 10 to $20,000 for it, today I was e-mailed about that domain, it was for sale for the low price of $299. I had noticed that it had come due previously, but chose not to buy it because I didn't need it, it wasn't getting any traffic before, and I already had a similar name which was generating more than enough traffic, ranks well the search engines, and therefore I simply didn't need it anymore. Indeed, more and more people are discovering this. Let's go ahead and talk about it.

It used to be that people would register cool and tricky domain, realizing they were valuable Internet real estate, and knowing that they could sell them at a later date and make a huge profit. Although I had never bought domain names for that purpose, I had secured several great names back in 1995, and I had used them for various purposes. Eventually as my business endeavors changed, there were some which I no longer needed. I can remember selling one for a huge amount of money, and I thought about it later, and it almost seemed like a gift out of the blue, when someone offered to buy it.

They wanted it more than I did, and they had the money, and therefore I sold it. Indeed, I still have some very good URLs that are getting a tremendous amount of traffic, names which would be considered incredible Internet real estate. I haven't bothered to offer them for sale because the market does not seem to be interested in paying a lot of money for such things. There also seems to be an economic cycle that goes along with this.

After the dotcom crash of 2000, many of these domain names became next to worthless, and folks were not even paying to renew them because they knew there was little if any chance they could sell them. I can remember people offering me domain names for only $100, quite decent names. Long about 2004, the prices started to rebound slightly, and by 2006 and 2007 names were actually worth something again. Then the financial crash of 2008 came, and these domain names have been reduced in value ever sense.

Further, many new startup companies are picking obscure names or nonexistent names when it comes time to pick a brand and a name for their new company. Cyber squatters for domain names can't possibly come up with endless "created words" to register and hope someone will buy them. And all the cool, tricky, and common names don't seem to be worth much anymore. Please consider all this and think on it.

What Is the Structure of a Domain Name?

In easy English, a domain name is an address to a website. As in real life every address has to be unique. Originally domain names did not exist, instead one had to type in a long string of numbers which is known as an IP Address. Domain names are a more user friendly way of accessing a website as humans read words rather than long strings of numbers.

As you already know, your house address is made up of various components such as house name, street address and the name of the city you're living in. Similar to your home address even domain names are made up of various components. I'm going to take as an example a domain name that I'm sure you've heard about before which is "http://www.google.com" The domain name I'm using in this example is made up of three components which are .com, Google and www. The last part of the domain name which is .com is known as the top-level domain.

Every domain must end with a top-level domain (TLDs). In the early days there were only a handful of TLDs such as .com, .net and .org. Nowadays there is a wide range of TLDs as every country has his own TLD. In addition to that it will soon be possible for anyone to purchase his own TLD although it will be very expensive.

The second component of the domain is Google which is the second-level domain. As with the top-level domain, the second-level domain is also chosen by the buyer. Any combination of strings may be chosen as long as it's made up of characters, numbers and dashes. Another requirement is that the combination of the top-level domain and second-level domain is unique. For example, in this case no one can purchase "http://www.google.com" as it has already been registered by Google.

The last component of the domain is www which is the third-level domain, more commonly known as subdomain. Subdomains are domains that form part of larger domains. The owner of a domain can create any subdomain he wishes as long as it's made up of characters and numbers.

That's all about the various components of a domain. To purchase a domain one may visit one of the many registrars that are available. Nowadays prices for domains are very low with a 1yr registration for a.com being $10 to $15.