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.
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