There are a number of things to keep in mind when registering a domain name for your new site. We’ve scoured the web and our summary of the best advice from a range of experts on choosing a domain name for a new website is as follows. By choosing a domain name carefully and following the tips below, you will be able to select a successful website domain.
The best types of domains to buy in order of our preference are:
Whilst we would recommend .com.au you can realistically rank just as easily with any of them. The .com always wins out simply because that’s what people add by default. Also, since it is one of the oldest extensions .com shows that your business has been around for a while and that you have a well-established presence on the Web. However, if you’re getting found in the search engine ranking pages does anyone really pay attention to the domain name anyway?
How to find available domains
There are a number of services available to help you find available domains. We use www.melbourneit.com.au. To find available domains, simply click on the DOMAIN tab and type in the keyword that you want to include.
Make it easy to remember and target “type-by” traffic
Remember that whilst most people usually type the website domain into a search engine to get to a website, other people will type directly into the address bar.
When choosing a domain name you should avoid long and complicated names, as people may get it wrong when typing it and simply lose interest. Choosing a domain name with plurals should also be avoided, along with names that feature double letters. Therefore, try to keep the domain name short and preferably singular.
Double letters in a domain name can make it incredibly difficult and confusing for people to navigate to, for example marcsshirts.com.au. But if you really do want a page with double letters, then it's a good idea to register both versions - marcsshirts.com.au and marcshirts.com.au. This will prevent you from losing traffic when someone enters the name wrongly.
Used commonly spelt version of words. It is important that people are able to understand and spell your domain correctly, otherwise you will lose traffic. It is preferable to spell out numbers rather than using digits. The easier the domain name, the easier it will be for people to remember you and visit your website.
Keywords in the domain
Most business’s don’t have the massive marketing resources of a Zappos or Amazon. When selecting a name to fit with your website, you want to ensure it’s relevant to the topic or theme of your site. There is no point registering a URL completely unrelated to what you’ll be promoting. The exception to this rule is of course, a really catchy domain name. Whilst sites like Google, Yahoo and Twitter have proved to work exceptionally well in creating an online brand presence there are obviously the exception rather than the rule.
If your website is going to be business related or involved in some form of commerce it makes sense to have a well-searched-for-keyword incorporated within the domain name. The majority of online businesses are still found through search engine queries. By and large though, a good rule of thumb is to incorporate the most searched for term (for your market) in your domain name.
A lot of discussion happens around the importance of having your keyword in the URL. The argument against it is that good on-page search engine optimisation negates a need for your keywords in there at all. But time and time again we see keyword rich domain names ranked amongst the best. If at all possible we recommend including keywords in your domain name.
Brand names in the domain
The argument against this is that if the site gets too big and starts to outrank the actual company site for whatever product you are selling, they will simply take you down.
To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?
The shorter your domain name the more memorable it’s going to be. However you’ll discover that most one-word/two-word domain names have been snatched up already. The question about whether to use hyphens frequently raises debate in many forums we frequent. The consensus is that although they don’t look nearly as pretty use of a hyphen in a domain name has no negative impact on search engine optimisation in the long run. For this reason adding the hyphen is an option when looking for available URLs. This additional keystroke can bring an otherwise unavailable keywords back into play.
Most SEO experts concur that hyphenating a string of words makes a long domain name more search engine friendly. The downside is that when it comes to word-of-mouth dissemination most folks won’t bother including those pesky hyphens, with the resulting consequence that intended referrals to your domain could end up on your competitor’s doorstep. Sometimes choosing a domain name is a bit of a balancing act.
The addition of other words such as those below might also work really well:
Whether you add the word to the beginning or the end again has no real impact on the overall rank of your site. Words like Cheap and Bargain should be avoided, as well as any other word that implies something negative about the product.
Direct match domain names improve adwords click through rates
In a recent review done by Memorabledomains.co.uk, direct match domains enjoyed superior click through results. Three Google AdWords campaigns were set up with identical ad copy, the difference being the targeted domain name for each ad. The primary domain name used was ElectricBicycles.co.uk, being an exact match for the keyword electric bicycles. The other two domain names were YourBikes.co.uk and InAHurry.co.uk. The results showed a 42% improvement in CTR for the exact match domain; however there were other benefits, as well. Memorable Domains also reported that the ad was displayed more often and had a higher quality score, the end result being a 105% click advantage over InAHurry.co.uk and a 45% advantage over YourBikes.co.uk.
(Cited on http://marketaire.com/2011/07/07/drastically-improve-ppc-performance-with-an-exact-match-domain/)
Those are some serious click differences!
Register more than one domain
If you come up with a really good domain name, other people may try to piggyback on your awesome domain name by registering something similar. If possible protect your business or website by registering similar sounding domain names and parking them. For example, if you register marcsweb.com also think about registering marcsweb.net. Some businesses also register common misspellings of their site’s name. Remember that several domains can point to the same website.
Where do you register your new domain
There are any number of providers that can be used to register your domain. We use intaserve.com.au to register all our domains (not an affiliate link). They cost as little as $13.98 per year. They are honest and reliable, and I strongly recommend them to anyone.
When registering your domain name it’s a good idea to register it for more than one year. There are usually discounts for multi-year registrations from most domain name registers and Google considers multi-year registered domains as less likely to be spam sites. Consequently, right off the bat your site will have a search engine advantage and a shorter evaluation period in the Google Sandbox.
….and finally register your domain as soon as possible
Domain names are being snatched faster than a one legged cat tryin' to bury a turd on a ferris wheel. Register soon unless you want to get stuck with the-domain-name-that-no-one-else-wants.org.
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Businesses optimizing for local search as a separate subset of their internet marketing strategy are able gain an advantage over their larger competitors who tend to dedicate large budgets to paid search marketing and banner advertising.
A local search is performed when someone uses a search engine to find products or services in their own local area or community. Maps began popping up in Google search results during 2008 with links to local businesses. Early in 2009 Google started to automatically include local site listings in their search results, based on your physical location (based on your IP address).
Here’s our ultimate easy to follow 7 step Local Search Optimisation Action Plan:
Step 1 - Optimize your website for local search
If your local search optimization action plan achieves nothing else, make sure you place your local street address and phone number on every page of your website. This achieves two things:
Create a contact us page with all of your local information. A good contact us page includes the following elements:
If you have more than one location, create a page on your website for each location.
A more advanced technique is to have your webmaster create a KML location file to display geographic data for Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. Read more about how to create these files in Google’s KML Tutorial.
Step 2 – Claim your listing on Google Maps
Google’s local search service is Google Maps. The business side of things is called Google Places. Use Google Places to create your free listing. When potential customers search maps for local information, they'll find your business including your address, hours of operation and even photos of your storefront &/or products. Make sure your business is listed and build out your listing with as much information and additional content as possible including videos and maps.
Whilst the discussion below is focussed more in your Google Places listing, your strategy should also embraces other popular search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.
Bing
For Bing create a business listing through the Bing Business Portal. Your Bing listing should include as many details as possible. Including media will help boost the likelihood that it will rank higher than competitors.
Yahoo
To claim an existing Yahoo Local listing, sign into your Yahoo account or create an account if you don’t already have one. Search for your listing on Yahoo Local. Click on the Enhance your listing link to add more details.
If your business does not have a Yahoo local listing, create one in the Local Listings Account Centre. Enhanced listings are $9.95 per month and allow you to include up to 10 photos, promotion links, and a 3,000 character description of your business.
Step 2 – Claim your place or register with local search directories
A great way to get more visibility on a search engine ranking page is to submit your business details to any number of local business directories. First and foremost this will give your business online credibility. By having your company appear more than just once on a search for your company name, this makes searchers a lot more comfortable about clicking your link. The other thing this will do for you is pull your website and blogs further up the search engine ranking page.
Below is a list of local search directories that you should consider registering with. When you do so it is crucial that you always use the same business name, address and phone number as this is how search engines will recognise your listing as the same business.
Get maximum leverage of your free listing with these directories by including relevant descriptions of your services, images, videos and visitor reviews. Be thorough, accurate, and complete on your local listings. Include your full address (including post code), phone number, relevant business categories, and relevant service / product keywords in your page description
Step 3 - Encourage satisfied customers to post a review
Encourage your satisfied customers to leave a review on your Google places listing. A high volume of reviews (and especially reviews native to Google Places) help a lot more than a lower volume of top-notch reviews. Whenever you can influence review content, try to have those reviews include category and location keywords as this will influence your position within local search results.
Step 4 - Respond to your critics - be authentic!
Embrace criticism and bad reviews as opportunities to be responsive and to defend your brand. As the old adage goes, a happy customer will tell three of their friends but an unhappy one will tell ten. But online, you have the opportunity to respond and right a perceived wrong. Everyone knows that businesses have good days and bad days. Folks are not likely to believe that a business could only get glowing sugary sweet customer reviews. The odd bit of criticism adds authenticity. It’s the way you respond to your criticism that will count for your future fans, and may even help bring back that wayward customer that had an unfortunate experience back to you.
Step 5 – Check out what your competitors are doing
Take hints for your local search strategy by analysing what your competition are doing. Take a look at the Places page of your competitors by searching their business name. The next step of your local search strategy is to take advantage of any websites your competitors are using that don’t already form part of your campaign. Once you have researched and established references on these new sites, you can always look for unknown competitors simply by searching for core local keywords, viewing the listings that are positioned at the top of the results.
Step 6 – Take a look at the big end of town
If you’ve searched all of your local resources and aren’t entirely sure where to look next, you can target larger metro markets to find new opportunities. Remember, it doesn’t matter if they aren’t in your local market, you could still find new opportunities within those listings. In fact, if you’re searching within your industry, you can often find niche specific references that will strengthen your listing and content. Search larger areas, often times you can find industry related accounts that are highly successful within those markets, but locally the competition probably won’t be targeting the majority of what major players are.
Step 7 – Strive for continued local growth
As your business builds its local presence, it’s important to seek opportunities to list your business contact information whenever possible. Extra citations strengthen your Places account. As references build, keep your address information consistent. It may be a good idea to refer to and copy information directly from your Google Places listing whenever you’re creating a new reference or citation. Remember, local search is only going to become more relevant and personalized as it continues to evolve.
Some Final Comments
Local search is critical to all businesses. Google estimates that 73% of all online activity is related in someway or another to local content. In addition research by comScore Networks indicates that 43% of search engine users are seeking a local merchant to buy something offline and that 54% of search users have substituted internet search for the phone book. Developments in how search engines display their results have made a consideration of local search even more important.
A local search optimisation strategy is different from natural search engine optimisation. This is because Google utilises a completely different algorithm for ranking local map results. However, search engine and local search optimisation are becoming very tied together. Blended search results are overtaking many standard search engine ranking page listings. Highly optimized company sites having an obvious impact on local ranking. There is a real opportunity for businesses that operate in either a single or many geographic locations to optimise their websites so that they are found by searchers conducting local searches.
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Awesomeadam.com.au is the website of Gold Coast kids and corporate magician, Awesome Adam. His new website achieved a return on investment of 124% for the pay per click campaign managed by Digital Edge. Awesomeadam.com.au is the website of a Gold Coast based professional magician. The design of the website targets family birthdays (particularly kids) and corporate events. The website is designed to be eye catching, engaging and exude a sense of fun to the viewer and reflect the humorous style of magic for which Awesome Adam is becoming increasingly well known for on the Gold Coast.
Last month the web changed as Google's most recent large algorithm update saw many websites' rankings (and therefore traffic) fall away. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that for most websites, their rankings have only just begun to be effected.
In early May, many SEOs saw large fluctuations in their monitored rankings and niches. This most recent update, called either Panda 2.1 or 3.0, seems to be effecting many smaller websites. Google is eager to downplay the size of the most recent update but it’s clear that for many companies the impact may be worse than the initial release.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you have duplicate content issues or rely on content re-publishing then you really need to sort that out! Furthermore, Google's algorithm is increasingly becoming smarter at judging the quality of a website - no longer on just a content level, but also on a design level.
Recent updates to Google Analytics' tracking code include a new metric to measure page load speeds. This perhaps hints at another new metric Google will use to evaluate your website's quality. If a page takes too long to load then that's bad for visitors and if Google continues to send visitors to websites that have poor quality content and take an age to load then people will start to look for another search engine (hypothetically Google's reasoning - I'm pretty sure Google will never be toppled).
Whilst standard Search Engine Optimisation techniques are still important, it is more important than ever to ensure your website has high quality, unique content that is genuinely engaging and insightful for users and visitors.
With the online marketplace becoming ever more competitive your business needs a website that is more than just a digital brochure. Digital Edge is a Gold Coast based internet marketing specialist offering an end to end approach to planning and delivering web development services to our clients on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Tweed Heads, Logan, Beenleigh and surrounding areas.
Your website offers levels of exposure for your business unlike any other form of advertising. More than just website designers we talk the language of business; lead generation, sales conversion and return on investment to justify your online marketing spend.
Designed to give your business maximum exposure in search engine rankings for connection with your customers our services include:
Contact us now for an obligation free review of how Digital Edge can help make your business proper.
