Domain Names, Picking the Right One
You would think picking a domain name for your blog is straightforward enough. Just use my name or the name of my company/business, OK?
It’s never as simple as that. You need to take a little time over chosing a domain name, some serious thought should be given to ensuring the domain name you select will enhance your business.
I feel that it would be a valid exercise and possibly of some use to others if I write about my own experiences and views on buying domain names.
So what do we look for?
The key factors in choosing a domain name concerns the nature of the site and search engine optimization. If you are trying for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. For example the keyword ‘VOIP’. For example VOIP info blog.
Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process which may(or may not) be the case.
This is why you see so many ‘my-domain-name.com’ style domain names on the net.
They are not easy to remember and they don’t always feel they hold as much relevance as proper keyword optimization on the content itself.
If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to the utilzation of relevant keywords in your domain name.
What about the use of the word ‘Blog’ in the Domain Name.
Many bloggers find that with Google Adense they get a lot of blog ads coming up because the word is there. I, on the other hand, have found that unless you are writing about blogging, however these tend to go away quite quickly once the content of the site becomes clear and tend to get more relevant as time goes on.
A more valid reason for not putting ‘Blog’ in the titles is because the average user does not know what a blog is. At the end of the day, to the average surfer, a blog is still a website pure and simple. I don’t feel that this is an insurmountable problem and indeed I have quite a few sites ending in the term ‘Blog’. I can only speak from my own experience but I don’t see it makes a tremendous difference.
Why ‘.com’?
Finally, for an international domain your domain name should end in “.com”. IN my opinion, this is an extremely important point and I can find no evidence to the contrary. In plain English, the fact of the matter remains that when people think of sites, they always type in ‘.com’. Of course there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but the addend will kill your traffic. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending if you can help it. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic at your expense. I’ve learnt this painful lesson from personal experience.
Where should you buy domain names?
We suggest Weycrest. Their prices are reasonable and they have never yet let us down.
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