Internet Marketing Legacy

The first thing any internet marketer needs is a domain name. Setting up a domain is the single most important step of starting an online business. Your domain name is what identifies you on the web, and nobody else can have the same domain name. I’ve researched quite a bit on this topic, and here’s what I’ve learned in a nutshell…

It’s preferred to have a memorable, easy to spell domain name. There are differing opinions on this. Some people say that the domain name doesn’t matter, and the content of the pages within the domain will carry more weight. Others say that having the topic or main keyword of your website within the domain name is critical.

For example, if your website will focus on purple monkeys, purplemonkeys.com, or purple-monkeys.com, would be a logical domain name. It’s easy to remember, easy to spell, and it explains what your site is about. On the other hand, there are thousands upon thousands of sites with domain names that make no sense, and they consistently get tons of traffic (ever heard of Google?).

The vast majority of SEO (Search Engine Optmization) experts say that it’s best to have the main keyword of your website in the domain name. Here’s the bottom line… if you can choose a domain name that has a logical meaning to someone who reads it (especially the search engines), then go with that.

Your website’s real traffic will come from getting the search engines to recognize that the content of your site is relevant and valuable. The majority of your traffic will probably come from other sites linking to you, not from people typing your domain name directly. So don’t drive yourself crazy trying to come up with the next Google name. If you have an idea, and the domain name is available, go for it.

I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes researching each of my domain names. My first choice isn’t usually available, but it’s not difficult to find something that will work. So what tools can you use to get suggestions for a domain name? Personally, I like GoDaddy’s suggestion tool the best. Go to GoDaddy.com, type in your domain name of preference, and if it’s available, it will tell you. If it’s not available, GoDaddy will suggest other domain names for you.

One other tip about choosing a domain name… if the name you want is not available, try adding a word or number to the front if it. For example, if purplemonkeys.com is not available, try 1purplemonkeys.com or A1purplemonkeys.com, or A2purplemonkeys.com. It’s a simple way to get the keywords you want in your domain name.

There is also some debate about whether or not dashes in a domain name are good or bad. The pros to having dashes is that it makes the domain name easier to read. For example, thisismywebsitename.com is not as easy to ready as this-is-my-website-name.com. Some people say that the cons of having dashes is that you’ll be penalized by the search engines because ‘dash-filled’ domains are used by spammers around the world. I haven’t seen any evidence to support that, and I’ve read that Google doesn’t penalize against sites that have lots of dashes, so I’m not worried about it. Dahes can be beneficial if you have a website called OJ-is-guilty-and-I-have-proof.com. In my opinion, dashes are fine.

What about the domain extension? Which domain extension is best? Is .com better than .net or .org or .info? Again, opinions vary on this, but most people believe that the search engines place more value on .com, .net, and .org domains. You can get .info domain name for as low as 99 cents now. I have 1 domain with a .info extension, and I get just as much traffic on that domain as I do on my .com domains. Some people might tell you that .info domains are useless, but my experience tells me otherwise. In my opinion, you should try for .com first, then .net, then .org, then. info. After that, it doesn’t really matter.

How about subdomains? Are subdomains alright? What is a subdomain? A subdomain is kind of like a prefix to a domain name. My .info domain has several subdomains which basically act as entirely different websites. For example, if your main domain name is lots-of-good-stuff.com, you could have subdomains such as buy.lots-of-good-stuff.com, sell.lots-of-good-stuff.com, etc.

Subdomains are good for several reasons. First, a subdomain lets you expand the scope of your site with memorable, explanatory domain names. Second, if you have a more generic domain name such as squidlydoo.com, you could have subdomains that tell the visitor what the domain is about such as football.squidlydoo.com, soccer.squidlydoo.com, baseball.squidlydoo.com, etc.

If you absolutely, positively must have a specific domain, and it’s already taken, you may be able to purchase that domain at a domain auction or resale service. There are companies that do nothing but buy good domain names and resell them for a profit. The prices can go from a few hundred dollars to many thousands. But unless you are convinced that you must have that domain name, I suggest being a little creative and  getting an inexpensive domain name and making that work.

Finally, do a little research to make sure that the domain you’re purchasing doesn’t have a negative history attached to it. If the domain name you want has been used by a spammer in the past, chances are Google and the other search engines might have that domain “blacklisted” and won’t list it in search results.

I hope you’ve learned enough to go out and buy a domain name. My next article will give you my recommendations for the best sites to purchase a domain.

The Internet Marketer

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 8:55 pm and is filed under The Journey, Website Setup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.