on marketing, traveling and living…
Web Design
Web Design
Domain Names – Number One Domain Name Mistake Entrepreneurs Make
Dec 10th
Have You Made This Domain Name Mistake?
When I accidentally evolved into a writing coach for folks on the web, I struggled with creating an identity for myself. I had already built a pretty popular site and brand in one particular niche and people called me by the moniker that I gave myself in that niche. I was stuck for weeks like that. I just didn’t know what to do.
I worked with a coach who recommended that I use my name as my branding position as a writing coach. She thought my last name was memorable and not many people were going to have it on the web. She was right about that. What she didn’t tell me though, was that I wasn’t a celebrity, so people were not going to naturally search for my name yet. They didn’t know me. They were going to find me through other keywords such as “writing” or “article marketing”.
So without that knowledge, I went on to make the same mistake that I had essentially made with my first business as well…So what was my domain name mistake? I did not secure and buy a keyword rich domain name for my main site. I reserved my name.
Even years later when I check my website statistics, most people that find me organically – find me through keywords that I have optimized my site and articles for. Not my name. So that even furthers my proof that I should have reserved a keyword rich domain name rather my first and last name.
Okay, So Why Is This Important?
Through my years of article marketing, I have become somewhat of an SEO expert, and now know just how much importance search engines like Google place on having a keyword rich domain name. In case you are wondering, they place a LOT of importance on it.
What this means is that if I had reserved a name like articlemarketing dot com, my articles would have fared a lot better, and ranked a lot faster, in the search engines.
Now when I write and publish an article to my site, my articles are ranked within 24 hours, but it took a long time to build that type of traffic and importance with the search engines. That didn’t happen right away. I know that if I had had a keyword rich domain name – it probably would have happened a lot faster.
Next time you conduct a search, notice the domain names of the websites that appear in the top results. Sure there are a few whose URLs are completely off topic but they are usually very high traffic authority sites like major newspapers, television, encyclopedia sites, etc. The others are keyword rich (not so famous) sites that could be one of ours!
Last Advice
1 – If you are new to the internet and have not yet built your website/blog, then make sure to secure a keyword rich domain name right away and make that your PRIMARY URL.
2 – If you are already on the web but your website is only a few months old – I’d make the switch to a proper URL.
3 – If you have been on the web for awhile and have a lot of content like me, it wouldn’t make sense to switch your URL now because your content has probably already been crawled and appears in the search engine results. Changing the URLs could mean broken links and a lot of frustration. Trust me – I tried it.
So what you could do is purchase keyword rich domain names that you can use for landing pages, squeeze pages, redirects, sales pages, etc. Having those pages pointing to your main site will help your standing in the search engines, and are almost as good as having a keyword rich primary domain name.
Domain Name Trivia – The .Biz Extension
Dec 9th
The .biz TLD (Top Level Domain) was created in 2001 in order to address the .com name registration frenzy and to allow businesses to register a favored domain name in situations where the .com equivalent was already registered.
U.S. company NeuStar handles the oversight of the .biz registry in full compliance with all ICANN policies. Neustar also administers the.us, kids.us, .cn, .tw, .travel, .tel and 4U.com name extensions.
While .biz domains can be registered by anyone anywhere in the world, the extension is only meant to be registered for business or commercial use.
Registration for the purposes of selling, trading or leasing.biz names for compensation, or the unsolicited offering to sell, trade or lease the domain name for compensation is frowned upon and may be challenged.
While recent official registration figures don’t appear to be available from the registrar, NeuStar announced in June 2008 that two million.biz domains had been officially registered within the.biz domain space. Figures from WHOIS Source show 2,152,174 .biz names registered as of August 28, 2010.
In May of 2009, ICANN Board of Directors voted to approve Neustar’s request to release of all reserved 1-character and 2-character second-level.BIZ domain names and in June 2009, NeuStar launched a three-phase marketing program to release those names to the marketplace over 18 months.
In September 2010, Neustar announced that.biz was the first top-level domain to roll out DNS security extensions (DNSSEC) and the Registry Lock service in order to provide better security.
Will Your Domain Name Be Defined As Being Successful?
Dec 8th
Definition of Successful: achieving or having achieved success
Having obtained something desired or intended? Having achieved wealth or eminence? Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Something that all business people want to overhear being said about themselves! To manage a business successfully requires as much courage as that possessed by the soldier who goes to war. Please enjoy all new information available to help you and your business grow into your highest vision of success!
If you have a fantastic product or service you want your business to grow to, what do you need to do now? Owning the right domain name is one the keys to your Internet success. Part of the climb up the ladder of success is picking the right domain name! Have you ever been plagued by a horrible, severe case of: I can’t think straight, nothing is making sense? You would think that a simple task such as naming an inanimate object like a website would be incredibly easy. Not so!
The wrong name or a spelling mishap will haunt you forever if a mistake is made while doing something as simple as spelling.. Suddenly, without so much as a blink, your obvious mistake is made visible to over 1/3 of the world’s online population or 2.3 billion inhabitants of planet earth. As per Google.com
There are numerous free vocabulary as well as commercial spelling programs where you only pay for results!. One example that comes to mind is perfect spelling in a different language, a very handy tool when you are marketing your product globally. Let’s see, Dansk Danish adj. succesfuld, succesrig, resultatrig, vellykket, heldig. Perfect!
Clearly, everyone needs to identify and manage projects to help make your business dreams a reality. Take care of putting processes and projects in place while keeping things on track so you can focus on running and growing your business. These tips will make your products and services better as well as providing greater value to your customers. Complete all tasks in a manner that has a favorable or prosperous outcome. Where does this lead to? Success!
Remember, business consulting and coaching, brings expertise in project management, training, and IT. There are many organizations available to help you meet your goals and help the business person achieve their vision while growing in size and profitability. Growth items needed by all businesses are innovative services to help you reach your goals including effective project planning, analyzing your business risks and opportunities, management training, web site strategy and design, and much more. Operative word: Success!
Examples of successful are: the play had a successful run on Broadway, the neighbors sold their successful dry-cleaning business and retired to Fiji, the incredibly successful young family is travelling the world and so on. Business strategy planning and consulting services are invaluable tools while helping business owners develop a broadband network. Please enjoy the new information available that helps you and your business grow into the highest vision of success! If you have a fantastic product or service that you want your business to grow with, what question should the business person be asking? What do I do now to be a success?
To become successful online, a well researched, genuinely thought-out, unique domain name will help establish your powerful Internet identity. A quote from Woody Allen states ” It’s simply a matter of what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do.”
These business suggestions and tips all lead to one powerful word. Success!
