Choosing a Domain Name and Title for a Web Page or Blog
By now, hopefully everyone knows what a URL is. It is the thing that looks like http://www.californiasprings.com. It is the address of your website. Your domain name is the part after the www. The Title is discussed far less, but is very important. It is the information at the top of the page on your browser window. Mine says "Selling Promotional Products." It is also what will show up in your customer's bookmark or favorites menu if they should bookmark your site. They can change that if they wish, but most folks leave it the way you have it. The Title has nothing to do with the text on your page. My headline is also Selling Promotional Products, but that is text. The Title is part of the HTML in your header.
Strategically, the decision regarding domain names and titles plays out in similar ways for both. You have two audiences for this information. One, your customer or potential customer. Two, the Search Engine Spiders. You want the domain name to be easy to remember, but also help with your placement on the search engines. You want the title to be descriptive of your site when your customer is looking through their bookmarks and you want it to help your placement with search engines.
The domain name choice is somewhat limited because many of the best ideas are already taken. When it comes to titles, however, you can do anything you want.
Personally, I would put the most effort into the URL. However, one strategy (and one that we use) is to have multiple Domain names that point to your main site. So, in addition to CaliforniaSprings.com, we also have Waterbottles.com. Currently, these two sites are mirrors. In other words, they have exactly the same content. We have not worked to build up the activity at Waterbottles.com, but it just creates one more way for people to find us. We are in the process of making it slightly different than CaliforniaSprings.com, with the goal of increasing activity in the search engines.
Because our industry is so large and there are already so many great domain names taken, you might use the following approaches.
1. Niche yourself. AdvertisingSpecialty.com is taken. But I'll bet you that AdvertisingSpecialtyofNebraska.com isn't. How about PromotionalProducts-best.com
2. Don't use .net, .bus., .info. For now .com still rules.
3. Hyphens are actually a benefit in your domain name (For search engine optimization.) If you can't get your actual company name, try it with a hyphen. So Joe'sPromotionalPRoducts.com could be Joe's-PromotionalProdcuts.com.
4. Shorter is better, especially for your e-mail address, which springs from your domain name. However, I'd rather have a longish name that helps me with the search engines and customer memory than a short one that means nothing.
This is getting to be a very long post. I will give the best ideas I know of regarding titles by Thursday.
Strategically, the decision regarding domain names and titles plays out in similar ways for both. You have two audiences for this information. One, your customer or potential customer. Two, the Search Engine Spiders. You want the domain name to be easy to remember, but also help with your placement on the search engines. You want the title to be descriptive of your site when your customer is looking through their bookmarks and you want it to help your placement with search engines.
The domain name choice is somewhat limited because many of the best ideas are already taken. When it comes to titles, however, you can do anything you want.
Personally, I would put the most effort into the URL. However, one strategy (and one that we use) is to have multiple Domain names that point to your main site. So, in addition to CaliforniaSprings.com, we also have Waterbottles.com. Currently, these two sites are mirrors. In other words, they have exactly the same content. We have not worked to build up the activity at Waterbottles.com, but it just creates one more way for people to find us. We are in the process of making it slightly different than CaliforniaSprings.com, with the goal of increasing activity in the search engines.
Because our industry is so large and there are already so many great domain names taken, you might use the following approaches.
1. Niche yourself. AdvertisingSpecialty.com is taken. But I'll bet you that AdvertisingSpecialtyofNebraska.com isn't. How about PromotionalProducts-best.com
2. Don't use .net, .bus., .info. For now .com still rules.
3. Hyphens are actually a benefit in your domain name (For search engine optimization.) If you can't get your actual company name, try it with a hyphen. So Joe'sPromotionalPRoducts.com could be Joe's-PromotionalProdcuts.com.
4. Shorter is better, especially for your e-mail address, which springs from your domain name. However, I'd rather have a longish name that helps me with the search engines and customer memory than a short one that means nothing.
This is getting to be a very long post. I will give the best ideas I know of regarding titles by Thursday.
posted by Randy W. Kirk at 11:44 AM
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