Domain names - the new real estate.
As the Internet matures, a great domain name will increase in value to you because of its relevance to what service you provide; thus the reference to the first rule of successful real estate investing; position, position, position on the search engines.
Why domain names should rarely be the same as your company name ...
The very first web initiative a business takes is to register a domain name. Logically, this might seem a simple step of adding a .com to the end of the company name. This is the classic first mistake made by scores of businesses.
The reason? A bride will search for your service before they search for your company name. In other words, unless your company name says exactly what your service is, you should be registering a domain name by subject heading or category rather than name.
This first mistake was probably pre-empted a long time before when the owners decided on a (difficult) name for their company that did not accurately give a clear idea what service that company performed.
Why a business would brand itself with a name that is hard to remember, hard to pronounce, or a made up name that is combination of the owner’s children’s initials (even thought it worked for the horse Makybe Diva) is totally beyond me.
There is absolutely no mistaking what our sponsor A WEDDING MC HOTLINE does. Yet this is not their domain name – it is www.weddingmc.com.au because this is what brides will type in when they search and it is easy to remember.
THE TEST: Is your domain working for you or against you? Can your prospects easily remember first time it without writing it down? Do you have to spell it out? Can you say it in conversation and they will recall it later? Do you often spend a long time over the phone correcting and repeating every syllable?
TIPS:
If you are unhappy with your domain name why not register a better one (they are very cheap eg $48 for 2 years) or go on to the reserve list and back order a preferred name with a 'Names By Request' option from a domain name company. This service is free - contact us for what companies offer this great advantage.
Try and use a keyword as your domain. For those who are unfamiliar with what a ‘keyword’ is, just think of the most relevant and precise word to describe what you do. We will discuss more about keywords in coming issues of WEDDING INDUSTRY NEWS.
Google, the worlds most popular search engine, gives a high percentile rating in its algorithm to the URL. You can use an underscore, a dash or run the words together because the search engines are able recognise separate words eg wedding-photos.com or weddingphotos.com or wedding_photos.com
Also, try and register the .com or .com.au version of your domain rather than the .org or .net version for the same reason that is much easier for your prospects to remember
Use your domain name as part of your email address to reinforce your brand.
Until next time, enjoy your day.
Warmly,
The Editor WEDDING INDUSTRY NEWS
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