Domain Name - Keywords or Business Name?? What do you Use?

Are you just looking to start your online business?

Are you creating a website for your 'bricks and mortar' business?

At some point in time before your website goes live you will need to register a domain name.


What factors do you need to consider when you choose a domain name?

Do you just choose your business name?

Do you incorporate your keywords?

Do you include your location?

Do you separate the words with hyphens?

How much are you prepared to pay?


The answer to these questions?? IT DEPENDS.


Let me take you through a scenario. I am working with a business selling computers in the retail market. The business is named after the founder of the business - 'Sullivan Computing' and is based in California.'

This business has been established for a long period of time and is well know in its local area.

BUT it is looking to expand its business across the US, into areas where it is less well known?

What domain should you register?

Would you register www.sullivancomputers.com

Or would you register www.buycomputerusa.com?

2 Rules for Choosing a Great Domain Name

Rule Number 1 for choosing a domain name - MAKE It Easy to Remember

Rule Number 2 - Make it Search Engine Friendly by including relevant keywords

Do you include your Location?

Would I include the location? Not in this case because the business is looking to service the US market. If you have a local business you may benefit from including the location. And I would certainly include your location in your page title and meta description.

Would I use hyphens?

Hyphens can make your domain name difficult to communicate to people. Same goes for fullstops. It can however significantly reduce the cost of the domain name. It may also mean the difference between being able to register the domain name and it not being available at all.

Have a look at GoDaddy.com and search for your desired domain name with and without hyphens. And compare the difference.

www.buycomputerusa.com - $2232.50

www.buy-computer-usa.com - $13.21

BIG DIFFERENCE in terms of cost. Minimal difference in terms of search engine performance.


Can you get the benefit of both??

YES.

What would I do in this instance?

Depending on the budget I would

1. Register www.sullivancomputers.com

2. Register either www.buycomputerusa.com or www.buy-computer-usa.com or www.buycomputer-usa.com

3. Place a permanent redirect from www.buycomputerusa.com to www.sullivancomputers.com

Make sure you get the redirect done properly.

That way you get the benefit of people already knowing your local business and being able to find your website easily. And you also get the benefit of including some of your keywords in your domain name so you get some extra search engine ranking power.

For more info on keywords check out my post on Keyword Research for Business Websites.

Domain Name - Keywords or Business Name?? What do you Use?

Blogging for Online Business Success

A blog is a vital element for the success of an online business.

There are a number of important reasons that a business should have a blog -

1. It creates a community allowing you to interact with your customers on a more personal level.

2. You can quickly and easily distribute important information about new products or services that your business is offering.

3. You can educate your customers about your business products and services and why they should take advantage of them.

4. You can use your blogs to create targeted links back to your main website, bringing you traffic and improving your search engine rankings.

So, have I convinced you that your business needs a blog.

If I have you need to go over and check out Problogger and let Darren teach you how to setup and run your blog the right way.




Like everything, blogging when done correctly is a very powerful way to market your business online. But when done poorly it can be a waste of your valuable time and resources.

Go over and check out Problogger and find out how to do business blogging the right way.

Blogging for Online Business Success

Get Top 10 Google Rankings - DIY

As a business owner it is often tempting to want to do things yourself to save money.

As a result of this the usual cost is time. Because it is your business you don't want to do a terrible job. Yet, maybe it is an area that you don't know very much about.

So, what do you do?

Well, from personal experience I can tell you that what you do is -

1. You invest a lot of time and maybe even some money trying to find out how to do it properly. This takes you away from your family and upsets your wife.

2. When you are finished you are not really sure whether you have done a good job or not.

3. You bring in a professional to sort out what you have done and do it properly.

Sound familiar?

What you need in order to save you time and money are the right tools from people who know what they are doing.

That is why you need to check out Internet Business Promoter if you are looking to improve your search engine rankings.

Not sure about the cost? What is it costing your business to not be on the front page of Google?

It is not very often that I do a review for a paid product as you know. I often review free products but I will only review a paid product under the following criteria -

1. I have used it
2. It does what it said it will
3. I believe that it is great value for money.

Internet Business Promoter fits all of those categories.

Here is just a little summary of what it can do

1. Keyword research - get the right keywords for your website.

2. Find out what you need to do to optimise your website to get on the front page of Google

3. Compare your website to your major competitors to find ways to improve the optimisation of your website.

4. Help you find websites to link to

5. Submit your website to major search engines and directories so that it can be found bny more people.

If you are looking for a DIY SEO program you could do far worse than check out Internet Business Promoter

Get Top 10 Google Rankings - DIY

Keeping up with the Jones' could be vital to your Business Success

One of the major challenges facing business owners' doing business on the internet is that there is so much info out there that keeping up with everything that is going on can be a major challenge.

Unfortunately if you use all of your time scouring the internet for every last piece of information relating to your industry then you have no time to actually do anything.
But you need to stay up to date with what's hot.

How do you do this?

One of the tools that I use from time to time to monitor what is hot on the internet is Trendpedia



Trendpedia is a great tool for monitoring what is being talked about in your industry or niche on the social media websites.

You can compare different topics within your industry to see which one is hottest at the moment.

When you do a search you see a few different results.

1. You see the number of posts per day that relate to your search term. If you have done a comparison then you will see the number of blog posts per day for each term.

As a general rule, if no one is posting about it then don't waste your time.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule.

If you are in a very specialised industry then there may not be many posts. This is a great opportunity for you to dominate the search engines by posting new content regularly.

If you think you have the next greatest thing since sliced bread that no-one else knows about yet.

2. You see the pattern of blog posting on a daily basis.

Did you ever wonder how often you should post on your blog, or what days you should post on. You can review the pattern of posting and get some answers to your questions.

Follow the peaks and troughs.

Remember it is a bit like the sharemarket. As a general rule you should follow the trend.

3. You see what is being said on Twitter about your subject or subjects.

At the bottom of the screen you can see who is saying what on Twitter about your industry. You can click on the graph and break this down to daily information for your subject.

I find this a great way to monitor Twitter quickly and easily without having to run Twitter applications that suck up my computer memory and can be very distracting.

Does your business have a social media strategy?

Not sure what to post on your blog?

Not sure when or how often to post on your blog?

What is the competition doing?

I have found this to be a great tool to answer all of these questions without taking up a huge amount of my time.

Does it just reinforce what you already know about your industry or are there some different things going on that you need to be aware of?

Keeping up with the Jones' could be vital to your Business Success

How much would you pay for a Number 1 Ranking on Google??

What would it be worth to your online business to be Number 1 on Google?

One of the most common questions that I get asked is 'How much will it cost to get my business to Number 1 on Google?'

My question to you is 'What is it costing you to not be Number 1 on Google?'

Here is an exercise that I do to determine the value of the Number 1 ranking on Google.


Lets say that I have an online business and one of my major search terms generates 2000 searches per month. You can use the Google Keyword Tool to see how many searches per month are generated for your search term.

On average the number 1 listing will generate 40-50% of the total search volume as traffic.

So my website is going to get 800-1000 hits per month.

I have a product that sells for $27. (You can plug in your own numbers)

My website converts at 10% so I am going to make 80 to 100 sales per month. This will generate between $2160 and $2700 per month in revenue from your number one ranking on Google.

You will also get some extra benefit because your optimisation efforts will have a flow on effect to other keywords and phrases and bring more traffic to your website.


So, again I ask you 'How much is it costing your business to not be Number 1 on Google?'

And, another question, 'How much would you be prepared to pay to generate a monthly income of $2160 on a regular basis?'

How much would you pay for a Number 1 Ranking on Google??

Was feeling Frustrated - Now I'm Just Plain Excited

Go right now and check out Google Webmaster Tools

If you are not signed up, sign up right now.

Just go do it alright.

Here is the link

Google Webmaster Tools

You did do it right.


Most of you know that I am a fan of Google Tools. For a couple of different reasons. Firstly they work. Secondly they give pretty good info. And thirdly they are free.

Now don't think me cheap, but I know that when you are running a business there is no point spending money if you don't have to.

In most business models that I know the owner is usually the last one to get paid, and they usually work the hardest!! (something not quite right there!!)

OK, so click on the new layout link at Webmaster Tools.

Click on your website.

And if you are like me you just discovered that Google has found a lot more of the links to your website. And that some of your rankings for keywords are better.

I do like the new layout because you can see most of the information you need to look at very quickly and easily.

Good Work Google.

Hey if you haven't gone over and signed up already do it now.

And, just because I'm having a good day if you need someone to install the code on your website drop me an email and I will do it for FREEEEEEEEEEE!!

Was feeling Frustrated - Now I'm Just Plain Excited

Get More Clicks to Your Website - 5 Tips for Effective Page Titles and Descriptions

Want more clicks to your website?

But don't want to pay for them?

Statistics say that the number 1 listed website on Google for any given search term gets up to 50% of the clicks for that search term. And as you go down the list each listing gets fewer clicks.

And, once you get to the bottom of Page 2 most websites get very few free clicks from Google.

It is possible however to increase the number of free clicks that you are getting by using your Page Title and Meta Description effectively to entice searchers to click on your listing as opposed to the other listings on the page.

As you probably know the Page Title and Meta Description are the parts of your website that appear in the search engine results. Your Page Title is what people will click on, and the meta description gives them some more information about your business to convince them to click on your website.

Here are some rules for creating Page Titles and Meta Descriptions that will get you more clicks.

1. Each webpage on your site must have a unique Title and Description.

2. Google will only show the first 70 characters in your Page Title and 160 characters of your meta description so put your most relevant information at the start of each.

3. The Page Title and Meta Description should contain the most relevant keyword phrases that relate to that page on your website.

4. Sell Benefits not Features. You have a small space to convince a searcher that they should click on your listing.

What can your product do for them?

What will it create for them?

What problem can you solve for them?

These are the questions that you should be trying to answer in your Page Title and Meta Description.

5. Include a Call To Action

Most of us are used to following instructions and when left to make our own decisions, sometimes the decision that people make is no decision at all. Help them to make a decision. The decision to click on your website.

A Call To Action might be a FREE Report or a Special Offer that they will receive when they visit your website. Including this in your meta description will increase your click through rates.


Go and have a look at your page titles and meta descriptions for your website. Grab a pen and paper (yes they still exist)!! Write down the URL for each page on your website. Next to each URL write down the main keyword phrase that you are targeting on the page of your website. Then write down the current Page Title and Meta Description for the page.

Then, answer these questions.

Are my titles and descriptions unique?

Do they include my keyword phrase?

What benefit am I trying to sell?

Is there a strong call to action?

It can take some time and practice to get used to writing effective page titles and meta descriptions in only a very short space.


PS If you want more information about keyword research for your website check out my post on Effective Keyword Research for Business Websites

Get More Clicks to Your Website - 5 Tips for Effective Page Titles and Descriptions