What's Good For A Domain Name?

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

What kind of domain name should a business acquire?

The business name (of course) - The simplest thing to do is to simply getrepparttar name of your business as a domain name. If you cannot getrepparttar 108299 .COM version, check forrepparttar 108300 .NET, .ORG, .BIZ or .INFO versions. This isrepparttar 108301 domain name that would typically be used for marketing and branding purposes.

Hyphenated business name - You can also getrepparttar 108302 hyphenated business name, ifrepparttar 108303 name is two or more words long. You should only get this if (a)repparttar 108304 name is not available in it's unhyphenated version or (b) you boughtrepparttar 108305 non-hyphenated version as well. It's not a good idea to get onlyrepparttar 108306 hyphenated version, as this is not something customers normally type in URLs. It is, however, a good idea to purchase repparttar 108307 hyphenated version in addition torepparttar 108308 non-hyphenated version as sometimes people do type inrepparttar 108309 hyphens.

Keyword domain names - Another option is to purchase domain names which are keywords which match search engine keywords. For example, if your site sells candy, you could getrepparttar 108310 domain name candy-chocolate-lollipops.com, candychocolatelollipops.com or something like that. Some search engines do use keywords within domain names to boostrepparttar 108311 ratings of a site. Some companies like these types of domain names - personally, I feel they are a little tacky and unprofessional.

Product Names - One possible strategy is to purchase domain names for each different product or product classification that you want. You could then set up separate, distinct sites for each of these.

Product Lines - If you company sells distinctly difference product lines, you might want to create different sites for each of them. In this case, you will want different domain names for each one.

Business Units - I've seen some companies which purchase a domain name for each of their different business units.

Other Reasons

There are other reasons to purchase a domain name.

Keeping others from gettingrepparttar 108312 name - Sometimes it's important to purchase a domain name just so someone else will not get it. In this case you might want to purchase "yourcompanysucks.com" and variations ofrepparttar 108313 same (AOL found outrepparttar 108314 hard way about repparttar 108315 importance of this some years ago).

Search Engine Optimization - I've heard that some people purchase a lot of different keyword-style domain names with repparttar 108316 objective of linking them all together. This serves to convince search engines link Google thatrepparttar 108317 keywords inrepparttar 108318 domain names should appear higher inrepparttar 108319 listings. This is a gray area, as it may be considered search engine spamming.



Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


Why use multiple domain names?

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

If you use this method, be sure it's honest and sincere. Do NOT do this to spam search engines (in fact, to be perfectly safe, set your metatags to stop robots from indexing those pages). These are not intended for search engines - these pages are intended for focused marketing campaigns.

Regional content - If your site has regional content, you might purchase specific domain names to focus on that content. For example, if you had a stamp collection site, you could purchase "my-stamps.to" for Tonga related stamps, "my-stamps.us" for United States stamps and so on. You could also keep it simpler and purchase "my-tonga-stamps.com" for your general site, "my-english-stamps.com" for your English stamps and so on. These should also use 301 redirects to keeprepparttar specific domain names from being indexed.

Uses forrepparttar 108298 .NAME TLD - You might even consider purchaserepparttar 108299 .name TLD for your senior managers. Put up simple web sites about them, with links to your main site. These SHOULD be indexed inrepparttar 108300 search engines, as you want people to find them if they are looking for information about your personnel.

Don't forget email - Remember you can get email on each and every one ofrepparttar 108301 domains that your purchase. In fact, this is a great reason to purchase additional domain names - people can send you email by different means. So be sure to set uprepparttar 108302 email for each and every domain to go to a general, "catch-all" account. It's a good idea, though, to heavily spam-filter this account as it can collect a huge amount of junk.

Subdomains - This is a great way to get much ofrepparttar 108303 benefit of repparttar 108304 above listed techniques without purchasing additional domain names. It does require a little more control of your DNS entries, however, as most ISPs and web hosts will not be willing to do these kinds of things for you.

In this case, you could define "housekeeping.com" asrepparttar 108305 primary domain, then "cleaning.housekeeping.com", "sewing.housekeeping.com" and "cooking.housekeeping.com" asrepparttar 108306 subdomains. You should continue to use 301 redirects to keeprepparttar 108307 search engines from indexing these pages.

Renewals - Don't forget to renew all of these domains each year. At least examine each one when renewal time comes and consciously decide whether or not you needrepparttar 108308 domain. Don't let them expire without your knowledge. Someone else may then benefit from your hard work.

Other people's mistakes - Sometimes you might find thatrepparttar 108309 domain you want is not available. In this case, take a look at repparttar 108310 WHOIS record and see when it expires. Set up a reminder for 30 days from this date and every week or so thereafter. On those days, try and purchaserepparttar 108311 domain. Quite often, (especially these days) you may be surprised to findrepparttar 108312 domain has become available.

Other TLD systems - Companies such as new.net are offering many more pseudo-TLDs such as .SHOP and .XXX torepparttar 108313 general public. I would avoid these new systems likerepparttar 108314 plague. These are at best bad ideas and at worst scams. They are attempts to supercederepparttar 108315 official internet standard TLD system by companies with questionable motivations. They all require browser plug-ins or other customizations to work, and some of them come piggy-backed with spyware and other malicious applications.

These alternate TLDs do not get indexed in search engines, and they may conflict with future TLDs added inrepparttar 108316 official domain name structure (and thus become useless). On top of that, they are extremely expensive.

In my opinion, it is critical thatrepparttar 108317 internet domain name structure remain underrepparttar 108318 control of a central governing body. While this body (currently ICANN) is not operating as desired by repparttar 108319 majority, it's still much better being under one umbrella than splintering this all overrepparttar 108320 place.

Straight TCP/IP address - I am always surprised to come across a site which is listed in search engines, ezines and other promotions as a straight TCP/IP address. This is not only tacky and a sign of a spammer, it's not very intelligent as well. If you do this and move your site (changing it's IP), you will lose all ofrepparttar 108321 traffic that you have so painfully gained.

Conclusions - The point is that owning more than one domain has many uses, although it is no longer of much value from a search engine optimization viewpoint. Instead, you can userepparttar 108322 other domain names to fulfill other types of marketing and to attract people from specific markets to your site.



Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


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