After weeks of careful consideration, you’re ready to reserve your domain name. You sit down at the computer, go to your favorite domain registration company, type in the name you want and – oh no. It’s taken! But the registrar has a few suggestions. One of those suggestions is to use a hyphenated version of the name you want. Should you reserve that domain or hunt for another?

There are several pros and cons to using a hyphenated domain name.

Pros:

• Hyphens can help you choose keyword-rich domain names. Most domain names with literal keywords in them are already taken. Hyphens can help you create keyword-rich domains more easily.
• The same goes for generic terms – most are taken by now. Hyphens can help you create domains out of generic terms. This may be especially useful if your company name itself consists of generic words or phrases.
• Hyphens can be used to break up words or phrases that, if glanced at too quickly, may spell something funny, undesirable, or off-putting to your customers.

Cons:

• Hyphenated domain names can be hard to remember. Many people will accidently omit the dash when typing in the URL.  Before reserving a hyphenated domain name, try typing the domain in without the hyphen to see if a competitor’s website comes up. If it does, you may want to consider another name so you don’t accidently bump traffic to a competitor.
• Some SEO experts believe that the popular search engines view hyphenated domain names as SPAM. There’s no consensus on this issue, but if you are actively pursuing organic search traffic as part of your online marketing strategy, you may want to avoid a hyphenated domain.
• The resale value on hyphenated domain names is poor. That may not be a consideration for most people, but it’s worth mentioning.

Before reserving a hyphenated domain name, look at all the possibilities for your website’s address. Think about different combinations of words, and brainstorm additional names. Depending on your digital marketing needs, you may find that holding out for a great, non-hyphenated domain name is a better choice, or you may want those keyword-rich, albeit hyphenated names as your domain. The choice is up to you, but understanding the pros and cons of dashes or hyphens in domain names can help you make wise decisions for your business.

Web Design of Palm Beach offers expert help with domain names, website hosting and website development. Call us at 561.262.5886

The Intersection Between Branding and Domain Names

Your brand is your business – the sum total of all the messages your firm gives out to the world in words, images, and deeds. A brand is a promise made to customers about the business. Customers create brands based on their experiences with your company. You can influence your brand by creating certain experiences for your customers.

Your domain name should support your company’s branding online. Domain names are frequently typed into search engines, used in advertising and in other marketing materials. Think of your branded domain as if you could name your office building after your company; you’re creating a branded space online just for your business, a place online that will become recognizably “yours.” That starts with choosing a domain name that reflects your brand.

Choosing Your Primary Domain

The primary domain name is the main domain name you’ve chosen for your company or business. Think of it as the central launching point for all your internet marketing activities. Many firms choose to use their corporate name for their primary domain, adding keywords onto it to build the brand images online.

Brand Architecture and Domain Names

Another key consideration when choosing domain names for branding purposes is the overall brand architecture of your firm. Companies with multiple product or service divisions may find that one product or service garners more brand awareness among consumers than others. In that case, trying to squash all of the company’s brands under one corporate umbrella may actually hurt their branding efforts, since the brand equity or awareness is in one product line. Keeping each product as its own branded domain name, or the recognizable product name as part of the corporate

Brand Equity and Search Engine “Juice”

One last consideration when choosing your domain name is whether or not a particular branded term you own has a lot of brand equity or brand recognition among your customers. Is they’re already searching for your products by name, then using the product name in a domain name makes great sense.

Web Design of Palm Beach offers expert help with domain names, website hosting and website development. Call us at 561.262.5886

How Domain Names Affect Position on Search Engine Results Pages

Anyone involved in search engine marketing knows that the higher a website’s position on the search engine results page, the better. Numerous studies show that websites near the top of the first page of the results get more clicks and organic traffic than other pages. Few people have the time or patience to wade through dozens of websites deeper in the results pages, and instead just go with what’s near the top.

But how do you get your website near the top of the search engine results page (SERP)? Countless books and articles have tackled this question, and it’s not something that can be answered quickly or easily. Search engine optimization, or the art and science of creating web pages that both search engines rank well (and human website visitors enjoy reading) builds on over 100 factors used in what is called the search engine algorithm, a proprietary formula developed by the popular search engines such as google, Yahoo! and Bing to find, rank and serve pages upon searching.  While no one except the search engine gurus know exactly which aspects of a website’s coding, design and functionality are weighed in the special formula used to calculate a site’s final position, digital marketers and webmasters have used their data to study various factors. Recommendations for search engine optimization are based on these studies and observations. One factor most digital marketers can agree upon is the importance of the domain name for position on the SERPs.

Why Is the Domain Name Important for SERP?

Search engines scour millions of web pages daily looking for clues that tell them what each page is about.  They note these clues in gigantic databases that help search engines find and rank pages based on what people are searching for each day.

Search engines read from the top of a web page down to its bottom, and from left to right. Consequently, any text near the top of the page gets noticed first.

Can you guess why a domain name is important? It’s the first thing a search engine “reads” when it visits a web page! It’s also on every page of a website, adding to the search engine robot’s knowledge of what that site is about.

Company Name, Branded Name or Keyword-Based Name?

Deciding which domain name to choose – your company name, a branded product or conceptual name, or a keyword-rich domain name – gets tricky. The search engines used to weigh keyword-rich domains more heavily, and some digital marketers still swear by them. However, search engines change their secret formula frequently to tweak it, update it, and refine it.

Today’s prevailing wisdom suggests the following tips for choosing a great domain name that will help boost your website’s SERPs:

• Include keyword phrases in a domain if it makes sense to do so. We think it’s a great idea and helps your overall search engine optimization.
• You may want to use a keyword-rich phrase as a domain in addition to your company’s domain.
• Keyword-rich domains help in advertisements more than organic search traffic. If you plan to run online ads, consider using keyword-rich domains.
• When choosing keyword-rich domains, look at search traffic for the phrases you’re interested in just as you would when planning an advertising campaign or otherwise selecting keyword phrases.
• Don’t rely solely on a keyword-rich domain to boost your website’s position on the SERPs. Other factors, including proper meta-tagging, inbound links, website text, loading speed and other factors combine to form the overall rank for a web page. One element alone won’t help (or hurt) your ranking.

As you search for the perfect domain name, keep these tips in mind. Remember that you don’t have to purchase just one domain.  You may even want to purchase and test domains to see which one works best for your digital marketing needs. As you grow your business, you can use those domains elsewhere, or build upon what you already have to dominate your niche online.

Web Design of Palm Beach offers expert help with domain names, website hosting and website development. Call us at 561.262.5886

What Is a Domain Name?

The domain name for a company is its website address. Domain names must be purchased from a domain name registrar, and they’re generally purchased for a period of one to 10 years. At the end of the purchase period, you get the chance to renew your domain name or release it back to the registrar. Keep in mind that you can’t buy a domain name for life; you always need to renew it at the end of its purchase or registration period.

Once you purchase your domain name, you have to register your contact information with the domain name provider. This helps them contact you in the event you need to renew your domain, or if there are questions about your domain itself.

After a domain name is purchased, it is set up through name servers to “point” the address to a specific web hosting company. The web hosting company is where your website’s files are actually located.  You can also forward a domain name or redirect it to a website.

Domain Name Levels

Domain names are organized in tiers called levels. You’re probably most familiar with what are called “top level” domains – web addresses like www.webdesignofpalmbeach.com.  ICANN, the organization created in 1998 to coordinate the internet’s naming system, accepts several top-level domain endings. These include:

• • .net
  • .biz
  • .co
  • .info
  • .org
  • .gov
  • .edu
  • and others

  Top-level domain names can also end in a country code. Many companies register domains in various countries including their home country.

Most websites are organized under the top level domain name, with sub-pages underneath the main domain.

Tips for Choosing a Great Domain Name

Domain names aren’t expensive, and companies often register multiple domain names so that they have options for their websites. Here are several tips for choosing a great domain name:

• • Register your company’s official names as the domain name first, and try to register it as a .com.
  • .com registrations remain the most common and the most recognized by consumers.
  • Look for bundles and package prices when registering your domain. Some companies offer discounts when you register the same phrase or words with different top-level endings. For example, you can register www.mywebsite.com, www.mywebsite.net and others for less money if you bundle them together than register each individually.
  • Consider registering commonly misspellings of your company name, too. If customers almost always drop off an “e” in your company name, register both the correct spelling (with the “e”) and without the “e” so that no matter how they type the name in, you will have both registered.
  • Keep domain names short, sweet and memorable.
  • Consider registering your corporate name, brand names, trademarked product names and anything vital to your business interests as its own domain.

Have questions about registering your domain? Contact Web Design of Palm Beach. We’re experts at web design, hosting and related questions. Call us at 561.262.5886