Blogging and Marketing Resources for the Average Blogger and Business
Posts tagged Domain Name
Choosing a Domain Name – Part 2
May 21st
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The Rest of Your Domain Selection
In Part 1 of Choosing a Domain Name, I focused on the high level “dot com” as the most common flavor when selecting a domain name. This time, the focus will be on the identity itself – the main part of your Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
Here’s a quote from “How to Podcast Tutorial” that talks about one aspect of domain name selection:
“This is the web address for my podcast tutorial site which launched my brand as a podcasting expert and landed me a book deal. I intentionally incorporated two of the top keyword search phrases for my topic (i.e. “how to podcast” and “podcast tutorial”).
I should point out that the hyphens are there because of some evidence showing that it emphasizes the keywords to the search engine bots. However, as of late it seems that this is not always necessary. I’m tending away from the practice of using hyphenated URLs.”
Just like my last post, clear as mud. In my opinion, why not? If there’s a chance the bots will show some love with the keywords separated by hyphens, why not? If a smooth URL (without hyphens) is needed for marketing purposes, simply redirect it to the dashed version. Best of both worlds.
[Blogger's note: You eagle-eyed readers no doubt have noticed I'm not walking my talk. The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit doesn't use hyphens. Fair point. This revelation was not visible to me as a complete rookie when I started. I'll have to save it for my next project, which is firmly up my sleeve. Live and learn.]
ProBlogger has a lengthy post about choosing your domain name, but there’s one paragraph that rings true to why I decided to create and host my own domain: credibility. They say,
“Having your own domain name is desirable for many bloggers for numerous reasons. For a start if you’re wanting to build credibility and a sense of professionalism around your blog a domain that reflects this can help. Similarly a carefully selected domain name has the ability to enhance the branding of a product, service, business or even person. Domain purchases give the added bonus of email addresses with the same domain (adding to both professionalism and branding) and can enhance your Search Engine Ranking.”
Although I have not yet begun to use my domain’s email addresses due to ease of startup, I knew from the beginning this was to be a serious and professional effort. (My “fun” postings are conducted on my other blog, TheNewBloggedWord.Blogspot.com.)
There are many free, shared domain blogs on the Bloggers of the world that are quite serious in their intentions. Nothing disparaging intended. My only point is that we only have one chance for a first impression. My argument is that the first impression can be the URL – make it professional and effective.
Dave
Choosing a Domain Name
Feb 18th
Whew! This is one that could be a topic for an entire blog. Not to worry, I’ll start with a single post.
Choosing a domain name is as much art is as it is science. Considerations range from the emotional connection to a branding message that comes from a carefully concieved name to the search engine love that is generated by bots finding strong keywords in the URL. Your strategy is clear as mud.
The dot com in this post’s photo implies the value of the top level domain staple. However, there are differing views as to its true value. A staunch supporter is SEOmoz. To quote a part of their post, “With the exception of the very tech-savvy, most people who use the web still make the automatic assumption that .com is all that’s out there…” I agree with this sentiment – I can’t tell you how many times I have finished typing a URL with .com only to find out it was something else. Old habits die hard.
At the other end of the spectrum is BloggingTips.com. They run at it from a different direction. A quote from their site: ”If you have relevant content on your site that incorporates well-researched, popular keyword phrases as it relates to your niche, your blog/website will get good search engine ranking – no matter what its named, or what dot it ends in.” Again, I agree with this position.
Choosing which “dot this or dot that” you should use for your site’s top level domain is only a small part of the decisions involved with naming your site. In future posts, we’ll explore many of the other considerations for naming your baby. After all, we want it to grow up and be healthy and strong.
Dave
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