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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
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SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/10/2002 0:23:26
This will be the first in a series of Search Engine Optimization Tips that focus on the core areas of optimisation.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator
Research has proven that purchasing the right domain for your online presence is critical in the overall scheme of things.
I recommend to my clients that they build a Domains Portfolio for their business. This serves two purposes; it allows you to branch the site off into smaller sub sites when the amount of content justifies it and it provides for a nice addition to any companies online presence. If you decide to sell your business at some point in the future, and you've been successful online, having those additional domains may be an added negotiation tool which could prove to be rewarding!
There are many resources available to purchase domains. I've been using one Registrar since I broke away from Netsol about 3 years ago. I am an affiliate for my Registrar and have had over 750 domains registered through 123seo.com (250 of those were purchased by me). I suggest researching a good Registrar and managing your domain portfolio through them. Look for one that provides a real time online management interface without the hassles of confusing e-mail forms.
When choosing a domain for your business, the first one to look for is obvious, your company name. During this discussion, when I refer to domains, I'm specifically targeting .com's and nothing else. If your company name is not available, then look for a hyphenated version i.e. your-company-name.com. If that is not available, then you need to get creative!
My research and testing show that domains containing your main keyword phrases are more likely to rank higher than those that do not. I'm going to use Outfront as an example here.
If I were starting a forum for FrontPage users, the first domain I'd look at is frontpageforums.com. Most likely already taken so I'm going to look at front-page-forums.com or frontpage-forums.com. Not long ago, there were many search engines that could not read a continuous string of text such as that of a domain. Lycos was my testing ground and my theories about hyphenated domains proved to be correct and successful. They are not only my theories, but those of some of the top SEO's in the world.
These days, search engines are able to read words in a continuous string of text and hyphenated domains are a passing fad. In fact, I just dumped over 40 of them today! In theory, if I had frontpageforums.com, and I optimized my site following core algorithm strategies, I should rank in the first 5 results in most of the major search engines and directories for the term frontpage forums or front page forums. If I was really good, I could narrow that down to the first 3 results. And if my budget permits, I could narrow it down to the #1 position in just about all of the majors including Yahoo! (PPC).
If you are in a niche market and know what terms your prospective audience will be using, I would definitely look for those domains that utilize the phrases as they are used by searchers. Don't get carried away with the length of the domain. It is still advisable to keep them to 26 characters or less even though 63 is allowed and that includes the .com so you have 59 total characters. I could run this thread forever discussing the benefits of keyword rich domains but I won't do that.
I think I've made my point about how to choose a domain and why to build a Domains Portfolio.
I'll let you in a little secret, one of the first places I go to when assisting my clients with their Domains Portfolio is Name Boy! I'll do my searches there and then register with my Registrar. It's a great little tool!
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
Edited by - pageoneresults on 04/10/2002 00:28:59
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/10/2002 0:36:26
P.S. I know I may have left some gaps in the above explanation. Please feel free to ask questions related to domain purchases here in this thread. I'll be happy to answer them if I can.
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/12/2002 13:11:27
This addition is for those who want to really know about a URL.
Uniform Resource Locator is a means of identifying an exact location on the Internet. For example, http://www.123seo.com/information-tips/index.htm is the URL which defines the use of HTTP to access the web page index.htm in the /information-tips/ directory on the 123seo.com web site.
As the previous example shows, a URL is comprised of four parts:
- Protocol Type - http
- Machine Name - 123seo.com
- Directory Path - /information-tips/
- File Name - index.htm
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
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PBailey
Posts: 907
From: San Antonio, Texas USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/12/2002 22:53:36
So, then am I understanding correctly that you would suggest using text strings now instead of hyphenated?
This is all great information. Thanks for all the training you are giving us....
Paula
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/12/2002 23:22:48
Hi Paula! Yes, I would now recommend non-hyphenated instead of hyphenated. If you are building a domains portfolio, I still might look at hyphenated versions just to have them. Mainly to keep competitors from using them. There will be times when you have no other choice but a hyphenated version.
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
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PBailey
Posts: 907
From: San Antonio, Texas USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 4/13/2002 3:37:24
Thanks. Appreciate the help.
Paula
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EWD
Posts: 1052
From: BeauFlow, NY
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/8/2002 0:07:12
What helpful information! I have a few questions... What do clients do with a Domain Portfolio? Do they reproduce their site under several domains? or Forward all the extra domains to the one company site?
If, for example a company was called First Step Realty and their focus was relocation, would they use firststeprealty.com for their website and also get relocations.com to forward to the firststeprealty.com website? How do search engines react to domains that are forwards? I never really thought of this before. Thanks for getting my brain moving!
"My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone" - John W. Green
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/8/2002 4:18:29
Good morning EWD! You asked...
Q: What do clients do with a Domain Portfolio?
A: Build it just as if they were building a real estate portfolio. If you think about it, domains are more or less internet real estate.
Q: Do they reproduce their site under several domains?
A: Only if the amount of content on the main site justifies separate domains. If you have a multitude of products and/or services, at some point it will be beneficial for you to start breaking them out into sub-sites with their own unique domain and highly targeted content.
Q: Or forward all the extra domains to the one company site?
A: You really don't want to do this unless you have access to set up a 301 permanent redirect for the pointer domains. This will insure that the pointer domains will not get indexed and cause duplicate listings. Google will penalize you in a heartbeat for duplicate listings.
Using the 301 permanent redirect to capture type in traffic can be beneficial if you set it all up properly. Typically you would take one of the many domains that you own, set it up with its own IP, and then use that as the central linking for the pointer domains. It gets somewhat confusing but if you have a good host, this will be a breeze.
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/9/2002 23:45:27
Hey there Maz, welcome to the Outfront. Hopefully you'll join in every now and then and share some of those years of FP experience that you have!
I'll be waiting for the link to the forums!
P.S. I see you've changed the design of the site again. Man, you change site designs like most of us change underwear!
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
Edited by - pageoneresults on 05/09/2002 23:48:11
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VBMedia
Posts: 27
Joined: 5/8/2002
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/10/2002 12:01:27
A mutual friend asked why we change our design so frequently. The simple answer is thus.
We get a new client. We ask, "so have you any thoughts about how you want the design to look and feel?"
We get so many "Well, we actually came to you because we like yours." So, being the spirited chaps and chapettes that we are, we base their design on our exisiting one and have to change our own! I really have lost count of how many times this has happened.
Kind of flattering though so we really don't mind at all.
The second reason is that we experiment quite a lot with design vs. rankings. Anyone who tells you that lots of nested tables kills rankings - tell them they are 100% wrong!
M. Young
[url]www.vbmedia.co.uk[/url]
Edited by - VBMedia on 05/10/2002 12:02:59
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adambrooks
Posts: 145
Joined: 1/8/2002
From: Charlotte / Matthews NC USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/13/2002 12:15:40
So, what do you think now that the market has been flooded with new TLD extensions? Basic economics of supply and demand would reflect a drop in domain name value. Has ICANN killed domains as a viable online commodity?
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pageoneresults
Posts: 1001
From: Orange, CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/13/2002 12:25:44
Hello adambrooks, you said...
> Basic economics of supply and demand would reflect a drop in domain name value.
You are correct in that the value of domain names has dropped since the inception of the other TLD's.
But, .com's are still the Beverly Hills of Internet Real Estate. These days, selling a high value domain is not what it was two years ago. Although, all it takes is one large company who wants it bad enough, then you are in the driver's seat.
If there is a successful site attached to the domain, then that is a different story.
I always recommend that you purchase .com domains. If, and only if, the .com version is not available, then you look at the other TLD's. Right now, I'm leaning more towards the .us domain as a backup if the .com is not available.
The type of business you are in will dictate which of the other TLD's you consider.
SEO Consultants Directory
Search Engine Optimization Tips
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adambrooks
Posts: 145
Joined: 1/8/2002
From: Charlotte / Matthews NC USA
Status: offline
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RE: SEO - Purchasing Domains - 5/13/2002 12:37:49
I understand the .biz is pretty popular in Euro markets. We're also seeing many contry codes (.at, .tv, .dj, .fm, .am, .ws... etc) being privatized and commercialized. ICANN has finally improved makret penetration of the .us domain, but I find it funny that they've been free for years and people never took advantage of them because of the length.
I have bought and sold domains a few times. I own many... being held for future use. I just wonder if it's really going to be a profitable resell market with the current flood of extensions into the market.
...I haven't even tapped into the new.net controversy. =D
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