|
Domain Name Registration
Let’s talk about domain name registration. There are lots of companies where you can purchase and register a domain name for your company. There are also lots of domain names you can choose from. For those of you who do not know what a domain name is it’s the name that makes up a Universal Resource Locator or a URL for short. A URL is what makes up a www.yourcompany.com address.
You can end up spending anywhere from $2.99 to $35.00 to purchase one. But this article isn’t about prices for domain names. I want to talk about what you need to know about what should be in a domain name. It’s important that you make sure your domain name is keyword or key phrase rich. There are a few reasons for this. Let’s say you want to sell software from your web site. If the search engines use the content of a URL to determine how they will rank your site you will want to make sure that the word software is included in your URL. That way someone using the search engines to find software is going to find lots of web sites that sell software. But the web sites with software in the domain will be given preference over the web sites that don’t. Taking the concept a little further, the web sites with the keyword software in other places of your web page will be given additional preference. It would be virtually impossible for you to buy a domain like www.software.com at this time. All of the best domain names are long gone. But purchasing a domain with the word software included is still easy to do. Look at following examples:
- www.softwarebox.com
- www.downloadsoftware.com
- www.software-web-review.com
Now even the names we’ve shown above may no longer be available but the examples are there to show that with a bit of creativity on your part you can still come up with a domain name that will illustrate the purpose of your web site. At the same time you will be giving the search engines the keyword or keyword phrase needed to give your web pages a boost in the rankings.
The most important reason has to do with the way search engines will use the content of your domain name to rank your web site. Search engines like MSN, Alta Vista, and Google, just to name a few, will use the keywords found in your domain to rank your web site’s pages. There are other areas of a web page that the search engines use to rank a web page. The META tags that include the title, description, and keywords are areas of a page that are used for ranking purposes as well. But your site visitors do not see your META tags.
There are exceptions to most rules. So there are instances when a keyword embedded URL would not work or even be appropriate. A perfect example would be in a case where a well known company like Microsoft or Dell Computers would set up a web site. Because they are so well known it would be best, as is the case, for them to include their company name in the domain. Until your online venture or company attains the status and branding of such a company its well worth your while to include a keyword or two in your domain.
|
