Articles / Choosing a Good Domain Name
Choosing a Good Domain Name
Domains are hot again. After the bubble burst in the 90's, no one ever thought that anyone would pay a 5 years salary for a domain name again. Think again. iFly.com was recently sold for $65.000. Thats not a wild sum, but it's not a wild domain either. I did read somewhere that creditcards.com was sold for $2.750.000 last year. Someone did a pretty good investment there. I browsed ebay and found that ss.com was up for bidding, and the tag was around $55.000.
So why do people spend a redicoulus amount of paper on something as silly as the right to use a certain address on the internet? Think of it as real estate. Buy and sell later. Another reason is that the clever SEO crowd discovered that anchor text is one of the strongest SEO tool availible. That means if someone link to my site with the text "widgets" in the anchor tag, search engines will associate my site with "widgets" and give the site higher rankings on that particular search phrase. So this means that if I own "widgets.com", chances are that many people will link me up with the domain name, and since that contains my main keyword, half the SEO is already made.
Don't get stuck in keywords
So what should you look for when buying a domain name? Assuming you don't have the big bucks to spend, you try altering your searches and broaden your acceptance of domains for your web presence. This can be very frustrating. Let's say you are selling "widgets". So you want widgets.com - tough luck. That domain was registrered 3 years ago and some guy wants a whopping 50 grand for it. Ok, what about "widgets.net" or "widgets.org". Try again. All of them are most likely occupied. Given that all popular keywords are taken combined with the releases of some new country codes, people are coming up with some creative domain ideas. How about welcome.to/sweden? or the popular del.icio.us?
Let's rewind this for a moment. Is it really that important to have your main keyword in the domain name? Should you really be looking for "buy-widgets-at-my-site.info" in the end? Think of the big ones. Google. Amazon. Kelkoo. Apple. The key is not the keyword - it's the brand. Keyword domains are out. Branding names are in. Big time in.
So when choosing your domain name, don't get stuck in the keyword thinking. Take it back to the brand. If necessary, have a domain lookup tool at your disposal when choosing the brand in the first place.
I particularly like google (who doesn't). Its easy to remember, you can verbalize it (let's google that) and it has a deeper meaning (googolplex - the highest number there is). And today, the brand is stronger than ever.
Learn the lesson from google itself. Think beyond keywords.
This article was written by David Hellsing
David Hellsing is a designer and web developer living in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is the founder and gentle dictator of Stylegala and the swedish design firm monc.
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thanks very good
thanks for this useful article
Thank you very much for your subject
I agre vith you thats very important event for getting high PR , hit... it must be short and its tell about your subjects...
http://www.mp3muzikler.net
my site about listen mp3 without download. I just find this name
When choosing domain names these days, getting a domain name that is even remotely close to your keywords is impossible. Every single word in the english dictionary has been registered. Even adding prefixes and suffixes will not be enough these days.
One of my (many) sites is Own Official Info. Now the domain name is http://www.own-official.info. This particular domain was registered not for a particular company or person, but rather to act as a 3rd party domain provider. This would allow someone to register for e.g. widgets.own-official.info, or yourcompany.own-official.info. This is a clever way that domains can be used.
Off the subject: www.own-official.info is a real website offering free, professional looking domain names. Just try it out! No ads, with free URL cloaking!
Hi friends,
I have a site http://www.frontierprojects.in with sub domain name .in , is this sub domain name has the same priority as .com while i am using my site for real estate business.
Pls give me replies i am waiting for welcome !!
Regards,
R@@J
Yes,good advice as i'm currently trying to think up another domain name for a new site.
The only time I think u could use your company as your domain name succesfully is when you've already had substantial tv advertising,but obviously u gotta way up the cost/benefits ratio.
Here in Australia though i'm seeing this done more and more now'.
thank you very much
thank you very much
Amazon, Kelkoo or Apple were already there. SEO came later!
thanks:.
Thanks for writing good article , it helped in deciding a domain name for my site.
very Good site Thanks You
Amazon, Kelkoo or Apple were already there. SEO came later very Good site.
good point ! I still think it should contain keyword in the domain name, it's useful.
Thank you brother.
when your brand is known, you don't have to get keywordlinks - if not, a keyworddomain helps to build a brand ;)
A good brand don't need a keyword-domain!
thanks so much
wow thanks.
Thank you super
thank u so much.
erotik shop
cool regards.
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