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.Com?

For maximum search engine effect?

Memorable?

Brand-able?

Short?

Hyphenated?

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Complete Guide series: Choosing the perfect domain name for SEO

View full video at www.webpayload.com

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Unfortunately

✓ Most good domain names have already been taken but with a little creativity and intelligence and you still get a great domain name.

✓ A good or brilliant domain name is very important to just about any business but if you are half serious about your online presence it’s absolutely vital.

✓ Before choosing a business name i always look for available Domain names first.

✓ It took me weeks of searching but i found Media Surgery was available and that’s the name of my agency. Short memorable, Media relates to web design and i have the .com and .co.uk

✓ WebPayload i also like, its relatively short, it’s a .com and it’s pretty memorable with little competition on the search engines.

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BrainStorm

✓ You have a blood diamond if you find a single word domain available. Buy it now.

✓ Unfortunately you will likely have to resort to a 2 or 3 word domain.

✓ Use a thesaurus

✓ Mix and match. Get as many ideas on pen and paper as possible.

✓ Then goto a domain registrar such as NameCheap.com or Hover.com and search. If taken there is still a chance (see towards the end of this video)

View full video at www.webpayload.com

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✓ Whilst it’s good to have a .com it’s not essential.

✓ Having the primary extension for your country is sufficient for most businesses.

United Kingdom - .co.uk India - .in

Australia - .com.au Mexico - .mx

✓ If you are targeting a global market and have big plans to expand then a dot com is recommended.

✓ What to avoid are the tertiary domains such as .org.uk or .me.uk people don’t recognise these as well and could easily misspell and are very much a last choice.

.com?

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✓ If your proposed domain name has lots of competition then it’s not a good choice.

✓ In competition i mean for your business name, not search terms.

✓ Let’s think in your brain storming you come up with “A1 energy”

Look on Google

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Lots of results!

✓ There is .net, .co.uk .co.za all in the top 10 results. Although as you grow the business it’s likely for you to show in the top 10, you don’t want to be in the top 10!

✓ You want to be in position 1 for own brand name. So if your business is to be called “Poppy Flowers” then you want to be in that top spot when potential customers type in Poppy Flowers.

View full video at www.webpayload.com

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Exact Match Domains (EMD)

✓ Let’s say that you are targeting the term “Car Rental Manchester” some businesses solely because of the power of the Internet have decided to call their business Car Rental Manchester.

✓ This is NOT a good idea

✓ It’s NOT brand-able or memorable

✓ Not flexible - what about areas if the business expands

✓ Search engines as time goes on put less and less emphasis on Exact Match Domains

View full video at www.webpayload.com

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Google and Exact Match Domains

✓ Exact match domains still work but not because of anything technically to do with the domain name, although that WAS a factor not long ago. (Now is 2014)

✓ It’s because that people will link to that business with the terms Car Rental Manchester in the anchor text of links.

✓ <a href=”http://www.car-rental-manchester.com”>Car Rental Manchester</a>

ANCHOR TEXT

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✓ Whilst Exact Match domains still work to an extent, although that extent is dying, i’d advise against them.

✓ Your long term plan should be to be a short, memorable and brand-able domain name and business - NOT go after search engine rankings whilst destroying those attributes.

Exact Match Domains

View full video at www.webpayload.com

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✓ Some businesses also register many keyword loaded domain names and then redirect them to a single domain name hoping to propel to the top of search engines.

✓ Whilst this may have worked 5/6 years ago Google is smarter than that, and it could do you more harm than good.

Redirecting Many Exact Match Domains

www.carrentalsmanchestercentere.com

www.maindomain.com

www.vwcarrentalsmanchester.com

www.carrentalsliverpool.com

www.fordcarrentals.com

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✓ You want to avoid hyphenated domain names if you can.

✓ Not the end of the world but they are error prone when typing in and are a little confusing to people.

✓ Going back to our car rental example:

✓ www.carrentalmanchester.com is probably better than

✓ www.car-rental-manchester.com

✓ Even better still would be something like

✓ www.jackscars.com - taken Aug 2014 - but www.jackscars.co.uk is available

To hyphen or not?

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✓ A lot of domains are registered but that doesn’t mean they are not possible to own.

✓ Visit the site and see if it actually live with content. If you see an active site then the chances are you will not be able to get your perfect domain. If however the content is old, then the user may not plans for it and may sell. Find a contact page or search on WhoIs for the keeper of the domain and contact direct.

✓ If the domain is parked, on a holding then again it may be possible to purchase. Remember that some single word domain names can sell for £100,000s. I’ve seen some great and relevant domains available for £500. Ok that’s a lot for a small business but it’s a good long term investment that will make you money over the long term.

Don’t rule out buying

View full video at www.webpayload.com