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What Is The Right Domain Name for My Business ?

March 27, 2010 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

This is a common questions we get asked at Onlineassist4u.

As always the decision comes back to what is right for your specific business not what is right for Google or Bing or Yahoo or any other external factor.

And what is right for your business most commonly equals what is right to get more sales, more revenue and more profit.

Selecting A Domain Name – The Important Factors to Consider

There are a few very important questions you should consider when making this decision.

  1. Will my existing customers be able to find my business online ?
  2. Will new potential customers that have heard of my business be able to find it online ?
  3. Will customers searching for my product or service be able to find my business online ?
  4. Will my business be able to get onto the front page of Google to get part of that 60%+ of traffic that never searches beyond the front page ?

Most people, when selecting a domain name will try and secure a name that closely mirrors their business name.

If my business is called Kirk Plumbing then I might try and secure kirkplumbing.com or, if located in Australia, kirkplumbing.com.au as I am targetting local clients with my plumbing service (in this case it makes a lot of sense to try and buy both domains but that is another story).

We will call this approach “naming your domain name after your business name”.

Pros and Cons of Naming Your Domain After Your Business Name

On the plus side;-

  • My existing clients will be able to find me quickly
  • Potential new clients that have heard of my business through friends etc will also be able to find me very quickly

On the negative side;-

  • There is only one potential relevant keyword in my domain name “plumbing”.
  • It will be extremely difficult for me to get to Page 1 on Google for this keyword.

ASIDE – How do I know it will be difficult to get to page 1 of Google for the keyword “plumbing” ?

keyword research plumbing

keyword research for "plumbing"

To work this out the first test I would give the word plumbing is a “common sense test”.

A single word “keyword” that is fully descriptive of the industry I am in is likely to be totally dominated by big players in my market.

They have websites that have been around forever and they have thousands of backlinks to their site and pages on their website.

They will continue to inhabit the front page and I will be relegated to page “irrelevant”.

Why compete with them when I am likely to fail ? It is a dumb move !!!

The next test I would do (and Onlineassist4u will do this for you if you ask us to after you sign up for our services) is to do some professional keyword research on the term plumbing to validate my common sense test and to see if there are easier and better alternatives to my blatantly obvious keyword choice.

We use a tool called Market Samurai to do this and we have performed the analysis and the results are shown to the right top.

Our test is restricted to the Australian market because this is where this imaginary business is located.

SEO competition keyword plumbing

SEO competition for keyword plumbing

The keyword “plumbing” gets a lot of search queries on average per day in our local Australian market.

This is fantastic for a business ranked number one as, on average, 40% of the clicks for that keyword will go to their website.

The rest of the front page will get a good whack of clicks too – especially if the first couple of sites listed are not plumbing service suppliers.

This does ring alarm bells though. The keyword “plumbing” is obviously very valuable.

What can we expect for something of great value ?

Thats right, a whole bunch of bigtime players will be all over this keyword (see chart to lower right).

There is very little (if any) chance of my little plumbing business getting first page for the keyword “plumbing” unless I spend up big on SEO services, adding content, building backlinks etc.

All that effort just doesn’t make any business sense. So I am not going to do it – period.

Pros and Cons of Naming Your Domain to Get Search Traffic From Google

What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking this approach ?

On the plus side;-

  • If we do our research properly and then build our website and promote it we can get a good flow of hot leads through Google – leads that we might not have otherwise received
  • Google loves a keyword rich domain name. It gives us a “free” boost up the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

On the negative side;-

  • This takes time and effort and can cost money (speculate to accumulate) – will we be sufficiently committed to do this and continue to do it ?
  • Our existing clients might find it harder to find our website if our name is not in the domain name

So what would we have to do if we decided to take this option ?

As we said above. To get a decent volume of search traffic from Google we need to be on page 1 for a search for our keyword phrase.

We also need to select a keyword phrase that gets a good volume of searches per day and isn’t overrun by competitors that have good SEO on their websites, have lots of backlinks to their websites and have websites that have been around for many years.

So, in the interests of being accurate, I am going to go away now and do a bit of research to find just the right keyword. Once again, I will be using that most professional of keyword research tools, Market Samurai.

The results are in and it was a pretty quick search. “Plumber Perth” has a small (but for my small business OK) average volume of search per day.

The competition is there but with diligence and a bit of hard work I believe I can get into those top 10 entries and onto Google’s front page.

Now, other businesses are not dumb and through their foresight they have already taken plumberperth.com.au and plumber-perth.com.au

What do I do now ?

Well, all is not lost and I am going to hit two birds with one stone here (my apologies to all the animal’s rights activists – I have never actually thrown a stone at a bird – or shot any living thing either for that matter).

I am going to name my domain kirkplumberperth.com.au

I could also have selected kirk-plumberperth.com.au but I find it is difficult to explain a hyphen to people over the phone.

Conclusion

So what is the right way to go ?

Do I choose a domain name that reflects my business name or one that will get me traffic through Google ?

Unfortunately there is no single best answer.

For some businesses choosing a domain name that reflects their business name is best and for others trying to get search traffic is extremely important.

If you can get both in a single domain name (and it is not so long or complex that it is impossible for your clients to enter into Google) then that might be the best compromise for you because you get some Google keyword goodness plus you get your business name into the domain name as well.

The best advice we can give is go back to your business plan – identify what type of business you are – where you are taking your business – who is your market – what is important to them etc.

Then do the right keyword research or get a professional to do it for you.

Then select a domain name that reflects your review and the keyword research results.

This will give you the best answer for your particular business.

Postscript – You Guys Chose The Business Name for Your Domain Name – Why ?

At Onlineassist4u we chose our business name as our domain name. We have onlineassist4u.com and onlineassist4u.com.au registered.

Why did we do this when we are supposed to be all techy and great at search engine marketing and stuff ?

Like I said at the top of this article. This is a business decision and it must be viewed as such. 100%.

For us, we were establishing a new business that we knew would have much of its success locally at first due to our business strategy of working from business referral clubs and referrals in general.

So if our business was to come from people we met in person and from those people referring us then having our name in the domain name was essential.

Another overriding factor for us was the immense competition for keyword terms that are important for our industry.

Terms like SEO, search engine optimization, web development etc are well and truly owned by people who really do know what they are doing.

Many of them have websites that have been going for years and have tens of thousands of backlinks.

It makes no sense for us as a young business to compete with those guys for those keywords. We would be putting a humungous amount of energy into something that was not guaranteed to bring results.

As we move forward we will find other micro niches we desire to work in, we will do our professional market research and we will build sites that have the keywords in their domain names (we have a few already as it happens).

So, we have a domain name strategy that is based 100% on our business strategy rather than on Google and search. This is the correct way to do it.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Internet Marketing, Keyword Market Research, Search Engine Optimization, web development

Small Business Marketing Questions That You Should Ask

November 4, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

Most small business people know that marketing your business is essential to its success. After all, no prospect flow, no deal flow !

Depending upon our business model, industry, market segment, geographic location or demographic we all market our businesses in different ways.

Some will place their emphasis on print, some on the Internet, some through business clubs or not for profit organisations, others through signage, word of mouth or even a young kid with a sign around his neck waving a very big hand with a finger pointing to the shopfront.

The fact remains though that most small businesses have a very limited marketing budget and we are all especially keen to make sure that we get the maximum return from our investment.

Do We Think Thoroughly Through Our Investment in Marketing ?

In our case. No !

I hate to admit it but some of our marketing has been reactionary to say the least. Some has paid off and some just wasted our money.

Are you in a similar situation ? I bet some of you are (or are we the only ones ?).

If you are in that situation perhaps asking yourself a few quick questions before you made your investment would have made it a much more focussed and productive investment.

Well we have found a webpage that gives you a list of 101 questions that you could ask yourself to hone your focus.

Now don’t get too worried. You do not need to ask yourself every one of them. You can hone down your focus and ask yourself the ones that best pertain to your business situation.

It makes sense to have a look and to bookmark the article for the next time you come to plan an investment in marketing for your small business.

You can find 101 Small Business Marketing Questions for People Who Don’t Speak Marketing by clicking on this link.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Internet Marketing

The Thank You Economy You Need To Know This !

October 29, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

Obtuse title I know but I just got through watching a video from Gary Vaynerchuk and I gotta share this with you because if you ‘get it’ soon before the others that will come along in the next couple of years you are bound to profit from it.

What is the Thank You Economy ?

Gary explains it much better than me in his video but I will give it a go anyway…..

The thank you economy is happening right now on the Internet. Loads of people (and I say people because this is a ‘people‘ driven thing NOT a corporate driven thing) are giving away fantastic advice and even products and services for free or for a nominal fee.

The information / products / services that many are giving out are Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.

So what’s in it for them ?

Three major things and if you do not get this immediately then you better start to understand it quick or you are going to be yesterday’s winner and tomorrow’s loser.

  • They are building their brand and their following
  • They are positioning themselves as experts
  • They are building credits in what guru Marketing Psychologist Professor Robert Cialdini calls Reciprocity

I won’t go into items 1 and 2. The benefits are obvious.

What better way to build your brand and your following than by giving people a taste of the value you add with no cost and no risk to them ?

The fact is they will just keep following you to get the next lot of freebies or the next piece of incisive advice.

One note of caution though ! Be honest. Give away quality.

Give away your best stuff. Position yourself as an expert not an also ran. If you give away rubbish if will indicate that your content is rubbish and not worth having and what will that do for your personal brand and your business ?

What about the big word you used then Kirk ? R-e-c-i-p-r-o-c-i-t-y. What’s the go here ?

Well, the way Professor Cialdini explains it (or at least my understanding of it – sorry Prof).

Human beings are culturally evolved for reciprocity – one good turn deserves another – the great aussie ‘shout’ etc.

Long ago when the human race was still forming small communities a division of labor became necessary. Some would go out and hunt, some would search for fruits, berries and root vegetables, wild grains etc, some would tend the very young and infirm. You get the picture.

Reciprocity evolved as a social custom to ensure that the group’s needs were all met. The person out hunting needed to have the root vegetables, berries etc as well for a balanced diet and for when the hunt returned with nothing to show for their efforts and to have their young cared for. The carers needed food and so on and so forth.

Reciprocity was a way of ensuring that all received what was needed without having to do it all themselves which was becoming impossible.

This has evolved as society has evolved and we have all become far more specialized.

So, in other words, if I give you something of value for free, you will likely culturally feel indebted to repay me in some way at some point in time.

If I subsequently come out with something else of value and there is a charge associated with that product or service and you are in the market for such a thing then you will be pre-disposed to purchase it from me versus my competition. Reciprocity at work.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, you will have been following me via my website’s RSS feed, via a subscription to my email list or via social media because you are awaiting the next ‘gem’.

So you will know when I release the new item that requires a monetary investment from you and you will be more likely to check it out because I have already positioned myself as a supplier of products and services that are of value to you PLUS are great value for money.

So, enough of me gabbing away. Watch Gray and his video Gary Vaynerchuk talks about The Thank You Economy.

It is good stuff and will only take a few minutes of your time.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Social Networks Tagged With: cialdini, reciprocity, social media, vaynerchuk

Where The Professionals Will be Spending Their Marketing Dollars

October 25, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

How many of you pick up and skip through the Yellow Pages when you want to find a product or service these days ?

I hazard a guess that it is far less of you than would have done that 5 years ago.

In our house we do not even know where the Yellow Pages are so, yesterday, I set off on a mission to find them.

My wife’s system of storage for household items is predictable and pretty precise (apart from when it comes to filing old bills, bank statements etc – which never get filed) so I was able to track down the big soft cover books within minutes.

Both Yellow and White Pages still in their plastic wrapper. never opened. never used. A victim of the Internet I fear.

Anyway, enough of the digression. I was only using it to prove a point that most of you know anyway – that the Internet has become the prime way to search for products and services in much of the developed world and this trend will continue as our young’uns mature and us older guns become more adept at using the technology.

A blank advertising board against a wall.

How do the professionals see the situation though ? You know, those highly skilled and highly well paid executives that must choose where to spend their (or their client’s) money to promote their products. For them the stakes are much higher.

A recent article on The New Era of Inbound Marketing by SEOMoz Blog suggests that “…. over the last two decades, we, as a generation have been drifting further and further away from it (direct sales). Door-to-door salesmen are nearly gone. The effectiveness of brand advertising, direct mail, trade show marketing and cold calling sales have all diminished rapidly in favor of a new set of channels we all use to buy – nearly all of which center around the web.”

They go on to provide a raft of figures from Forrester Research based on projected marketing investment in the next 5 years to prove their point.

So what does it mean for you as a small business owner ?

If the Yellow Pages are not being opened in my house (and there are four of us here ranging in age from 50 to 18 years of age) then they are not being opened in other people’s houses as well.

As for the online versions of these products. Well, we wouldn’t know where to find them and that goes for other online directories as well.

What do we all do ? We SEARCH on Google for whatever we need and you can just about bet that this is what most people do as well.

Now that’s OK for when we are actually looking for something but what about that advertisement that catches our attention and takes us to a website selling a product that we didn’t even know we wanted ?

That is perhaps a little bit more problematical but it is a fact that we are most likely to at least see those advertisements in places that we frequent most often. That is obvious isn’t it ?

After all, there is no point putting a billboard in a laneway with no traffic is there ?

For me it is the football sites that I visit every day or the WordPress, Internet Marketing, web coding or web design blogs that I also frequent regularly to keep up with my industry.

Or through Twitter – but that is another story and a big one at that……

For my daughter and my wife it is undoubtedly Facebook. yes Facebook, the fourth most populous ‘nation’ on the planet.

So where are you going to spend your precious advertising dollars ?I know where I am going to be spending mine………..

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Internet Marketing, Online Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networks Tagged With: advertising, facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, social media

Trading Post In Print Bites The Dust

October 1, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

We all know that newspaper are doing it tough with the growth of the Internet.

Media empires across the developed world are scrabbling to work out how they can transform the dollars they used to make out of print media to the online world.

Paid content – well, perhaps for the specialist leaders in their field – the Wall Street Journal etc – but for most – no way Jose !!!

Advertising in print media and specialist advertising print media is going the same way. Downwards.

This article sounds the ‘print death knell’ for an Aussie institution ‘The Trading Post’. bring out your dead, bring out your dead.

Trading Post Printed Version to be Discontinued.

So if you are still using print advertising as your major means of promoting your business you are likely throwing good money away. Think it through, educate yourself and move on !

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Internet Marketing, Online Advertising Tagged With: adwords, online advertising, print media

The Magic Funnel Effect

September 9, 2009 By STEPHEN HIBBERT Leave a Comment

Plenty has been written on the magic formula to gain financial success via the Internet. There has also been plenty of money made out of various schemes over the years telling you how to get rich quick online and there continues to be serious amounts of cash spent on finding ‘that one special process which, if followed, can deliver your personal freedom’.

Well schemes that suggest you can get rich quick by following a certain scheme are there for one reason and one reason only ! To make you part with your hard earned cash to make the person selling the scheme rich.

Now this is not to say that plenty of people have not made very large amounts of money indeed from selling products and promoting their business on the Internet.

Some still do but you have never heard of most of them because they just quietly go about their business making money from what they have always done and refining their systems and strategies to make sure they continue to deliver as the Internet landscape changes.

It is also true to say that it is far more difficult to make money via the Internet than it was 3, 4, 5 years and more ago. The rules have been tightened and many of the simple tactics that worked in those days will quickly get you a Google slap today.

Bring traffic to your site and convert it to $$$

Bring traffic to your site and convert it to $$$

So is there any chance of getting a lead on the competition and turning the Internet into a new or improved source of revenue for your business ?

Fortunately the answer to that questions is a resounding ‘yes’, however, you must go about it in a much more systematic manner.

There are a few basic steps that, when taken in order, give your business the best chance of making it online. And, the best thing is, so few people even take the first of these steps so just by applying what you will learn in this article you will already be quite a ways ahead of your competition.

Market Research – Keyword Research

What do we mean when we mention the term ‘market research’ in relation to the Internet ?

Well it is similar to what you would do when setting up a business with a physical location.

Before we decide on a physical location we want to analyse the area around our business to ensure that the people thereabouts have some interest in our product.

We also need to make sure that there are sufficient people living in the vicinity of our business to get sufficient paying customers through the door to gain sufficient sales to pay our bills and make a profit.

We also want to make sure that there are few if any capable competitors in the area that will take business away from us or, at worst, make us share too much of the pie.

We also want to make sure that our shop front is located in a prominent position so we gain sales from passing trade.

Keyword Research is the way we do this for our online business.

So what is a keyword ?

A keyword is a phrase that your potential client enters into a search engine (Google, Bing or others) to find what they are looking for.

If I am looking for an electric power drill in my local area I might enter the term ‘electric drill’. In this case the term ‘electric drill’ is a keyword.

A keyword can be one word or a whole series of words. Keywords of three words or more are often called ‘long tail keywords’.

How do we use keywords to get traffic to our website ?

If my website ranks in first position in my region for the term ‘electric drill’ then studies suggest that at least 42% of the people searching for the term ‘electric drill’ will click on the link to my website in Google.

If my website is any good at all in closing business then there is no doubt I will make quite a few sales from those 42% of people coming to my website.

The fact is though that competition to get first place for the keyword ‘electric drill’ in my region is going to be very fierce indeed and as a small business there is very little likelihood that I will get that position.

So I need to box a bit smarter and do some keyword research.

So what is keyword research and how can it help me ?

Keyword research is the process of finding keywords that possess the following qualities:-

  • best describe our product or service
  • would likely be entered into Google by potential customers looking for products and / or services such as those we provide
  • have a good quantity of people keying them into Google each day on average (the number for ‘good’ depends upon our business)
  • don’t have too many big and capable competitors competing for the keyword

If we can find up to 10 keywords for our business that meet the above criteria and we optimize our website for them ( see our article on Search Engine Optimization ) then we will likely get quite a bit more traffic to our website.

So how do we do keyword research ?

There are a number of free and commercial tools available to help us with our keyword research.

Google itself has a free keyword research too called, surprisingly enough, the Google Keyword Tool.

Commercial tools are also provided by Market Samurai (the one we use here at OVMwebbuilder) and a number of other companies.

Additionally, some companies, including OVMwebbuilder, offer keyword research as a service as part of the web solution development process and as a Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) service for clients who already have a website.

That is the end of our first article on the Magic Funnel Effect, in the next one we will be exploring Search Engine Optimisation.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Keyword Market Research Tagged With: keyword research, magic funnel, market research, search engine optimization, SEO
The Magic Funnel Effect