Dropping Websites on the Dime: Establishing Your Domain

Why Register a Domain Name?

Never underestimate domain name importance. Imagine a classroom that two students have the same first name. Further compound the situation if they had the same last names. Domain names helps set up your brand, which is first priority. So in the case of Mental Gear; the domain name was already used by a different company. So we used different variations of the name. This dilutes the brand name but can still be efficiently handled (we settled for www.mentalgearunlimited.com, for example). If your only intention is to make a personal website, guess what, you are still a brand! You will be working just as hard to to set up a personal site but in the long view you will have to put in less maintenance. Unless you are one of those people who ‘re-invent’ themselves every couple of months!

My Company Name is already taken!

All hope is NOT lost! Just make sure not to stray too far from your original company name. At this point you would want to start researching SEO (search engine optimization) tips and techniques. Speaking from my browsing habits; if I saw a company name but did not see a URL included my first step to find the company’s online presence would be the http://www.companyname.com and then its off to the search engines from there. So keep your browsing habits in mind when creating a new domain name. Adding something as simple as “-INC” to the end would work around this problem. You can always take the longer winding road you can contact the current domain name owner directly and buy it from them. But this may prove financially disastrous and time consuming! On the other hand, having a similar domain name could drive business to the OTHER site, so make sure whatever name you choose to always include it in your marketing.

So what makes a good domain name?

It has to relate to the site contents. The shorter and easier to remember, the better. If you are doing a business site, put in the extra money and get a .com domain. When choosing a registrar (such as godaddy) don’t buy into the hype of extra features. All you need is your domain name and DNS control/domain forwarding. Would you buy a car just because you like the paint job without checking to see if it includes the engine? Well, some people might, but its a bad idea!

If you haven’t begun building your website, check out the article “Laying the Foundation“.

Dropping Websites on the Dime: Laying the Foundation

Why do I want a site?

The first question you should ask yourself is why do you want a website. Is it personal or business related? You can choose to either have a passively informal or actively functional site. These are the questions you have to ask yourself before launching a site. When you begin building your site you will have a clear direction to take and a solid foundation.

Who am I targeting?

What target audience are you targeting with this site? If you are selling hand crafted porcelain masks why do you have a news feed ticking on your site or if you are advertising a graphic design shop why don’t you have samples of your work? Know who your audience is and make sure to cater to them!

What message do I want to give?

What do you want your site visitors to take with them from their visit? Sharing your company background, goals, and team members would give a more personal connection to visitors. Also, having a blog on the site or some sort of RSS enabled will dynamically update the site. It is a way to expand your content without expanding the pages, therefore leaving your site simple to navigate and familiar for repeat visitors.

What is SEO and why is it important?

My good friend Alfonso Bonin once asked me if I knew about optimizing search engines. I heard of dirty tricks to massively tag websites for better search results. I had no clue there was a ‘fair play’ way to gain popularity and a whole industry behind concepts developed for search engine optimization (SEO). Now it is as important to website builders both large and small to understand the fundamentals of SEO as much as it is to know how to use HTML. There are many SEO groups both free and cost-based. Maybe for now you can use free tools provided publically. You probably will benefit from professional consulting in as little as a year or two.

Below is a page bade for my site, Mental Gear Unltd., Trifeca page strength report provided by the SEOmoz group. Not bad for natural growth of one month!

Page Strength Score: 3%

 

So are you ready to roll your sleeves up and get this started? Get your geek on and read on…