I thought I would share a few thoughts regarding common Domain Name oversights my clients (and yes, even I at times) have made with their websites, and a few strategies for web success that are often overlooked.
1. Domain Name Choices:
When you choose a domain name for your business, do your best to select one that is representative of your business, and one that will be memorable. If your business is Sacramento Drywall Repair, and your company name is “Mattheson Durable Drywall”, the best domain name would be “www.sacramentodrywallrepair.com”, not “www.matthesondurabledrywall.com”. Why? Because the domain name is one of the criteria of SEO ranking. Unless Mattheson and Durable are important SEO words (likely to be queried in a search) they should not be used in the domain name. That being said, this is not a critical concern, but it is one I would have made if I had known about domain names when I started by business.
2. Domain Name Extensions:
Where possible always choose the .com version, not the .net, .us, .info, .biz, etc. unless you are an organization (.org) or a government website (.gov). The reason for this is that most people will automatically assume that the domain is a .com since this is the most commonly used extension. In some cases the .com version of the domain name is already taken, and my suggestion is to find a unique one, don’t try to piggyback on someone else’s domain name success. From my experience when your company name is the same as someone else, and they have an existing web presence, your ranking will suffer. Finally, if you do have a very popular domain name, such as “www.sacramentodrywallrepair.com” be sure to purchase, and park, the .net, .info, .us, and .biz versions. The cost is relatively minimal, and this will prevent someone else from using them for legitimate or deceptive reasons. You can learn more about domain names at my blog post https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com/2010/11/domain-names/
3. Domain Name (and Hosting) Company Selection:
I think this should be self evident, but since many of my clients have fallen into this category I felt the need to provide this warning. When selecting a domain name company and/or a hosting company, select one that is large, established, and reputable. I have had clients choose people who resell from GoDaddy (which is fine) but the person who manages the business is non-responsive, does the work part-time, etc. When you choose a company you need to ensure that there is a knowledgeable person available to assist you, and solve any problems that may arise. That being said, many of the largest companies (such as Network Solutions) are much more expensive than their competition. What I have found is that many of the smaller hosting companies will provide very affordable rates, but they overstack the hosting server, and as a result the server speeds are much slower than is average.
My advice is to read reviews about any company you are interested in. I used to use a company called WebHostingBuzz, their pricing was good, but their customer support was by ticket system only, and yes, they overstacked their servers so the speed of the server was not adequate for memory intensive websites such as CMS (Content Management Systems). Finally I came to HostGator, and while they are a very large company their servers are top-notch, they have great customer support, and their pricing is less than most. Also look at other features when choosing hosting, such as the administrative platform, ease of use, and add-ons available.
4. Domain Name Registration:
When it comes to domain names, never let your hosting company register it. In many cases they will use a third-party option, such as TuCows, and when you choose to quit them as your hosting provider they won’t release the domain name, or if they do, they’ll charge you a fee to do it, or take a long time to get it done. The reality is that if someone else registers your domain name for you, they are in fact the owner of the domain. The domain name is a critical to your business identity, so be sure to manage this yourself, or if someone else has to do this for you ensure that it is someone you trust such as a family member.
5. Multiple Domain Names:
Going back to #2, when you do purchase multiple domain names, don’t submit each to the search engines, and don’t have the domain name “masked or cloaked”. If you do, the search engines will see each as a duplicate of your primary website, which will lower your website’s ranking since duplicate content is viewed as spamming. What you need to do is park them. This will make the domains unavailable for purchase but otherwise not linked to your website. If you feel it is necessary to have each of these linked to your site then you need to set a permanent redirect for the parked domain. You can view one of my previous blog posts about how this works at https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com/2012/02/seo-friendly-parked-domain/
6. Private Domain Names:
Many companies, such as GoDaddy, will try to sell you on paying for a private domain name. The reality is that it isn’t inherently beneficial to have the domain name private, especially since someone might not choose a company who isn’t transparent in this regard. The idea that a website is more secure because the domain name is private is a fallacy. Domain Name Companies love to upsell people do to fact that most people don’t know what is needed.
7. Domain Name Email Servers:
Many of my clients have paid their domain name company for use of an email server. What this provides is a web mail option where one can login to, or have their domain specific (name@yourdomain.com) email address (or multiple addresses for additional cost) forwarded to their personal computer through Outlook or Outlook Express. Much as with the previous, this type of functionality really isn’t needed, and can become burdensome overtime. The thing is, any good hosting company will provide web mail. Web mail can be accessed by logging into the hosting server control panel, or yes, you can add the server’s .mail and .smtp settings to your personal mail program (Outlook or Outlook Express) and it will work the same as the paid for service. So firstly, you’ll save money. The other concern is that when you choose to use your domain name company for the mail server, your mail is stored on their server, so if you choose to quit them, you’ll lose all of the mail you haven’t saved on your personal/work computer. My suggestion is to use Google’s Gmail. Why? Well, it’s free, they provide nearly limitless web mail space, have good virus and spam protection, and you can easily set the reply address to be domain specific, or have it routed to your mobile phone/device, personal/office computer, etc. You can learn more about setting up Gmail from my blog post at https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com/2011/09/setting-up-email-for-your-website/
8. Changing Domain Names:
When clients have their website redeveloped some will ask about changing their domain name to improve their SEO ranking. The concern is that a website will improve in ranking over time and you don’t want to lose this ranking credit. It is true that content has a biggest influence on the domain name’s ranking, but just being registered for a long period will play a big role in your website’s ranking, especially if two website’s are otherwise equal in SEO strength. So, unless it is absolutely necessary, don’t arbitrarily change your domain name. If you do, your site will be seen as entirely new, and your existing ranking clout will be gone.
9. Vanity Domain Name Extensions:
I am sure you’ve heard of the vanity domain names that are now available. The .xxx extension may seem cool, but the cost is often very high (especially for the prime real estate ones), and many companies have found that their customers get confused by the unique extension. My suggestion, avoid these unless you’ve got money to burn. You can learn more about these at my blog post https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com/2011/12/vanity-domains-and-godaddy/
10. Domain Name Registration:
This will seem like a no-brainer, but considering that this happens often I felt I should conclude with this. When you choose a domain name, purchase it as an automatic renewal to your credit card. The reality is that many people forget about their domain name, and when registration comes up for renewal they either forget to pay it, or the email associated with the DNS (Domain Name Server) is no longer in use so they don’t get the renewal email. If a domain expires then the website will no longer be linked to the hosting account server. This is important since a website that is down may not get indexed, and accordingly will be recorded as no longer available, which will lower your ranking, or remove it entirely. Secondly, an interrupted web presence may have your customers lose trust in your company. Finally, a domain name that is registered for a years in the future will be viewed as more creditable by the search engine ranking algorithms.
Hopefully you learnt something, and if you have questions please feel free to contact me.
