When the dotcom boom first started, well, booming in the late nineties and early two-thousands, businesses suddenly realized they needed to get online, and fast. There was a mad dash to buy as many relevant domain names as possible in a gold-rush-style form of cyber real estate development. Today, many of those domains have been turned into some of the most popular and influential websites in the world, while others were turned into obscure websites that have remained obscure or have slowly become error pages in a failed Google search link.
What many neglected to realize then was that a simple domain name can’t get you anywhere; you have to have something to back it up. And, to the lament of those early developers, with the advent of search and social media, domain names are now even less important. Don’t ever question the effectiveness of a simply, catchy domain name that perfectly matches the site it represents. That is the sort of domain everyone should be going after. But, what’s truly important these days is not the domain name, it’s what you do with it.
1. Google Finds Content, not Domains
In most instances today, if you’re business isn’t online, it doesn’t exist. The same could be said for low Google rankings. If your products don‘t pop up on the first few search pages, they may as well be non-existent in terms of Google search. In order to get users to see your business page, you have to optimize your pages so Google can detect the type of content that users will be wanting to find when they go to your site. You could have a domain name that is a perfect match for your business name, but if you don’t know how to market your products online, a fancy sounding name is about as far as your domain will get you.
2. Most Links are Hidden
Another way to get users to stumble upon your site is to promote it via social media and online articles, while providing links back to your own site. Usually links are either represented as HTML code hidden underneath representing word, or they are shortened to fit on applications like Twitter and Facebook. Your link will rarely be displayed as showing the entire domain name, no matter how great it is, or how relevant it is to your business. So don’t think that posting a link to your site will make users want to click on it because of the domain name, alone, if they can even see the domain name at all.
3. Social Media Stands on Your Business Name
Social media is the next frontier in internet marketing, as the latest Google Panda updates seem to indicate, it could to be heading toward becoming the next frontier in Google search ranking, as well. Your business (as represented by your website, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc.) is what users will be interacting with, commenting about, and trying to find online through social media. Your domain name needs to be simple and memorable, but the real footing your business needs to prosper online will be in its name and reputation. Make sure your business name is what you lead with, and what you stand on when it comes to social media. Users will be looking to interact with your business, not your domain.
About the Author: This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan who is a full time blogger. She specializes in writing about business credit cards. You can reach her at: elizamorgan856 at gmail dot com.