Choosing a good domain name is easier said than done. If you’ve spent any time finding a good name you probably have discover that it is either being used or someone is sitting on that domain (domain parking). To put it simple, domain name purchasing isn’t easy. Here are a few things to help you choose and optimize your domain name for your business and search engines results.

1) Branded names and keyword rich urls.

The natural thing to do in buying a domain name is purchasing your business name. The problem is if you’ve thought it is likely that someone else has also. So there are some things you can do to get you url while keeping your business name.
a. If your business name is short enough add a keyword in your URL. When I worked for jewelry company we included diamonds after our business name and it was helpful in keyword targeted search rankings.
b. If yourname.com is not available then try a dash in the URL like your-website.com.

2) Make use of Thesaurus

a. If you have the opportunity to start a business then sometimes you can consider a name with a thesaurus. If you are past that point then you will want to find something that matches your business name with a product or service that you offer. The thesaurus helps with words you may not have considered.

3) Top Level Domain Names

a. Buy the .com wherever possible and if you want to secure your brand name purchase all .net and .org as well. Buying these additional sites help protect your brand.
b. The reason for purchasing the .com is that it is often the most thought of suffix for website.
c. If you are out side of the U.S. then a country specific domain is the best for your country specific searches. This is good for if you are looking to branch outside of your country.

4) Domain Name Length

a. When choosing a domain remember to keep it simple. The longer it is the more difficult to remember and for potential typing errors. One business I know of has a long domain name and whenever he tells someone they balk at the length of it. If possible find something short and sweet.

5) Keywords in Sub Directories

a. As I mentioned earlier about keywords you will want to consider this in naming your sub directories. A sub directory comes after the top level domain (i.e. .com, .net, ect…). In creating folders you want to make sure that your keywords are included. If it is diamonds add it to the yourwebsite.com/princess-diamonds.html or something similar.

6) Numbers and Misspellings in Domain Names

a. Numbers and misspelling of domains are a tempting choice but often is a mistake. If you include a number it can either be spelled out or just used as a digit. For your customer they may not remember which 1 (or one) to choose from and then necessitates a search if they don’t find the result. Misspellings are also bad because most people don’t think to write it with the misspelling. There are cases where both numbers and misspellings are used but tread carefully. The consequence is lost customers.

The internet is an amazing resource for businesses of all sizes. It has the ability to impact ROI in a very short amount of time. Here are few ideas that can get your company visible within 24 hours or less.

1) Local search can get you listed in about 15 minutes. A local search listing that is optimized can even jump to the top of local listings within a very short amount of time. I recently worked on a small business that rose to the top of the 10 pack just after claiming their listing.

2) Social media platforms take minutes to open and optimized for your company. Search engines index social media platforms in real time and will give you results fast. I found that new twitter profiles get indexed quicker than a new domain name. When claiming your social profiles, choose vanity URLs if available and make sure you claim you add unique links to your site.

3) Paid advertising can have you up in about a couple of hours. Google, Yahoo, and Bing all allow you to pay for advertising on keywords relevant to your website. You could appear quicker but doing some keyword analysis will save you money and likely give you a better ROI on your investment.

4) Creating a blog is quick and easy. You can have a site with blog platforms like Typepad, WordPress, and Blogger and it’s free. This won’t have you visible in 24 hours or less in search engines but will help your other mediums like pay-per-click, social media, and local search. You can expect this to change though as Google moves to real time indexing.

With all the free resources getting online is quicker than ever. Tools like social media, local search, and blogs will have you online fast and visible to your key stakeholders. Are you online? Have you found that your company was visible within in 24 hours? Are there other tools that aren’t covered here? Share with us your thoughts and insights.

Search engines love fresh content and so do people. Like fresh food, content can be fresh and relevant and in some cases that information expires daily (i.e. news). People looking for good information related to their needs and turn to search engines. Google and other search engines try to figure out what results best match the intent of the search to return the most relevant information. Search engines then need to figure out when a website has new content. The more you update the content the more often search engines will visit and index your site. Twitter for example, content is updated by the second and as such it is indexed and listed by the second. The more content you offer the more search engines will index your site. Just make sure it is good, fresh, and relevant information.

Are you feeling fat and over weight?  Do you say I am a 24 and want to be a number 1?  Do you feel bloated and out dated?  Then simply slim down and have the search results you want!  That’s right! reduce your code bloat and get better search engine rankings.

You can help your search engine ranking by reducing code bloat.  Code Bloat is excess programming code in your website.  Search engines filter through your website content including programming code to find relevant content.  By reducing code your website content becomes more relevant and easier to index.  To find out how fat your website is just look at the programming.  Go to your website and right click View Page Source.  You don’t have to be a programmer to find out how fat your site is.  Look for content that is on your site and if you have a hard time finding it or it takes to long then you are probably bloated.  Although this is a smaller (SEO) issue, reducing code bloat will help with your page rank and load time.

What to do about Code Bloat

• Use Global Stylesheets
• Code in HTML
• Less Flash and Java Script

Keywords: The Reading in Search Marketing

Keyword research is like the reading in search marketing.  This begins by visiting the search engines to find what my competitors rank for.  For instance, when I am looking at a term that I want to rank for I look to see the top ranked site.  There are three things that I look at when assessing my position.  The first is the title, what is it that they are targeting for keywords. The second is in the meta description which is often the call to action based off of the title tags.  Third is the meta keywords and are often placed in the code though they don’t need to be there.  These three areas help me get an idea of what I could be using or differentiating myself.

In gathering my keywords I also use Google keyword Research Tool.  Google’s free keyword tool allows you to find words and the estimated volume of searches.  Just know that you shouldn’t make keyword decisions based off of the volume because it isn’t very accurate.  Next filter this down to exact match and then export it to an excel file.  Remove, categorize, and match content that fits together which can also be done for PPC or CPC advertising.   Now that you have keywords the next step is utilizing it in your website.  This is done by optimizing your website.

Optimizaton: The Writing of Search Marketing

Search Engine Optimization could also be related to the discipline of writing content for search friendly results.   To do this you must write compelling content targeted at your customers.  The danger resides in focusing too heavily on keywords you end up with something no one wants to read.  It makes sense because you are trying to convince your customer to write quality content.  If you can, measure your keyword ratio of about  5% depending on the length of the article.  You can get away with a higher ratio with more in a shorter article. Although this number is not statistically accurate or have a lot of proof behind it does make sense from a perspective that Google does look to see if you are keyword stuffing your content.

Adding keywords to your title, anchor text, header, meta description, and alt tags will give you an additional advantage in optimizing your site for search rankings.  These tags help announce what the page is about, gives a compelling reason to read, and additional information that Google might need in order to better index your site.  I leave out the meta keywords because it really isn’t used in search engines.

Analytics: The Mathematics in Search Engine Marketing

Finally, analytics would be the mathematics in search engine marketing.   Any marketing functions ought to have metrics to maximize business efforts.  The use of analytic tools such as Google makes this easier than ever.   Rather than just seeing who is visiting you can look at things like what are your top exit page, unique visitors, and your visitor trending.  Mastering this can give you insight to what your customers are looking at to better refine your content.

A few equations to consider

Close Rate: ___ Customers/Leads= ____ x 100 = ____ % Close rate

Cost-Per Action:____ CLV x  RR= $ ____ Cost-Per-Action

Cost-Per-Lead:  $ _____ CPA x ____% Close Rate =$_____ CPL

Search Engine Marketing uses the old school adage of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Focusing on keyword research and then applying it to your content will help with site optimization.  Your tags and information will further your results in search marketing.  Measuring your work can be done through tools like Google analytics which is like arithmetic for SEO.  A firm grasp and application of these ideas will help in gaining better search results.

What do you have to say about optimizing content?

Narrow Keywords Will Win Website Rankings

Targeting keywords is a difficult task and takes time and effort to choose quality words for your website.  Don’t simply assume you know your keywords. People use words differently so doing quality research will help your rankings out. Focus on long tail keywords for your product or service will more like get you great results.  If you target bicycles, you are more like to lose on that term than narrow keyword terms like types of bicycles, models, colors, and brands.   Think about the niches and brands of  your products and locations.

Everyone Loves Fresh Content

Second, write fresh content for your keywords.   Search engines love fresh content that is consistent to your products or services.   The reason is that Google and the other search engines are always looking to find the best results.  The better the content you have the more like they will index your site.  Likewise, people like good fresh content that is relevant.   If I were reporting the news you wouldn’t want something that was over a year old.  You would want the most current and accurate information.  That is why fresh content is like the best thing you can use to optimize a site.  Great content also allows people to link to you.  Their reputation is on the line and so they want to know that your content is good.

Good Writing Principles Lead to Better Optimization

Third, write like you are writing a paper.   Search engines index content in the fashion of academic writing.  In academic writing you have titles, headers, sub headers, and references. Citing plays a large part in academic writing.  If I am writing what kind of evidence do I have?  If I quote Einstein to support my theory then the more respected my position will be.  Citing (linking) to related topics and subjects within your site, to your site, and out of your site will create credibility not only to your readers but to search engines.   Now you don’t have to be an academic but thinking in this framework will help provide you with a foundation to optimize your content.

Link Optimization That Search Engines Can Use

Fourth, Now that you have cited your sources create and optimize your links (anchor text).  When you create a link how does it look?  Do you put [click here] when linking to another place?  Think again about writing a paper.  Would you say click here or mention the author or the subject or the book?  Clearly you would mention the specifics so that people could find what you were talking about.  Optimizing your links is easy because you are attempting to give search engines your resources.  For instance, if I want to link to my portfolio I should put something like Derek Hanson, Digital Strategist.  This link is optimized for search engines and the blind who may not know what click here is linking to.

Reader Centric Optimization

Fifth, optimizing for readability.  This aspect is important because you may be tempted to fill your website with keywords in order to optimize your website.  Have you ever read content that is repitious?  It is boring and irritating.  That is why you should create your website with the reader in mind.  Sometimes the reader is blind which is both search engines and the visually impaired.  If you write ADA optimized content, search engines will reward you as a quality publisher.

Conclusion to Optimizing Your Content

There are five things to keep in mind when optimizing your website.  Make sure you know what keywords you are aiming at.  Sometimes generic keywords are so broad that you may never be able to win those keywords for search rankings.  Once you know your keywords, write content that is fresh and relevant.  People like fresh content and so do search engines.  Write like an academic might write.  Using good linking with anchor text will not only help in optimizing for search results but also help with those who are visually impaired.  Finally, write with your audience in mind.