Choosing a Good Domain Name for you business

November 6, 2013 by  
Filed under A Note for You, Front Page

Domain Names

Domain Names (Photo credit: ivanpw)

 

 

It is not easy locating a good domain name given the numerous domain search options available. Generally, the type of domain name you choose may play a very important role in search engine ranking of your website. Therefore, learning how to choose the correct domain name is of utmost importance. Generally, here are some of the basic rules to follow when buying a domain name.

  • “.com” is Always the Best Option

 

The “.com” domain name is by far the most commonly used and searchable domain. This extension becomes even more important if you’re setting up a business website because “.com” domain has more credibility and professionalism than other domain extensions such as “.biz”, “.net” etc. furthermore, your customers are more likely to forget your extension if it is something other than the “.com”. For instance if your extension is www.yoursite.net, some customers are likely to forget and type www.yoursite.com instead.

  • The Shorter the Better

 

The rule of the thumb is: do not use a domain name that is more than 8 characters if you can help it. People are generally lazy, so don’t force them to type a whole novel in the name of searching for a domain. Keep it short and simple to remember.

  • Choose Keyword Rich Domain

 

Your domain name should be relevant to the type of goods, services, and type of information your site is about. Choosing a relevant and keyword rich domain will greatly boost your chances of being found in the search engine by the right customers. Don’t choose a domain name like “my-shoes.com” when you blog is about financial management.

  • Avoid Hyphens

 

It is true that some hyphenated domain names have had massive successes, but this is quite risky. Especially if your domain name has more than two words; as a result, customers tend to forget where the hyphen was. Moreover, hyphenated domain names are more likely to lose traffic to similar domain names without hyphens.  For instance; www.your-name.com is more likely to lose traffic to www.yourname.com. Most customers view hyphenated domain names as a cheap substitute to the non-hyphenated domain name.

  • Grab other extensions (if available)

 

If you have already registered your “.com” domain extension, grab other extensions as well to monopolize the domain name. For instance; register www.yourname.com as well as other extensions like www.yourname.net, www.yourname.org, www.yourname.biz, and www.yourname.mob. However, this is not compulsory if you are satisfied with a single domain name. Moreover, you should only do this if you are lucky to find the perfect domain name such as a single word domain name that is also relevant to your business.

  • Domains with Identity

 

If you want to get started quickly and hit the ground running, you can buy brandable domain names from websites like Brand Arrows with a Logo and Colour scheme.

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9 Web Design Best Practices For Small Businesses

September 16, 2013 by  
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page

English: An old golden Labrador. He has lived ...

E   (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

9 Web Design Best Practices For Small Businesses

The main objective of your business website is to ensure that your customers find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily. Check out our top recommended best practices for your website, all engineered to increase conversions and ultimately, the site ROI.

Ensure Effortless Navigation

As long as your site’s navigation is effortless and predictable, your prospects won’t get frustrated. A frustrated prospect is a potential customer lost to you. So, try to follow standard guidelines and place navigational links and menu items where people expect to find them

Focus on Quality Content

You may be told that posting often and maintaining a high posting frequency keeps you high on the search engines. This is not a writ-on-stone rule; what’s important is quality content, content that offers some value-add to readers. Focus on high-quality content, even if you publish less often.

Use Videos

Whether you create instructional, testimonial, product demo videos or videos introducing your team and company, use videos to attract and impress your visitors. Your videos don’t have to be professional, as long as they’re watchable and enjoyable.

Enable A Search Feature

A friendly search feature with advanced search options and the facility to sort and filter search results is pure gold. A great search feature, such as the one on Amazon.com can up your conversions by as much as 50%.

Allow Easy Contact

Make sure your prospects find it easy to get in touch with you. Place your phone number(s) and email Ids in all web pages, in your footer, sidebar or header. The easier you make it for people to get hold of your number, the greater your customers’ confidence in you.

Have Several CTAs

Make sure your prospects are clear as to what you want them to you. Not only should your CTA be clear and prominent, it’s necessary that you repeat the same CTA in multiple places. Sometimes people can miss out on CTAs while browsing, unless they’re everywhere and therefore hard to miss.

Establish Credibility

You don’t have to bribe your prospects with freebies to convert them. Establish a solid credibility locally, and let your site reflect your honesty and sincerity. Publish genuine customer testimonials and reviews. Put up trust symbols such as VeriSign and incorporate a friendly return policy.

Ensure Visual Appeal

Do make your site a little modern and visually appealing. Avoid negative backgrounds, and use readable and professional fonts. Use a professional web design company who’s designed sites for other businesses in your industry.

Ensure Top Page Load Speed

One sure-fire way of losing any prospect is to load your site with too many elements. Cut back on images, unnecessary graphic elements in your design and please avoid Flash. Check how fast your pages load on varying bandwidths – your site should load fast on the least bandwidth to be a winner.

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Discover best results for website with directories

The Panel on Search Engine Marketing during Q&A

The Panel on Search Engine Marketing during Q&A (Photo credit: MikeSchinkel)

Discover best results for website with directories

The internet is a vast ocean of unlimited resources. Locating the right information at the right time is an even trickier prospect. It is like the lock and key mechanism where only the perfect key will open the right lock to reveal a treasure trove of information. Search engines help a lot in finding the desired information on the internet. This is done through the use of specific and relevant keywords. Search engines first look up through the list of web directories, then specific web directories of the search topic selected through the keywords and then moves on to check and comb through the website themselves. This is the process through which internet users locate the information required for by them online with the help of websites submitted by web masters and subsequently listed on web directories.

The history and evolution of web directories make an interesting read. In the earlier days, all search function online were done through various web directories. This helped the early users of the internet to search and locate the relevant information and then go through the individual websites and ascertain if they have found the correct information. Web directories functions as a catalog of links, sorted by relevant keywords and topics. Today, popular search engines like Google too look towards directories when it comes to getting the right information in an easy manner.

So why should one list their websites on a web directory is this new age of internet offers a complete search portfolio for the discerning user? Here are some of the reasons why.

  • Indexing websites
  • One way linking
  • Targeted keywords
  • Traffic generation
  • Free or minimal cost
  • Visibility

The key factor here to consider if you are someone who is looking to promote their website is that search engines too are looking at directories when they send out their crawlers or spiders. If one has a website, then it helps to have your website listed and mentioned in directories. This means that when search engines are looking for more links to your websites, they can find this through the listing on web directories. Most of the web directories provide a one way link which is great for the search engine optimization aspect of the website. Search engines pay a lot of attention and hence a lot of importance to the inbound links to the website which is used to rank the website. In these cases, it is important to note that one way links are given a higher ranking that a two way or reciprocal link. Considering this, a listing on web directories can work wonders for the website. Web directories also allow you to tag your website listing on the directory with specific and targeted key words and even relevant phases. It is important to note that web directories which has strong SEO tagging features can boost the visibility of a website and ensure that traffic keeps flowing and the right people gets access to the information on the website.

Find Best List of directories on Directory Ready to submit your business.

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