URL Tips
I’m not much of a web address guy though I know their are many who enjoy purchasing domain names. This Search Insider article provides a good, quick list of suggestions for good (and bad) web addresses.
What Makes a Good URL?
On GoodURLBadURL.com I list some best practices for marketing professionals who, like me, take this URL thing seriously. Here are the Dos and Don’ts I’ve come up with for selecting and promoting URLs. I’d love to hear yours, too — either in the Search Insider Blog or the comments section on my site.
Dos
1. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord.
2. UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut.
3. Whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com.
4. If .com is not available, use YourBrandName.net.
5. If .com and .net are taken, find a new brand name. Seriously.
6. Use YourSlogan.com when running an integrated media campaign.
7. Use subdomains when driving people deeper than your homepage — e.g. Product.YourBrandName.com.
Don’ts
1. Don’t include www. We know to go to the World Wide Web to find you.
2. Don’t include http://. If your audience isn’t Web-savvy enough to know where to type the URL, you shouldn’t have a Web site.
3. don’tusealllowercase (canyoureallytellwhereonewordendsandthenextbegins?)
4. DITTOFORALLUPPERCASE
5. No-hyphens/or slashes.
6. Don’t use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such.
7. Don’t bury your URL at the bottom of a billboard. I’m the only nerd driving around with a 4x zoom lens to find URLs.
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The Hire Sense blog should be required reading for anyone in sales, anyone with a business, anyone with a brain - it should just be required reading for anyone.
My “check this blog” list (yeah, I think they’re called “Favorites” or “Bookmarks”) is now impossibly long - and it’s mostly due to this guy named Moe.
I just wasted… er, invested - another hour following the links from GoodURLBadURL to some stuff we could use for our own business, ideas for blog articles and some clearly useless, but still fascinating, information.
You’ve got to stop providing such cool sites and good commentary on this blog, Derrick. I have work to do!
Thanks for your comment Michael and glad you liked the tips. I, too, enjoyed the author’s input. I slapped my forehead a few times when I realized how many errors we have made with our URLs.
I apologize for the time-killing links. Now off I go to find more!
I agree with most of your views regarding domain names. However, if you can’t get the .com or .net and your business is tv or video related, a .tv might just work fine. The same if you have a business that would be suited for a .us, like a U.S.-specific tour company.
As for hyphens, that too depends on your business. If you’re hoping to resell the domain name, stay away from hyphens. But, if you’re a professional, say a chiropractor or a psychologist who wants to show up high in the search results for your city, a hyphen may not be a bad idea, especially for Yahoo and MSN. I just looked up “chiropractor Los Angeles” in Yahoo and MSN, and both the hyphenated .com names were high; page 1 in Yahoo and MSN and page 2 in Google. A search for “psychologist los angeles” also shows a hyphenated domain high up in MSN and Yahoo (several pages in for Google.)
I know your site doesn’t really deal with those types of businesses, but a hyphen isn’t necessarily all bad, and, for some businesses, works just fine.
True, it is harder to verbally tell someone your domain name, but for getting results in some of the search engines, a hyphen shouldn’t deter you.
Okay, that was very long-winded. You do have a great blog with much useful information. Thank you.