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Choosing
and buying a domain name is often done
impulsively once the decision
is
made to have a web site. This is unfortunate
because choosing the "best" domain
name is the single most important
thing one can do to optimize a website
for the search engines. If your company
name is "John Q Public," it
might seem that the best domain name
would be JohnQPublic.com. If all of your
potential customers know the name of
your company already, then it might indeed
be the best domain name for you to have,
because when people search for your website,
they will most likely find it.
However
if you are trying to reach potential
customers who are not familiar with the
name of your company, they will be searching
for the product or service that you have
to offer, not for the name of your company.
So for example, if you primary product
is widgets, and your domain name is widgets.com,
they will find your site quickly.
You
may now be thinking of your primary product
or service, and
that you should quickly buy that domain
name. Nothing is quite that simple. If
your product is unique, and folks who
search for it know the name of the product
or service, and know how to spell it,
and if a number of other factors are
in place, then it might work.
So
how do you decide on the best domain
name for your site? The best
domain name for your site is the best keyword
for your site. The best keyword for your
site can be determined using a program
that compiles the statistics on how often
and how many searchers are using what keywords
to search for your product or service,
on what search engines, as well as how
many other sites are competing for the
same or similar keywords. The results are
used to determine the best keyword for
your
site, which you can
incorporate in your domain name. Unless
you are in the SEO business, you probably
don't want to have to pay for the program
or have the expertise to interpret the
results.
Not
to worry, our parent company, Search
Engines 411 Inc., can do
that for you for a minimal fee.
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Step
2
Hosting
When
looking for a Web Host, the first inclination
may be to use a free or cheap host.
That is penny wise but pound foolish, because free/cheap hosting services:
often limit your access to your files
often have excessive 'downtime' during which your site is not available for visitors or search engine spiders
often have inadequate tech support
often host sites on 'shared' IP addresses with other sites that have detrimental effects on the ability of your site to rank high
on the search engines.
often charge extra fees for things you don't realize you even need until you get the bill!
often
reserve copyrights on some or all of the
content on your site, making it difficult
or impossible for you to move to another
hosting company once you realize the predicament
you are in.
If
you have a personal site and are not concerned
with the problems
above, then a free
or inexpensive hosting company may be your
best choice. If you think any of the problems
will impact you, then a better choice is
to pay $20 - $30 a month now for a hosting
company that will provide you with 99% uptime,
24/7 tech support (English Only), "good" IP
addresses, and the other services that the
'free' hosts do not provide.
Call
us (850) 271-3566 or EMAIL sue@se411hosting.com
SE411
Hosting ~~ Web
Hosting Packages © 2001-2008
all rights reserved Search Engines 411
Inc
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Step
3 Web
Design
Web design for a personal site
is important for the folks that visit the
site. Web design for a business site is important
for the folks that visit the site, and also
for the search engines.
The most
beautiful site I have ever seen was never
listed on
any search engine - so nobody ever found
it. Why? It was designed in a manner that
prevented the search engine spiders from
navigating through the site, so it was
like a beautiful
billboard on a closed road. The ins and outs of site design
are far too lengthy to go into here - and are
better dealt with on an individual site basis.
Many
site designers are wonderful graphic artists,
but are not well versed in
SEO techniques. If you expect your site to
rank high on the search engines, you need
a site that is designed with SEO built in
and maintained, or you need the site optimized
after it is
built and then maintained. Those are your choices.
The first alternative is less expensive than
the latter. If you do neither, you are essentially
putting up a beautiful billboard on a closed
road.
To
see what the search engine spiders see,
IF they find our site, use the Search Engine
Spider Simulator below.
Search
Engines 411 Inc. started SE411 Hosting
in response to our clients' complaints
about free and cheap hosting companies. |