As a business owner, your company name/brand is a fundamental element of your company. Not only does having your own domain name look professional, it also sets you apart from your competitors, who do not. Owning your own domain name means you can also receive a corresponding professional email to go with it.
Purchasing your own domain name is a great opportunity to build up your digital presence and develop your personal brand to influence the way potential customers view you. But do you own it? You might automatically say ‘yes’, but do you?
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Let the team at Perfect Layout help you register the name of your business. Don't keep banging your head against a brick wall - we're here to help! Consult with us to mull over ideas, brainstorm and decide on what names best suit your business ideas. We look forward to working with you! Have you got a business idea but unsure about what to call your company? Once you have done that you also need to get all the marketing elements in place, such as a website and social media platforms. We can help you get started. We are great at brainstorming ideas, fantastic at drawing out unique selling points and awesome at getting you to truly believe that your business will bring you success...we're also great at registering domains! If you need help with deciding on the right name for your business, or would like help buying a domain for your company - get in touch today. I’m not good with technology and don’t know where to start with buying a website address, is this easy? Yes, buying a website name otherwise known as a domain name is fairly simple. You can go to any of the domain providers, such as 123-reg, GoDaddy and see if the domain is available. Simply type in your business name and they will tell you which extensions are available. The most popular ones are .com and .co.uk, so they may already be taken. How to choose a name for your business? The hard part is finding the right name for your business. Think about what your company offers and what might be appropriate. Do you want something unrelated to your business service, like Amazon and Apple did? As a start-up company, are you planning on building a brand? If you have a local business that provides a service in a particular location, you might want to think about a domain using ‘city + service type’, such as www.romfordplumbers.com Does the length of my company name matter? Yes it might do. We recommend that you try not to make the business name too long, otherwise your domains and email extensions will be long too. It not only becomes a pain to let your customers know your web address or email, but it could limit you on social media handles too. If the domain is already taken, what do I do now?
If your preferred domain name www.businessname.com is taken, is there another extension that you are happy with, such as .co.uk or .org. If they are all taken, it is not a case of throwing the towel in, but thinking perhaps of variations to your name. However, we don’t recommend spelling the name your own way, such as www.bykeshop.com instead of www.bikeshop.com, as this will not be easy for people to remember. Once you have your name, and it is available, you then need to decide how long you want to purchase is for (in multiples of years) – you can renew year-on-year or you can buy in for say 2 years or more. Do what you think is best for your company. At this point you can also purchase mailboxes, also recommended, so that your domain and email addresses are consistent. Having the same email and website address makes your business look professional. If you are reading this, still feeling lost, Perfect Layout can help you with purchasing your domain. Look at the full range of services we offer. I am thinking about buy I have getting a new website and the current website address I have is great. I'd really like to keep it - is that possible or do I need to buy a new one when I have a new website built? Also, what will happen to the Search Engine Optimisation efforts from my current site? The quick answer is yes! If you have a website address (domain) that you want to keep, then you can - that's not a problem. Websites can be built on other platforms. All you need to do is re-point the settings to the new platform's servers. In order to do this, you will need to have access to the domain account, rather than your current web provider. If your website was created and set up by your current provider and they have access to your account, ask them to transfer it over to you. So how does it work? Think of it a bit like moving home. When you move house, the shell of the property changes (this is your website platform) and when you want mail to come to you, you give everyone your new address (this is repointing the DNS settings on your account). Then, hey presto, the move is complete and people can find you in your new home. What else might you want to consider when creating or updating a website? If you are going to the effort of redesigning your website or creating a website from scratch, now might be the time to check that your company name and your domain are still a good fit for your business. Read one of our previous blogs on domain name registration–3 tips to getting it right, which is about how to choose your company name correctly. The world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be hot topic, with opposing views on what the right approach is for your website to climb to the top of search engines. Google is continuously evolving its algorithms, so what might be the right approach today may be different tomorrow. While there certainly are benefits of having targeted words in your domain, they are not as important as they once were for SEO. However, spend some time thinking over the following points to help you decide on an appropriate domain for your business. Things to consider are: Domain ending These days there are many new domain endings available, but where possible, we recommend our clients to buy a .com or .co.uk extension (where relevant for their business). Is your domain memorable? If you over complicate it or have unusual spelling of your company name, it will make it harder for clients to remember you so keep it simple! Keep it short Websites with long or confusing names can impede you. It is recommended to use one or two words in your domain. Try not to abbreviate words as only YOU will remember this. Should you choose keywords or build a brand name? What business are you in? Consider whether the inclusion of location and business keywords related to your business is better than trying to establish a brand name. Will your brand name resonate with your business, or will it get lost and forgotten? Does it sound professional and authoritative? Are you attracting your ideal clients with your name? A name that doesn't fit in with your business could prove costly. Think about what your customer will be attracted to. Will I lose my existing SEO when I change platforms?
If done properly you shouldn’t see any impact of changing your website to a new platform. These are some key points, as recommended by Digital Marketing Pro:
Talk to your web designers about any concerns that you may have and ensure that they are following all the recommended steps to ensure that everything transitions smoothly. Now you can see that changing platform, but keeping your existing domain and SEO, is a straightforward process. It was earlier this year, when we were away for my son's rugby tour, when the stars seemed to align and offer me another opening for a client for newly formed Perfect Layout. As you do (when staying in a holiday camp as part of a rugby tour) I headed to the club house to socialise with other parents from the team and partake in a little beverage - mine was a white wine! As I arrived at the table, I heard one of the dads moan about his website and how it was doing 'nothing' for his business. In the seven years that he had been with this reputable household-name web design company, he said that the only calls he was getting were cold calls. All of his work came from word of mouth. He was thinking of ending the contract, as he was paying a considerable amount of money each month with no real results and couldn’t see the point in continuing. I decided to join in the conversation and let him know about Perfect Layout Digital Marketing and the work that we do. I didn't lay it on thick; that's not how we work. But I asked him what the domain was and that when I had a moment I would take a look, do a quick website analysis and let him know my observations. Over that weekend, when I found a connection to Wi-Fi (not so great in the middle of the country) and had a look. I was shocked! This reputable company was taking a fair amount of money each month, for nothing. Their web account manager appeared to be always on the upsell telling him if he did x, y and z, their organic search would improve. What a joke!!! The only credit I can give - and don't get too excited - is that their website was on a mobile friendly platform, but the content was next to nothing! Across the entire site was a total of approximately 500 words. How would his company ever be recognised for the services he offered when there was no content talking about what he did on his website? How were search engines expected to return his company in organic search when there was so little to go on? Through a few sketchy headings, you got a sense of what they did, but it didn't even come close to what the recommendations are today regarding the amount of content there should be on a website. It also failed to explain the services they provided and there was no geographic explanation of which areas they served. No wonder he was miffed in spending money each month on this. To cut a long story short, we recently launched his new website (Oct 2017). We created a comprehensive home page giving a full overview of the company and developed unique pages for each of the services offered. Each page is rich in keywords, making it easier for the algorithms to decipher the business that this company is in. We are confident that in the next few weeks, we are going to see his site climbing up in organic search and that in the near future he is going to be receiving calls and winning new business. This is the point where most companies would hand the website to the client, say thank you very much and leave you to it. Not with Perfect Layout. With all of our customers who are on a monthly package, we will invest our time on other digital marketing strategies. In our opinion, having a great website is like making a cake with all the right ingredients. If you want a fantastic cake you will need to enrich it with flavours and toppings. In today’s world, being basic just won’t make you stand out. So the moral of the story is: listen, because you never know what you might hear...and more importantly, speak. Don't ever be afraid to tell people what you can do, especially if you can offer your services. Whilst it was a 'win' for Perfect Layout to sign another client, our mission is always to strive for a 'win-win' all round. We will monitor the site month-on-month and continue to apply digital marketing strategies to ensure that this website gets noticed. If you're not sure why your website isn't delivering leads to you, give us a call. Let's have a chat and we will schedule a free website consultation. If you are in the process of deciding on an appropriate name for your business, you’ll soon realise that whilst registering your domain name may be simple – deciding on the right name for your business can be something of a mine-field. Domain name registration is big business and there are many firms vying for your income. The big hitters in this market are; Godaddy, 123-reg and Ukreg who all facilitate registration as well as offering links to other services. So get clued up and read on… If you are in the process of deciding on an appropriate name for your business, you’ll soon realise that whilst registering your domain name may be simple – deciding on the right name for your business can be something of a mine-field.
Domain name registration is big business and there are many firms vying for your income. The big hitters in this market are; Godaddy, 123-reg and Ukreg who all facilitate registration as well as offering links to other services. So get clued up and read on… Tip 1 Give your business a name that is relevant to the type of service you are offering. For example, if you are a caterer selling freshly made sandwiches to order for local offices a name like, ‘Gourmet Goodness’ might be too broad and vague. What type of gourmet food is being sold exactly? An indistinct name could slow the growth of your brand recognition and rankings. Tip 2 A name that is too specific to your services, products or geographic area could also harm your business long term. If your 5-year strategy includes the gradual introduction into other services, products or areas, the business name mustn’t be too restrictive. If this same sandwich making business, for example, wanted to eventually offer home-made desserts, being called ’Sandwiches At Noon’ wouldn’t do. In the same way that the name ’London City Sandwiches’ would restrict growth if areas outside of the City were being considered. Tip 3 To avoid any legal issues check with the Companies House web service that the name you have chosen is not already taken. You may also want to check that your name of interest is not the subject of a third-party trade mark. Taking the time to ensure that you are free to use your preferred name at an early stage may help to avoid unnecessary costs further down the line. To sum up, don’t buy a domain name simply to get ahead in the search rankings. There are many other ways for your website to be optimised that over time will see customers continually coming to you because they know your name. |
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