Will you fail because of a poor Business Name?

You want a name your prospects will identify with.

You want a name that helps your position in Google.

You want to run a website that succeeds.

Then you need to consider SEO when you’re thinking about Business Name Ideas.

Most especially you need to consider keywords when selecting your business name, because…

If your prospects search for a phrase then they are likely to identify with that phrase. If they identify with a phrase in your business name then they are more likely to identify with your business.

It’s never been essential to have a keyword rich domain name in order to rank in Google, but the consensus among SEO’s is that it helps, so why not at least consider keywords during the selection process.

The following ideas could help you find a killer business name that’s a perfect marriage between branding and SEO.

How to SEO Your Business Name Ideas

First you need to remember that it’s not a business name as such it’s actually a domain name that you’re looking for.

And as with all good SEO we need to start with the keywords.

Most essentially; you need to include you top keywords within the name, and if you’re interested in branding the business you also need to combine the phrases (perhaps along with another phrase) to create a brand.

For example ZapWebDesign.com contains the “web design” phrase and a phrase that makes the business name a potential contender as a brand; it also does what it says on the tin.

I think that the addition of “Zap” lends the above to being branded, but what about the addition of more common words like “Buy” or “Direct” would these be sufficient? Perhaps not, in the end you have to decide.

You may find that you can buy an exact match domain name (one that contains just your target keywords and nothing else). Exact match domains can be very powerful, although you should probably consider whether the resulting domain makes a great business name and brand.

Whether you want to brand or not if you want to help your SEO with a keyword rich domain name the following rules apply:

• Include your top keyword(s) preferably in the right order
• It’s preferable (but not essential) that your keywords come before any additional phrases
• Recombining several target phrases can also work well if done correctly
• Avoid hyphens; they are not great for branding purposes and maybe considered spammy
• Avoid numbers; people will end up typing in the other version
• It should be short and easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)
• If you are targeting a specific country go for the Country Code top-level domain (CCtld), so for example if you are UK based I would go for the .co.uk
• Also consider the .com particularly if you are interested in branding, as a .com can receive lots of type in traffic
• You could also consider .net or .org which are ideal for some uses
• Personally I would avoid the more unusual CCtld such as .info, .ws, .cc and .name, please note that I know some SEO’s who think these work just fine

You should also consider the above points in terms of branding which I touch on below…

How to Take Charge of Your Brand

What is a brand…?

Well it’s more than just a name, or a logo, it’s really a relationship and encompasses… well more than I’m going to cover in this article. The point is your brand is nothing without a good name

But here are some important points to consider in terms of branding:

• Be objective; think how your prospects will view your name, for example nothing offensive
• Don’t be complicated; this will confuse people and they won’t remember you, not a good idea when it comes to branding
• Make it relevant to what you’re selling; hopefully with your main target keyword(s) hint, hint
• It should be memorable, easy to pronounce and easy to spell
• It should be easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)

Warning: Prevent Possible Twitter Disaster

The Twitter username is limited to 15 characters.

So if branding and social media are important to you then you need to keep your domain name 15 characters long.

I have made this mistake myself and regretted it afterwards…

Another Warning: Legal Issues

Please note that (assuming that you’re UK based) you need to complete all of the normal searches at Companies House to ensure that you’re not treading on anyone’s toes. You also need to check the sensitive words lists also found at Companies House see: Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C and for Trademark infringement.

Ughhh I hate legal stuff; I’m not a lawyer OK so the above may not be an exhaustive list and also the above comments / links only relate to the UK.

Business Name Ideas! Speed Up Selection with Excel

You can use Excel to speed this all up, for example:

=CONCATENATE(A2,B2) joins the content of cells A2 and B2 together, you can add more cells to this formula if you wish.

=LEN(B3) shows the number of characters in the resulting cell (this example assumes that the complete name is compiled in B3) this can help ensure you don’t exceed the desired character number.

Now check the resulting names by searching your favourite provider.

Other Business Name Ideas!

Has anyone got any comments in terms of the rules they follow when sorting through potential Business Name Ideas? If so I would love to hear about them…

It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not understand the difference between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).  I am also conscious that, education particularly when it comes to online marketing is incredibly important, a little while back I heard of another instance where PPC listings were being sold as SEO.  I’m also fed up of people championing SEO and rubbishing PPC (which can be a very effective form of marketing for many websites).  So to this end I have decided to briefly explain the differences between SEO and PPC.

The image below shows a search in Google and highlights where the PPC advertising and the Natural (or Algorithmic) search results appear.  While Google is not the only search engine it is probably the one that most people use and the results of Yahoo, Ask, Bing etc. appear in much the same way.

PPC & Natural (or Algorithmic) Search Results

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic achieved through the Natural (or Algorithmic) search results.  The search engines are trying to return quality relevant content and the aim of SEO is to help make your site pages as relevant as possible for the phrases that you are targeting.  SEO normally involves keyword and competitor research in the first instance followed by input into both the site itself and also into offsite elements.

What is Pay Per Click (PPC)

To put it (very) simply PPC works by the advertiser selecting appropriate keywords that will then trigger their adverts. When a user types in the keywords the advert is displayed (there are other variables involved but this is a short article). If the user clicks on the advert then the advertiser pays, hence the phrase Pay Per Click.

What are the Benefits of PPC?

• You can use PPC to test your business ideas
• PPC can be set up immediately, SEO can be a slow burn
• PPC can inform your future SEO strategy
• It is flexible; you can turn off the campaign, reduce spend, refocus your adverts etc.

Further Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization