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…

Google has launched (and is now rolling out) a new social addition to its search results a Plus 1 Button, the button will allow users to recommend sites and share these recommendations with their friends.

Similar to Facebook’s “like” functionality it looks like we will start to see more and more reliance on the personal preferences of an individual surfer (and their friends) in the search engine results.

The recommendation will (where appropriate) influence the ranking within the organic search results.  The impact will be seen within the context of similar / relevant searches, even then the results are unlikely to catapult a site from zero to hero so no need to panic.  In short the likely impact will be to make certain sites more visible.

The company has used social clues from the likes of Twitter and Flikr to impact the results for over a year so this is part of a trend.

The feature will be extended to websites in due course.

I wonder how long it will be before someone link baits “Google Plus 1 Button the Death of SEO”.

What are your thoughts; obviously the button puts another tool into the arsenal of the search spammer.

I am pleased to announce that after lots of research, coding, site validation and a few headaches JustinMarch.com has finally been redesigned.

The site has been redesigned to reflect my decision to concentrate on my Web Design, SEO, & PPC services.  There is also a new page dealing with Social Media Marketing and a bunch of revamped pages including my Profile Page.  I am still offering simple Graphic Design Services to compliment my other work but Graphic Design will not be my main focus moving forward.

The redesign not only signals a determination to enlarge the business this year, but also a realisation that I have projects of my own that I want to start concentrating on.

The new site features updated graphics and focuses on pushing my SEO & Web Design services in the Gloucester and Cheltenham areas.

Next step is to redesign this blog in an effort to make it more readable and to help me get more enthusiastic about posting again.

It’s been ages since I last wrote a post, have been a bit ill and am about to go on hols, so thought it would be a good time to write a short post on DMOZ (ODP – Open Directory Project).  I am still seeing lots of comments in forums claiming that a DMOZ listing is the be all and end all of link building and a must have link.

DMOZ is a Submit & Forget
Essentially Dmoz is and has been for a long while a submit and forget site, sure it’s still on my list of places to submit too but once I have submitted I move on.  I don’t go back and check if the link is present yet I just move on and get on with my life.

This from a post I responded to on the Sitepoint forum:

“Submit to Dmoz and forget it, move on, do other things, play with yer kids, get a life, many more fish in the link building sea.

This is the third post (on different forum) that I have made today alone about Dmoz, will stop eventually and let people obsess in their own little groups.

Speaking as an EX Dmoz editor and person who despite Dmoz listing still achieves good SEO results.”

Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4397972

DMOZ has been going through some difficult patches for a while now see: The Life and Near Death of DMOZ so the submit and forget advice is perhaps more relevant than ever before.