online shop name

muingwee

Hi im looking to open an online shop which specialises in plus sizes for ladies but also does the other size ranges, i was thinking of simplystunning or just perfect does anyone else have any ideas? thanks x

cormee

muingwee wrote: »

Hi im looking to open an online shop which specialises in plus sizes for ladies but also does the other size ranges, i was thinking of simplystunning or just perfect does anyone else have any ideas? thanks x

Your domain name is extremely valuable in SEO terms. Pick a name that has SEO value - simplystunning doesn't. Research your market, find out what keywords people use on search engines to find sites of this nature, and try use those keywords in the site name.

Try plussize.ie, simplystunning.ie while catchy is going to mean nothing to search engines, and unless you have a large marketing budget, search engines will be bringing you the vast majority of your traffic.

Another reason to use a semantic domain name - you could spend years working hard to get simplystunning.ie to the top of search rankings for your key term (say "plus size") and I can promise you that anyone with SEO skills who purchased www.plussize.ie would knock simplystunning.ie off the top spot in a matter of weeks.

cormee

I see there is a site called plussize.ie now - is that yours?

mbiking123

for alot of businesses the URL matches up with the name of the company. I think you need to sort out company/shop name first and URL will follow

Your welcome page of the website is like the shop window, here you need to show with seconds what your website is for. A website in the UK which has alot of online sales is wiggle.co.uk, from the name it is impossible to know what they are however when you go to the website it is obvious they sell sport/cycling/triathlon equipment. A shop window in my opinion is more important than the name above it unless its a brand name

Dont get too caught up in the URL, you need to get your message across quickly. I think this is more important.

Google is a search engine, google bots search the Internet. A search is based on the text on your website not just URL or name. The more hits your site gets the further up the rankings you go. Another way is to pay google per hit but I think this costs €2.50 per click which can be expensive.

cormee

A website in the UK which has alot of online sales is wiggle.co.uk, from the name it is impossible to know what they are however when you go to the website it is obvious they sell sport/cycling/triathlon equipment. A shop window in my opinion is more important than the name above it unless its a brand name

Wiggle are online over 10 years, OP is talking about setting up now. Conditions have changed since then. There was a fraction of competition back then compared to what there is now, so you need every competitive advantage you can get. Having a domain name the matches your product isn't the be-all and end-all of SEO but it is important and will push you up the rankings further than a cutesy domain name will.

It's useful not just on site but off site, anyone who links to you includes those vitally important keywords in your anchor text. On the SERP it shows the searcher you have what they want - lets say you had never heard of Wiggle and you were searching for a mountain bike - which would you click, mountainbikes.co.uk or wiggle.co.uk?

Dont get too caught up in the URL, you need to get your message across quickly. I think this is more important.

Your message is irrelevant if no one is visiting your site.

A search is based on the text on your website not just URL or name.

Content is just one of over 200 factors Google takes into account when determining your ranking, as is domain name.

Another way is to pay google per hit but I think this costs €2.50 per click which can be expensive.

You're referring to Google AdWords - the price varies according to the words you're buying/bidding on and the popularity of those terms. It's unlikely it's 2.50, it would probably be more like 20c per click, but like I said it depends on the amount of people bidding on the term.

mbiking123

quote - "You're referring to Google AdWords - the price varies according to the words you're buying/bidding on and the popularity of those terms. It's unlikely it's 2.50, it would probably be more like 20c per click, but like I said it depends on the amount of people bidding on the term."

no 2.50 per click, I dont want to say the company's name on this forum.
They paid 2.50 every time somebody paid to click on it. But if you have google adwords you will get money, based on how many hits your website gets-once again from someone I know with a website that uses it to pay for service


as per wikipedia Googlebot is the search bot software used by Google, which collects documents from the web to build a searchable index for the Google search engine. dont know where the last person got 200 factors, itys very simple how it works. If it was complicated it would not work given the amount of information out there

a fancy name wont get hits, people search witha search engine. They describe what they are looking for usually dont look for a URL name. I gave Wiggle as an example. Let me go further if I wanted a Sony 44" LCD, I personally would type that into a search engine followed by price. I dont start with typing TV shops names. I will be returned with what I want and I can see the cheapest price. People who use the web often are looking for the cheapest price, a web based shop has the problem that people cannot feel the product or in your case try it on and see how it looks on the person. People want to see pictures, text with description etc etc. Dont get hung up on URL name


type plus size clothing ireland into google and you will see

oxendales
littlewoods
yours clothing
simplybe
savannah
outsizeclothes
seasonfashions

etc etc

get you name right and then add a .com or .ie, these names dont indicate plus size clothes. Maybe that works best be descreet. In any case work out your name first

Pixelcraft

mbiking123 wrote: »

But if you have google adwords you will get money, based on how many hits your website gets-once again from someone I know with a website that uses it to pay for service

Nope, cormee's right - you're getting confused with adsense

mbiking123 wrote: »

type plus size clothing ireland into google and you will see

oxendales
littlewoods
simplybe
etc etc

These are already established brands, so it has little relevance to a startup ecommerce site.

cormee

as per wikipedia Googlebot is the search bot software used by Google, which collects documents from the web to build a searchable index for the Google search engine. dont know where the last person got 200 factors, itys very simple how it works. If it was complicated it would not work given the amount of information out there

OK, I can no longer take you seriously.

mbiking123

sad reply

reminds me of Dail Eireann

tricky D

OP Cormee and Pixelcraft hit the nail on the head. You are best served targetting the generic keywords 'plus size' or 'ladies plus size' in your domain name. It is very important. Not doing so, makes your SEO task much harder and more expensive. plussize.ie is gone, you could try for plussizes.ie but there could be confusion between the 2 sites and the IEDR could well reject it. Try to get something like ladiesplussizes.ie which hits your 3 main search terms really well. ladiesplussizesireland.com is also a possibility.


Wrt the number of Google SEO factors, just Google for 'Google SEO factors'. The first link goes to a page which lists 119 known factors and alleges 200 which is credible. This page's content is a few years old and anybody tracking SEO blogs like Matt Cutts will know that that number has increased over the last few years.

mbiking123

good info in post

however back to the original question about a name for a website. If you take jackamo and their recent tv adverts etc. The name does not suggest clothing for obese/fat men, I dont think people really want to go to websites that would have a name of plus sizes. Thats only my opinion but the others posting lost it completly on this issue. Thats the point I was trying to make be descreet.

I dont think they want to be reminded of their size, do what jackamo do for example "real men clothing sizes for real men". One of the actors was slightly overweight and the other more obvious. They did not use a big fat bloke with a belly hanging over the belt. Maybe that would be more accurate but they were descreet about showing overweight men. Be descreet it is a hard subject more so for women

Only my opinion people, take it or leave it. Its up to the person who originally made the posting what is correct for them

mbiking123

check out http://www.cormee.com, . The photoshop demo is poor at best.

tricky D

You should grow up and stop giving poor and uninformed advise. Such pathetic attempts at personal attacks are scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

mbiking123

Ohhhhhh am I upsetting the web designers

I did not start the smart ass comments, I gave my opinion. either take it or leave it

just mentioned a URL and made a comment on something that does not look good- no need to be soooo touchy

hit a soft spot ?

PaulPinnacle

mbiking123 wrote: »

I did not start the smart ass comments, I gave my opinion. either take it or leave it

The comments you made were pointed out to be in contradiction with the official information provided by the search engines, the experience of anyone who has tested it (the prevalence of exact match domains in SERPs is still a major gripe for those of us in this area - even though the impacts have lessened [slightly] in recent times) and was giving the OP incorrect advice. The posters were 100% correct to point this out.

Had your comments been along the lines of "don't forget the impacts of your name on branding in an effort to chase a keyword rich domain", then it would have some credibility. To say it isn't a factor due to the fact that a number of non keyword rich domains do very well... totally incorrect.

I won't even comment on the "€2.50 per click" thing, again, cormee is spot on there. As mentioned, if you're guessing at information, don't risk pushing someone in the wrong direction.

My initial thought on the name was along the lines of "Size wise". But this doesn't really provide a keyword rich name or a particularly 'attractive' name for branding, so it's neither one nor the other in terms of what it achieves. Best of luck on coming up with something good (or if plussize.ie is yours best of luck with your new venture).

cormee

PaulPinnacle - Are you saying name brands/marketers dislike exact match domains? That's very interesting.

I was curious about them, so about two years ago I bought an exact match domain for what would be a very competitive search-term in a very lucrative Irish market, a sector that would have big marketing budgets.

I did all the standard SEO stuff on the page - exact match headers, exact match titles. I also put two or three RSS feeds from other legitimate sources (who would be more than happy to have their stuff being syndicated btw) in the same line of business, so it would make Google think there was fresh, relevant content on the site on a daily basis.

And last but not least I put some inbound links to it from sites with OK PR's.

I'd say it took me a half an hour in total (not including domain name stuff).

I think in about three weeks it was number one on Google.ie for two of the three-word phrases it was an exact match of (people sometimes typed two of the words as one). After about six months the site was number one in the two-word version - ie. Google didn't need the search phrase to include 'Ireland' anymore. It's still number one for those three phrases, and lots of longer-tail related phrases in the same field (I'd put the related phrases down to using the RSS feeds). I have to say, I find exact-match domains to be very effective.

To put it in context, it wasn't a high-volume search, about 30 click-thrus a day, but one 'sale' a day would bring a nice recurring monthly fee

...Now hopefully that posting won't drive mbiking123 to Google-rage again

PaulPinnacle

cormee wrote: »

PaulPinnacle - Are you saying name brands/marketers dislike exact match domains? That's very interesting.

I wouldn't quite say "marketers dislike them", more so that many disagree with it having such a relatively disproportionate impact on SERPs (when it helps rankings and profits, people love them!). When the end result can be SERPs being dominated by cruddy results of little to no value I'm sure we all agree, marketers or not, that it's a poor situation that could be improved.

I certainly agree with you that they can be/are effective, no question there. It's a little dated now, but there were some interesting figures given by SEOmoz on the correlation of ranking factors in Google vs. Bing that showed the prominence of exact match domains (normal correlation is not causation caveat applies) in rankings.

mbiking123

Ref 2.50 thing - I can only go on what I was told(from a good source). I dont want to say the name of the company but they where on the news some time back. They were a very well known Irish based company. They lost the run of themselves on their advertising and went bust. Hence 2.50 sounds alot and why they went bust. I am not trying to mislead anybody. I cant mention the company name here and I am sure you can appreciate that.

cormee-good research and good to get hits,
We have to take this back to original question on a good website name. As a bloke if you were obese would you buy from a website like jackamo.co.uk or fatboy.ie(as an example)

No good to get high up the ranking if people dont want to buy from website, I can appreciate where you are coming from with matching URL with business activity but this is obesity-completly different from the norm. For some especially women its embarrasing


I didnt start the smart comments, but I can appreciate its unfair

Look at my other posts to others, look at the feedback I gave. I dont mislead and if I do its not intentional. I feel I have given some good information to people.

PaulPinnacle

mbiking123 wrote: »

I can only go on what I was told(from a good source).

Nobody is doubting that a company was paying that price for certain keywords, many companies pay far higher than that in competitive sectors, the error is in the assumption that this cost is applicable to all ads (e.g. that it's directly relevant to the OP).

Ads are placed via an auction system (not simply cost related, it comes down to the quality score too, but the max cost per click pays an important part in the placement), where each keyword/keyphrase will have a different cost based on the popularity/competition for the term - as outlined by cormee previously.

I don't think anyone has suggested that you're intentionally trying to mislead, but when you try to correct people (who are giving good/correct advice) with incorrect assumptions then it's not helping the OP.

cormee

@Mbiking - Why are you using fatboy.ie as an example? It shows you either still don't understand what is being discussed (exact-match domains) or that you're deliberately trying to twist my point in order to prove yours.

Would you Google 'fat boy' if you were looking to buy clothes? Of course you wouldn't, you'd Google 'plus size clothes' or something like that, which brings us right back to my very first post in this thread.

You don't understand the basics of SEO, and you admitted as much when you attempted to rubbish my point that there were over 200 (positive and negative) ranking factors that Google takes into account.

If you want to learn about SEO try taking in what's being discussed here, instead of reusing the same invalid examples and information to back up your incorrect theories.

mbiking123

Ok to answer that, I dont want to twist any points. You critised my points that I raised and I am only backing up my point of view.

Its an Internet marketing/SEO forum (Online (e-mail and web) marketing, search engine optimisation, and advertising)
A question has been asked about a good website name

You have been discussing SEO, I have been discussing Internet Marketing

Your obviously very keen on SEO, but has strayed away from the question asked. perhaps the person wants a website name that will hit high on google ranking. I have raised issues from a marketing point of view

REf your 200 factors, as far as I know Google keep it a secret the algorithm that they use. If you can figure the algorithm out fair play to you.

If you want to discuss purely SEO, I will leave it to you guys.

tricky D

mbiking123 wrote: »

Ok to answer that, I dont want to twist any points. You critised my points that I raised and I am only backing up my point of view.

Its an Internet marketing/SEO forum (Online (e-mail and web) marketing, search engine optimisation, and advertising)
A question has been asked about a good website name

You have been discussing SEO, I have been discussing Internet Marketing

They're inextricably linked.

mbiking123 wrote: »

Your obviously very keen on SEO, but has strayed away from the question asked. perhaps the person wants a website name that will hit high on google ranking. I have raised issues from a marketing point of view

The generic terms are the best way to get the high rankings and traffic. Anything else requires an expensive brand building exercise. The OP asked about a site name. She did not ask about design or conversion. Users do use generic terms all the time and have no problems with it due to the anonimity the web affords. They can not use search terms of brands they don't know.

mbiking123 wrote: »

REf your 200 factors, as far as I know Google keep it a secret the algorithm that they use. If you can figure the algorithm out fair play to you.

It's perfectly obvious to anyone who has tracked Google over the years and follows blogs like Matt Cutts which has info straight from the horses mouth. A link has been provided which outlines what should be obvious to any decent SEO pro.

mbiking123 wrote: »

If you want to discuss purely SEO, I will leave it to you guys.

You're going against the flow of decades of combined experience. You can choose to learn from it or plough on regardless. Your choice.

mbiking123

Let me put it this way, I take it your a bloke. If you were obese and say 3xl in size and you wanted a new fleece jacket to keep warm in this snow

What would you google?

If I was 3XL, I would google 'fleece jacket 3xl' and pages from Ireland

If a lady, and say dress size 22. I would imagine she would google 'dress size 22'

by the way thanks for the link,

I'm far from an SEO pro as discussed, you guys are obvisouly serious about it. But am afraid you have not 'sold' me that the URL is as important as you believe for this person. Dont take me wrong you have an interesting opinion and its food for thought and I think you may be on to something. For plus sizes for women I dont think is just right for this case.

tricky D

You've just changed from the very non-specific brand names end of the spectrum to the very specific clothes and sizes which is way over at the other end, bypassing the generics in the middle. Those keywords are already easily catered for in the inventory so not required in any business/domain name. Otherwise you're going from suggesting fatboy.ie to size16size18size20size22-xxlxxxl-fleecedresstrousersetc.ie. That's some flip-flop.

As for what search term would people use most, the clue is in the OP's question. She describes her products as 'plus sizes for ladies' - hammer, nail, head. They are the primary keywords as they best describe the products, the ones you suggest are secondary.



OP You might be aware that you can trade under a different name. SO the option of trading as something like ladiesplussizes.ie and having a bricks n mortar shop called something else like Simply Stunning is available to you.

mbiking123

Last time I heard of a flip flop used in that way was ex-President Bush, in any case back to the hammer. If you go to a woman and mention her as being plussize,her weight, shape, being obese etc etc you will def get a hammer on the head

That subject is a no go area, as you dad or older uncle's etc they will tell you. Women dont accept their overweight etc etc. To tell a woman that she should shop on plussize.ie will result in a stiletto in the head.

You would want to be careful asking a woman to visit a website with that name, I think a hard hat and safety boots would def be needed.

tricky D

Who said anything about asking? This is not face to face. Your example just doesn't apply. The user is putting this in a search engine query. Completely different and affords anonimity.

This has already been mentioned, but you appear to either not read posts properly, ignore them or misunderstand them. All of your points have been refuted.

OP has her answers. Not going to waste any more time addressing your misconceptions, misunderstandings and bad advice etc..

mbiking123

They wont google it

tricky D

Whatever. OP and everybody else except the minority of one knows whether her market will or not.

byrne0f56789

Interesting conversation. However it all depends on your objective.

Firstly, you need to look at search trends and find a url that isn't used but contains a search term that is popular and relates to your product. It's about finding a gap that's popular but doesn't have much competition.

An extreme example would be plus-size-clothes-for-ladies.com. A lot of affiliate sites use this strategy. However, if you are retailing particularly in the fashion area you may want to use your own brand name.

For a web store you can hit the long tail search terms by simply using the product name as the url of the product page anyway.

Another thing is AdWords. As was mentioned earlier it’s an auction system. However, you need to work out you conversion rates so you can bid at a profitable level.

You have to have a cold investment style attitude to AdWords. It’s all about Return on Investment.

That being said your choice is SEO or Branding.

cormee

byrne0f56789 wrote: »

An extreme example would be plus-size-clothes-for-ladies.com. A lot of affiliate sites use this strategy. However, if you are retailing particularly in the fashion area you may want to use your own brand name.

For a web store you can hit the long tail search terms by simply using the product name as the url of the product page anyway.

If you can you should avoid hyphens in domain names like the plague. From a usability and word-of-mouth marketing point of view they're an unmitigated disaster.

The url of the product page and the domain name are two different entities, by just using the url of the product page you're limiting your appeal to Google - let's suppose Google gives you 1 point for a semantic domain name and 1 for a semantic url, that totals 2. Only having a semantic url gives you 1 point.