Company name advice (web based)

theshamu

Hi,

I'm currently in the starting stages of setting up a company that will be web based. Will be selling products throughout Ireland and eventually (hopefully) worldwide.

I have a bit of knowledge of seo and my main keyword gets exactly 6600 exact local searches and 450k global searches. I also realise that there is some competition within my market but bring it on!

I know you will rank higher if your exact keyword is in your url but my Questions are:

1) should I go with a .ie or .com as I might try and advertise in the UK & US someday (but would obviously target Ireland until it takes off)

2) I have a catchy name for the company but as it'll be a web based store am I better off having the exact search term in the URL and not using the 'catchy' business name for ranking purposes.

Any opinions / help much appreciated.

Cheers.

p.s. sorry if you have already read this post but I was recommended to post in this section too.

brian duffy

Hi theshamu,

Now is a good time to slow down and choose a name carefully.

My advice is to use the google keyword research tool to identify search phrases. Then google the search phrases it throws up. See how many backlinks the top ranking sites have (as well as 'where they are') using backlinkwatch.com. You can also check out competing sites on alexa.com.



If you can get your complete search phrase in a .com URL then you are laughing.


Why not throw your options up here and get more specific feedback?

Below is an excerpt from a lesson I have on my website ebusinessmatters.com - which is an SEO and internet marketing training website currently in development...

"There is no such thing as the wrong domain name for your website. Sometimes a quirky, fun domain name that breaks all the rules can make you more “interesting” and add to the appeal of your website.
By and large however the below guidelines will help you to avoid choosing a domain that fails to maximize the full potential of your ebusiness.

• Try to get your keywords in the domain. Having your keywords in the domain will help you to rank higher for those keywords. Although this cannot be accurately measured and may change over time (as search engines tweak their algorithms) – having keywords in your domain boosts SEO without question.
• Find a domain that is unique. Don’t pick variations (the plural, hyphenated or misspelled version) of an already established domain. Do your market research and Google your domain before you register it to see what comes up.
• Either get the dot com, or your counties suffix If you wish to start a website that sells homeware to irish people then pick something like irishhomeware.com or irishhomeware.ie – neither irishhomeware.net nor irishhomeware.org would be quite as effective.If you're selling international then consider getting the .com.
• Make it easy to type and remember. Domain names that are very long, or difficult to spell, or difficult to remember are best avoided.
• Try to make it clear what your websites does – When someone hears about your domain name for the first time, they should be able to instantly and accurately guess at the type of content that might be found there. Domains like Monster.com (a job/recruitment website) requires far more branding than IrishJobs.ie.
• Consider Branding Loading your domain with keywords can result in unattractive names which can be difficult to brand. You need to find the balance. ebusinessmatters.com is probably a little but too long, but it has our keyword ‘ebusiness’ in there. Also, the word ‘matters’ has a double meaning which matches up perfectly with what we’re about. We’re telling people that ebusiness matters! and we’re writing about matters relating to ebusiness. Having a name that people will remember is also very important. A name that breaks all the rules but rolls of a persons tongue can still be a winner.
• Make a List and Get Some Opinions. Write a list of your main contenders and ask for opinions off people. Also, ask your customers (if you have nay) and friends. Ask yourself – how will this domain look on flyers, business cards, t-shirts etc? Take your time and make sure your happy before committing to anything."

theshamu

My advice is to use the google keyword research tool to identify search phrases. Then google the search phrases it throws up. See how many backlinks the top ranking sites have (as well as 'where they are') using backlinkwatch.com. You can also check out competing sites on alexa.com.

I purchased Market Samurai a few months back and thru this I can check all SEO competition for my keywords plus a lot more.

If you can get your complete search phrase in a .com URL then you are laughing.

the exact keyword domain is taken in 90% off all domains BUT if I put the word Irish before it it's available eg. irishiphonecovers.ie. will this be as powerful although it has another word in the domain?

Might need to do some extra off site seo? Link wheel method seems pretty powerfull.

Either get the dot com, or your counties suffix If you wish to start a website that sells homeware to irish people then pick something like irishhomeware.com or irishhomeware.ie – neither irishhomeware.net nor irishhomeware.org would be quite as effective.If you're selling international then consider getting the .com.

I do plan on selling my products in the UK/USA in the future if it takes off altho for the first year or three I'll be obviously building the brand here in Ireland so should I go with a .ie or .com domain?

Is there a way to tell google that even tho you have a .com tld your actually trading out of Ireland and obviously want to appear in google.ie/com if people searching from Ireland

A name that breaks all the rules but rolls of a persons tongue can still be a winner.

To be honest for branding I have a name the has one of the two keywords in it, I think this would work best if I plan on really branding the business.

Decisions, decisions, decisions..

Thanks for the reply, lots of great tips there.

brian duffy

.coms have no problem ranking in irish search results. .ie rank marginally higher at present but its unquantifiable. Gonna need specifics if Im to offer any more help

PaulPinnacle

brian duffy wrote: »

Gonna need specifics if Im to offer any more help

Not really. It's a pretty straight forward and common scenario.

If you're going with a gTLD but want to ensure that it's still correctly geotargeted to Ireland, you have a number of signals you can send to the search engines besides having the relevant ccTLD.

The primary one you should focus on is the IP address of your hosting. If it's on an Irish IP address, it will default to Irish geotargeting.

You can also set it via something like Google webmaster tools, but obviously the results of this only help in Google searches. Here, you can also set individual directories or sub domains to geotargeted specific locations.

While you can achieve the same level of geotargeting with a gTLD, it's worth considering the impact that it might have on a user. If they see two results, one with a gTLD and one with the ccTLD they know is related to their area (especially as .ie's commonly carry a little more trust with users), this can have an impact on user behaviour and thus effect your click through rates. Most users are happy to consider a .com as relevant, so it shouldn't be a major factor.