What’s in a name? A fair bit online

Designing an online experience isn't just about the website design or the content on the page. Looking at every aspect of the user's experience will show how effective an online strategy will be, so focusing on a single element and ignoring others can be disastrous to success. With the internet growing at an increasingly rapid rate, it's important that a site be directed appropriately to hook customers quickly, rather than getting lost in the confusion.

One of the biggest factors in the search process that brings consumers to a site is the domain name, as this is the first thing a customer will note when clicking a link. Checking to see if a site name looks legitimate will sometimes be the deciding issue in whether or not a person actually follows a link.

What to avoid

There are certain things that shouldn't wind up in a URL when organizations are deciding what hosting service or domain name to go with. Reading a site name carefully can help avoid careless mistakes in a corporate name or picking a somewhat uncomfortable landing title.

The Huffington Post listed some of the worst offenders when it came to online brand identity, citing organizations in a variety of different industries. This shows that any company is susceptible to this fluke, so being lax in any facet can sabotage an online campaign. Some of the biggest problems the review found were companies listing their own business name in a way that resulted in a misread title.  IT Scrap and Who Represents were among the websites whose names, when listed as a singular word, wound up disrupting Internet success.

These ill-appointed domain names  may not knock down organic search results. In fact, it could even serve to boost popularity. It may just not be for the reason a company intended at the time of its creation.

Finding a winner

"The options for domain names are constantly evolving, but at the same time companies should move aggressively to secure a title they know they want," said Sherry Santamaria, product manager of logo design at Deluxe for Business. "Even double-letter domains are being bought up quickly. Hosting with different providers is always an option, but there is no duplicating a domain name once it's taken. Just like regular keywords, the most direct path to site hits is a superb page name."

Business to Community said the best way to make sure customers find a company website is to make it short, sweet and full of relevant tags.  The Search Engine Institute agreed, saying the better a site name is targeted, the more likely it is Google will pick up on the page sooner and that in turn will increase hits to the page. Organic search results mean better rankings for a page, and increasing relevancy of a title will help crawlers target a site more effectively.

As more brands try to establish web pages, the number of available domain names will drop off steeply as these entities buy up sites. Verisign reported that the current population of 200 million unique URLs will steadily rise at about 3 percent per quarter, or more than 7 million every 4 months. To meet the need for new pages, more extensions are being created, but using one of these could have the same effect as downgrading other keywords. If your company needs help determining the best domain name options, call 800.437.1239 for 3 tips in 3 minutes on how to improve your online identity.

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