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Romeo wasn’t talking about website design when he asked the question ‘What’s in a name’ in Shakespeare’s 16^th century classic, but website designers need to ask themselves that question before they make their choices as it’s probably one of the most critical success factors for any online business.

A domain name is the address for the internet of the online business, organisation etc and is the key element that distinguishes one website from another.  It’s important to thoroughly research your intended domain name as it will be one of the most important factors in the success of your website.  Always make sure that the domain name can’t be mistaken for something that isn’t appropriate or acceptable and it should be easy to spell and easy to remember. 

It’s estimated that every second, over 60 domain names are registered worldwide – so do the research thoroughly but don’t waste time!.

The right choice of domain name is also an important element of brand strategy as it can enable you to take ownership of a particular market segment, product or service etc.

It may be an idea to research and register several domain names to keep your competitors from encroaching on your space, but care must be taken to ensure that they all link back to your main domain name.   It’s a good idea to seek professional help when it comes to domain research and registrations as they have the experience and expertise to get the right names, says Dale Carter, a Perth website development professional. A domain name can be any combination of letters, numbers and hyphens but can’t contain spaces or other symbols.

Here’s a snapshot of things to remember about domain names :

·       Short is sweet – Keep it as concise as possible

·       It shouldn’t be complicated – and should be easy to remember

·       Avoid abbreviations.  These add to confusion and there’s often very little to link the abbreviation with your business.

·       It’s best to have the domain name reflect the actual business name, describe the nature of the business or the contents of the site

·       Do the research thoroughly.

The domain name is probably the most important element of web site design.  But choose carefully, as domain registration can’t be reversed…no matter what.

SEO (acronym for search engine optimisation) is the process through which a website gets ranked in the top page/s of the free (or ‘organic’) listings area of search engines.

 Following a search, the search engines display a mix of the ‘paid’ results as well as the ‘free’ ones.

 The difference between the free search engine rankings and the paid search engine rankings is that it’s possible to be on the 1st page of Google in a prominent position immediately if you are prepared to pay a fee each time someone clicks on your link to visit your website

 The fee per visitor can range from one dollar right up to 15 dollars.  The budget required for a realistic showing in the paid results would be between $15 to $30 a day – which is a monthly total of between $450 and $900. Many clients contract specialist companies to assist with managing their paid campaigns – and this is generally referred to as search engine marketing.

 An established Perth SEO professional, Dale Carter of GTP i-Commerce, says he has seen clients spending $12 000 per month which generated $100 000 in business for the month.  He said however, that businesses needed to have the capacity to handle the volume of enquiries, and should understand that the advertisements are withdrawn as soon as they aren’t paid for. 

 Achieving a page one ranking on Google in the free area is a much longer-term route, and the time taken to reach page one isn’t always predictable.  Some websites achieve top rankings in a matter of weeks, others take between 3 and 6 months, and it can be a 6 – 18 month process for websites in highly competitive industries..

With moderate search engine optimisation top-up for the website, those high positions could be retained for months and even years, Carter added.

When it comes to achieving high page 1 rankings in the free listings area, generally the most effective strategy is to undertake a consistent link building strategy that is implemented over a fairly lengthy period of time.  The search engines eg Google are far more concerned with how a website grows and attracts links over a sustained period of time, which means that adding a hundred or a thousand links all in one month with nothing thereafter can actually put a website at a disadvantage.  For example, instead of adding 1 200 links in the first month with nothing thereafter, it’s far better to add 100 links every month consistently for 12 months.

 It is also important to accumulate links from different sources.  This is commonly called a website’s link profile – and it is far better to have links from a variety of sources such as article directories, similar websites, social networking sites such as FaceBook, blog comments, directories and blog articles.

 When it comes to link building some hard work – and some smart work – is required to leverage the build-up of links.  It requires the use of copywriting, good software, checklists, procedures and persistence and constant education as well as a level of patience.

 Internet marketing should include a component for SEO link building, Perth professional Carter added, saying that it was also important that there was an appropriate budget to ensure the programme was implemented at the levels required for that industry.