Ahhh...your company name.
Your identity. What separates you from everyone else.
I would be willing to bet that you spent a good deal of time
coming up with the perfect name for your company. Am I right?
Something catchy, easy to remember, and unique. How am I doing so far?
What if I were to tell you that your company name is possibly the
single biggest hindrance to your business's success online.
Unfortunately, for most companies it is.
Choosing a name for your business online is much different than
choosing a name for a brick and mortar business.
You see, in the real world, a business with a catchy, easy to
remember name will get traffic simply from people driving by on the
street or walking by in a shopping center even if they have never
heard of you before.
Unfortunately, this is not how things work online. Online, there
is no drive-by traffic, no people walking in to your business because
they were next door shopping.
Online, you must be found among a pool of tens of thousands of other
businesses.
Online, people don't casually browse with friends to pass the time.
Online, people search... and unless your name is Microsoft, Wal-Mart,
or another extremely well known and well branded name, people are not
going to search for your company name.
Studies show that approximately 80% of internet users find what they
are looking for by way of search engines (i.e., Yahoo, AltaVista,
Excite, etc.), and I guarantee you, they are not going to be searching
for your wonderful catchy name, they will be searching for the topic
they want.
Let me give you an example. Let's say you own a gourmet coffee
business called "The Brewmaster" that you decide to take online.
Of course you love your name and create your online identity around
your offline name. You reserve the domain name "www.brewmaster.com",
keep your company name, and title your site "The Brewmaster".
You've submitted your site to Yahoo as well as all the other
directories and search engines. Ahhh....life is good. Orders should
start rolling in any minute now......
Guess what? Unless you have a HUGE marketing budget for banner ads,
etc., you've just doomed your business.
Let's look at why.
First, let's look at the..
Site Title
Whether your dealing with a directory or a search engine, the site
title is the single most important aspect of your listing. For search
engines, the text found within the title tags of the page is given
more weight than any other single factor on that page (i.e., keyword
density, keyword frequency, heading tags, etc.). In a directory, your
entire listing is comprised of two things, your title, and your
description.
In both cases, if the keywords related to your business are not found
in your title, your chances of coming up for a search are virtually
non-existent. If your site is about "gourmet coffee" then those words
or at the very least, "coffee", should be somewhere within your title.
The Company Name
Just as your site title should have your most important keywords
within them, so should your company name.
Why you ask??? The answer....directories.
In directories, when a visitor uses the search function (which is
what the vast majority use) you will only be found if the search
term the visitor uses is found either in your site title or your
description. Unfortunately, virtually all directories require your
site title to be your actual company name. Remember that directories
are powered by humans, not software. A human reviews the site, and
assigns the title and description that he/she decides is correct.
Yes, they all let you suggest a site title, but ultimately,
regardless of what you submit, your title almost always end up as
your company name.
Looking again at the above example, this would mean that your
title in almost all of the directories would be "The Brewmaster". This
means the only place you would have left to put your keywords
would be the description, and this again is up to the editor. This
means that any site that has the search term "coffee" or "gourmet
coffee" in both the title and description would come up far ahead of
your site in the search results, costing you the traffic and sales
that could have been yours.
The URL
Here is another very overlooked tool. Whenever possible, your URL
should contain your most important keywords. Many engines and
directories will give your site a boost if your keywords are found
within your URL. Also, when you submit your site to the directories,
if your URL, your company name, and your site title all match, that
will virtually guarantee that you will get the title you requested.
Let's tie the three previous areas together with an example of what
you could have named your site instead of "The Brewmaster".
Here's one possible alternative: "Gourmet Coffee Brewmaster".
The above alternative would give you a company name that includes
our most important keywords and the perfect title for your page.
You could then reserve the domain -
http://www.gourmet-coffee-brewmaster.com -
giving you a perfect trifecta. The same company name, page title,
and url, practically insuring that you get the directory listing
you want.
Of course, this is only one possibility, but I think this should
illustrate my point.
To Summarize
-Unless you have a huge advertising budget or are an extremely well
branded business, DO NOT name your online business something like
the above example.
-Use a business name that contains your most important keywords.
-Use this business name as your site title
-Use a URL that contains your most important keywords and whenever
possible, is the same or as close as possible to your keyword
laden business name.
Follow these rules and you should have no trouble in developing
a very steady flow of large amounts of traffic from the directories
and you will be well on your way in the search engine arena as well.
About the Author
John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide to
Dominating The Search Engines", and publisher of a FREE monthly
newsletter "The Search Engine Bulletin". Visit us at
http://www.se-secrets.com for more information or to sign up for
the newsletter.