Domain Registration(s): What's In A Name?

If you're going to be starting a new business, or if you have a business but haven't yet started to market your company online, call Cole WebMarketing at 704-456-WEB1....er, I meant to write....one of the first steps in the internet marketing process is the "Registration" of Domain Name(s).  I say names, plural, because many businesses will want to register more than one.  Why?

Regarding a "primary domain", you want to get .COM first. If corporate branding is important and you want "maximum brand protection", we suggest that you also register the .NETand .ORG domains too.  This is especially important for large national companies.

Once you've secured your PRIMARY domain names - ACME.com for example, you may want to consider registering additional "top level domains" (TLD's) to remove them from the open market to help protect your corporate identity. After these are off the market and in your pocket, many businesses will register SECONDARY domains, primarily for "internet marketing" purposes.

These can be additional TLD's that are based on their primary products/services.  If they mainly make/sell "blue widgets", then getting BlueWidgets.com can be helpful, especially regarding SEO (search engine optimization) since search engines will sometimes factor in the domain name as part of the search indexing algorithms. For local/regional businesses, using BlueWidgetsCharlotte.com or BlueWidgetsNorthCarolina.com (or your city/region) can also increase your "rankings" on the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Additional Domains & SEO: Google's "rules" seem to change with the wind, so comments made about Google can be outdated a day after they're posted online. At this time, it seems that Google usually just "picks" just one domain in their indexing, so trying to use secondary domains may not have a major SEO impact. However, Yahoo! and Bing (the #2 and #3 most popular search engines) will sometimes list sites more than once on their SERPs, so I wouldn't dismiss this SEO strategy completely.
International companies often also register "country code top level domains" (ccTLD), such as ACME.de for Germany, ACME.ru for Russia, etc. 

Here's some of the ways Cole WebMarketing uses our domains:

• ColeWebMarketing.com - "main offline domain" for biz cards, brochures, etc.
• CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com - for online marketing OUTSIDE the Charlotte area
• WebsiteDesign-Charlotte.com - this is considered my PRIMARY domain and for online marketing IN the Charlotte area
• ColeMarketingGroup.com - legal name of business, registered for brand protection but not used on or offline

Last but not least, domain name registration is one of the many services offered by Cole WebMarketing.  One domain name is included in all our Website Hosting Packages. We can register additional domains upon request.
It's important to note that all domains are registered with our clients listed as the "Registrar" (owner). Be careful if you're doing business with another website design/development firm! Make sure if they register domains for you, that they are not listed themselves as the Registrar.

To learn more about Domain Registration, Website Hosting and related internet marketing issues, please visit CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com or call us at 704-456-WEB1 (9321).