Building an Effective Website – Pt.2

• Jul. 7, 2005

This is the second part in a series of articles discussing the considerations which must be made with regards to a new website.

Last week I talked about getting your message figured out. Even before you go out and buy a domain or figure out hosting, you need to figure out what the site will be.

In my scenario, the site was going to be used to promote the business and highlight what sets the company apart from the competition.

The fictional company – Ekko Heating and Air Conditioning – has a new product, which prompted the need for a new site.

This week, we are going to do some research to see what kind of site name (also known as URL) is available. It is also the time to research the competition to see what they are doing. Not only is this essential to give you an idea of what you may need to do, but it could also give you some more design and content ideas.

Now it is also a good time to write down any names you might consider for a domain name. Be sure to include your company's proper, or legal, name and any other names people may associate with your company:

My legal business name is Ekko Heating and Air Conditioning – so I first defined a few names I could use for my website. They include the company name, as well as some shorter versions such as Ekko Air, Ekko AC, Ekko Heating, EHAC (abbreviation for the company name).

Next you will want to research the competition. Start with the Yellow pages. See which businesses are listed there; also take note of how prominent their ads are. Finally, take a look at the ads. Are they professionally designed? Do they offer the benefits of the company? Do they have a website address listed? If so make a note of this for later, as you will need to go to their websites and check them out.

Do the competitors have toll free numbers or 24 hour service? In other words, look at what they offer and think if you offer it? If not you may need to consider offering things like a toll free number if it makes sense to your business.

The competitors for Ekko are generally larger companies who have established a regional presence. They do have fairly large Yellow Pages ads, and some have easy to remember toll free numbers. Only a couple have their websites listed in their Yellow Page listings however. The largest local competitor (that is one who also started here and is similar to Ekko) has a somewhat smaller ad than the competition, no toll free number and no website address.

Now that you have completed some research it is time to register your domain name. You could have registered this earlier, but sometimes it helps to have other information such as competitors URL's before you pick one for yourself.

Many of Ekko's competitors which have websites seem to have long URL's. Their web addresses look similar to: Companynameheatingandairconditioning.com.There is an advantage here for Ekko.

A search was performed on Google for "domain registrations" and the first site was picked and used to check domain names.

Upon checking the WHOIS (the service which tracks domain name registrations) we've found that many domains we like are free: Ekkoair.com and Ekko-air.com.Also the company's legal name is also available. In fact, all the following are available:

Ekkoairconditioning.com is available.
Ekkoairconditioning.net is available.
Ekkoairconditioning.org is available.
Ekkoair.com is available.
Ekkoair.net is available.
Ekkoair.org is available.
Ekkoheatingandairconditioning.com is available.
Ekkoheatingandairconditioning.net is available.
Ekkoheatingandairconditioning.org is available.
Ekko-air.com is available.
Ekko-air.net is available.
Ekko-air.org is available.

Here is one of your first rewards if you can take advantage of it. There are many domains available which relate to the business. It would be best to register all if possible and if you can afford it. If not, pick the 2 or 3 you think are best.

Some people will search for the exact company name (such as the name they'd find in the phone book, which will likely be the legal company name), while others will prefer something that is shorter and easy to remember.

I would recommend registering at least Ekko-air.com and Ekkoair.com because they are so similar you want to be sure that if someone types either one into their browser they will find the site. I'd also recommend registering Ekkoheatingandairconditioning.com

This is because when someone performs a search for "Ekko air" or "Ekko heating and air conditioning" they will likely find your site listed at #1 (because the domain name matches and likely most of the content will refer to this).

Important Take Away: It's advisable to register each domain for 5 years. Search engines like Google say they can (and will) look at the domain registration to determine if the site is worth indexing. Generally a site registered for a short time period won't be around for long. It could be considered a spam domain which may cause it to not get indexed. If they do a domain registration check and find your domains registered for 5 years they will assume it's legitimate and will prefer to index it over domains with shorter registration.

Because we haven't found hosting yet, it is fine to park this domain with the registrar for a short time. Some registrars allow for free parking. That is, the domain is temporarily "attached" to one of their web servers until you find your own web hosting that can then attach the domain name to your website.

Another thing you can also begin doing at this time is continue to gather your content ideas. You should have started this already, so continue gathering ideas. Perhaps researching the Yellow Pages competition has helped you generate more thoughts for content, or new ideas (i.e. products and services) you can offer.

It's also a good time to start researching the hosting companies out there. You don't need to jump at the first one you find, just start checking them out.

Next week we'll look at hosting, and some of the things you should be aware of before picking a hosting company. After all, there are hosting issues which can affect your search engine rankings, which you will likely have no way to control. And in some cases the hosts are unwilling to fix them, therefore it's best to learn as much about the hosts as you can before you sign on the dotted line.

Rob Sullivan
Head Organic Search Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing