I have a new business idea and am looking to buy a domain name but need some advice as to what I should get.
My product will initially be in the gift sector so I was thinking of including this in the domain name, but am I restricting myself if I then branch out of this sector?
But my biggest concern is that I am thinking of using a generic NAME, i.e. NAMEgifts.com that is the same as a big corporate. They are in a different field altogether so it isn't passing off.
Would my chances of getting ranked in search engines be diminished by using the NAME?
Any advice is welcomed.
[edited by: Webwork at 12:53 pm (utc) on Mar. 5, 2008]
[edit reason] See Domain Forum Charter regarding trademark questions [/edit]
Simple answer: To whatever degree keywords in website names are a factor then it will be a factor to the degree you isolate "this factor" in your analysis and to the degree that at any moment search ranking algorithms add ranking weight to keywords in domains..
Algos change. There is no right answer. Only what works today. There is some discussion that keywords in domains appear to influence rankings today, but don't forget the other 187 ranking factors. :-P
For example, the "right domain" might lead others to naturally craft inbound links with the anchor text being the words in the domain. IF anchor text of links is a sorting/relevance/ranking factor THEN having a keyword domain might be of some benefit, whilst not forgetting the other 187 factors.
IF I could get the natural "industry phrase" keyword domain I'd do it every time, but for reasons other than search engine love - which is a very fickle thing.
The fact that you are concerned about the use of words in the domain, even whilst dismissing the idea that you're trading off, suggests that you might save yourself the trouble and just come up with another domain. If NAME+gifts isn't a perfect marriage then why get married? One should at least suffer the illusion of perfection, in the case of marriage, at the outset. In your case the illusion is already on the wane. :)
Thing is I still can't decide whether the gifts domain might box me in whereas without it I may never get the traffic to be able to be boxed in. Catch 22.
This is more a SEO question than a domain question.
Yep and the simple answer is:
1. I wouldn't touch NAMEgifts.com if it is already known as a company name, that's asking for trouble and ambiguity. Possibly it may give you what you are looking for, I presume short term, since there will undoubtedly be an advantage having the product you are promoting in the domain name but for the long term, forget it.
2. example.com is the way to go if you are definitely going to diversify into other areas and even products from the same industry.
You could always use a sub-domain such as NAMEgifts.example.com, if you're really sure that is what you want to do however what's wrong with examples.com/NAMEgifts/?
I have some small sites specifically made for exclusive products within my widget industry using precisely the product name. They work extremely well and ranked very, very fast, and so they should since they are authority sites, however I market my overall products through a generic company domain name but link the specialist domains to that generic site and likewise link back should anyone on the specialist sites require other product information.
Be careful not to duplicate your information on the generic site.
Does that make sense to you?
Thanks for the info. Probably reinforces what I'm thinking, but it is very tricky finding a reasonable name that is spellable when you give it to someone.
The idea of adding gifts after the name was more because I could then use a simple surname / placename etc before it.
