Your Search Engine Optimisation Expert – Sheldon Nesdale

The following article answers 4 common questions:

1. “Do I need .co.nz, .com, .net.nz, .mobi and others?”
2. “Should our domain name just be our brand name?”
3. “Should our domain name have keywords in there too?”
4. “What about miss-spellings?”

1. “Do I need .co.nz, .com, .net.nz, .mobi and others?”

It depends on 2 things:

1. Where is your target audience?
2. What domain names are already taken?

My Advice:

• If your target audience is New Zealand only, make a .co.nz your primary domain name.
• If your target audience is international, make a .com your primary domain name.
• If you are a non-profit organisation or an association, go with .org.nz.
• Don’t bother with any of the others.
• Don’t be tempted to fall for the “land grab frenzy” that happens when new domain name extensions are released (such as .mobi). Don’t buy into the histeria.
• “But won’t a a competitor buy it if I don’t?” Perhaps. Perhaps not. In either case, you have a head start, so focus on optimising your primary domain for search engines. If you do it properly, your competitor will never catch up. Need help? I’m here for you.

2. “Should our domain name just be our brand name?”

Some brand names a quite long (take lawyers for example) so you should buy your full length domain name (eg SandersNightengaleIversonFredricks.co.nz) and the abreviation to make emailing easier (eg snif.co.nz).

3. “Should our domain name have keywords in there too?”

Yes, that is ideal. But you’ve probably already named your company so it’s too late for you.

For example I started a Marketing Consulting company recently and it was important to me to have the word “Marketing” in my domain name and brand name. So I chose “Marketing First”.

4. “What about miss-spellings?”

You will know if your brand or domain name is commonly miss-spelled. If mistakes are common, yes, buy the miss-spelled domain name (and it can stop a competitor from buying it and trying to steal business from you if your brand name is very popular).

Then you have 2 choices:

1. Either redirect the miss-spelled domain name to your primary domain name (the user-friendly option)
2. Or, leave the website with the “this website can not be found” message (some really big brands choose to do this so it forces people to get used to using the correct brand name. Sorry, I can’t think of an example right now.)