Website And Domain Name Help

shanekw1

Hey guys,

So, I've decided to jump out there and get myself a website. I don't think I'm going to use a designer or anything, I'm looking at something like GoDaddy, Homestead or Canadianwebhosting where I can build my own. I do have some experience with coding and such as I took Computer Info. Systems and Business management in college but never really actively persued the whole website thing. It was also 9 yrs ago and all the stuff I learned might as well be paleontology by now.

My trouble is that my company name is realllly long, Kootenay West Painting and Construction, and that is an ungodly amount of typing for a web address IMO. Is it better to have the 'painting and construction' as part of my web address? or would KootenayWest dot whatever be fine? Do search engines look at the address?

I think I'm at an advantage in my area as I search for contractors, painters etc. in the area on google and I dont get any results for actual web pages, just directories of local contractors, and most of these listings do not have a website, just email and phone numbers. There a just a few with websites, but they still do not come up on the search.


Any input would be greatly appreciated as I know there are some veritable gurus on this stuff on here.

TIA, Shane

SLSTech

If KWPC.ca is available - grab it

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tinner666

"KootenayWest dot" com and ca if available. When you 'title' the page, then you can add the full name. Lots of us resellers have such as 'website tonite' to get you going in hours.
"If KWPC.ca is available - grab it" Ditto! I use seveal dot-coms for one site myself.

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DasGootch

Ahh, websites, my favorite. Keep the domain limited but the meta tags loaded. Try this out.

Microsoft office small business.

Free, free free. They'll also help you promote it locally.
Good luck.
when was the last time you actually typed the domain you were going to. or, did you click on a link or have it bookmarked. ?
My point is, meta tags!

CalFinder

Hey Shane,

Good luck with getting the domain, I personally like "KootenayWest" dot com, and setting up your website. There are of course endless options for domain and website hosting. You might want to take into consideration the amount of space you are allocated, as a really good contractor website should come full of high quality photos. So keep that in mind.

In regards to contractors not showing up in local searches using google, that's awesome. Just include the name of your business and the locations you service in your Title tag, meta description and somewhere within your content and you should show up for your local search.

And just to be sure, submit your business name to Google local here: Uh whoops, can't post url. message me if you need it.

Best of luck!

Dean

ChrWright

Two schools of thought Shane.

One is optimization. If your site name matches a target keyword or comes close, you'll have a slight edge in the competition for search engine traffic. This is actually a pretty tough nut to crack as most keyword heavy site names are bound to be taken.

The second school, and the approach I'd recommend, is making your site name easy to remember and easy to spell. With time and content, you can get just about any site name to rank high--I think it's more important that people can pass your site name on to each other easily for referrals.

At first glance, Kootenay doesn't pass the above test.

KWestPainting.com does
KWP.com does (probably taken)

Brainstorm every combination you can think of and then plug them into the registry and see what's available.

Try for .com if at all possible since it's most common and easily remembered(.com was taken for me so I had to settle for .net)

When I register a new site--I usually take the .com, .net, and .org at a bare minimum--if they are available.

Best of Luck

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DasGootch

Great website ChWright

SLSTech

Just a friendly reminder - the OP is in Canada
I know they can still use .com, .net, but I would think that .ca would be more appropriate
.org - sweet a non profit painting firm (oh, wait with what some painters charge they might as well be)

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SethHoldren

Pick an easy to remember URL you love and use it on your printed marketing materials.

But "301 redirect" that URL to your keyword-rich URL. That will make it a lot easier to rank high in the organic listings.

How to find your keyword URL?

It looks like you have multiple geographical regions to deal with. The way you decide is by finding the one that actually gets traffic for the keyword that relates to your core competency.

It looks like "Kooteney West Painter" is no good because it gets no traffic. But that is the type of keyword-rich URL you want.

Fool around on Google Keyword Tool until you find some keywords that actually register traffic. If your city (Castlegar? Kootenay West?) doesn't show traffic for "painters Kootenay West", or "contractors Kootenay", or whatever, move up to the next level, like maybe region, then province. You will know the answer to that better than me.

Then search on Nameboy to see which names are available. Dashes, contrary to popular belief, are OK as long as you don't use more than 2. And ".com" is best, or maybe ".ca" for you.

That's SEO best practice right now. You have the opportunity to do it right, so why not?

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shanekw1

Thanks for the input, guys. much appreciated

I registered kootenaywest.ca today. Now on to the building part.

I have many more questions to come, so stay tuned.

Micvanlen

your website URL doesn't have to be the same as your company name. I'd go for a URL that's in line with what you think your customers would search for to come across your services. For example, LA contractors dot com. The URL is one of the most important things search engines look at.

Paulie

Hey trailer park boy! I am in the same spot as you but are approaching it a bit different. After educating myself as much as possible I am going to pay for a website designer and marketing service. I've been taking calls all week and I'll put money down on the cyberspace table before the end of the month. I've decided I just don't have it in me to build my own and keep it up. To much for this skinny pol lock to learn I can barely keep up with the building codes. But best of luck and want to see your result soon.

wireaudio

Try this:

Register two web sites, one with a short name for brochures, etc. and one with the full long name for search engines!

Put the same exact web site on both!

Good luck!

p.s. This might be more advanced, but try to research this: use links like "index.html" instead of "http://www.website.com/index.html" when navigating within your site. This way you can just copy and paste the web site from one address to another and not have to modify anything. When you define a link as "index.html" without the http stuff before it, the browsers automatically know that if you were on the page with the address http://www.website.com/page1.html and click on the link "page2.html" to take you to http://www.website.com/page2.html

If you got any questions send me a PM.

RidgeWalker

Chris and Seth are on the right track,

You want a keyword rich domain name. I have found esp. in the construction industry that many owners like to have their domains the same as the company name which is not always the best solution.

If your company name is not already a highly branded names in your area it won't attract much attention on the web. I suggest finding a domain name that contains the word or words for your industry.

It completely ok to have a domain like. GeorgetownPainting.com, and then on your site have the actual name of your comany like; Smiths All Phase Painting inc.

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RidgeWalker

Duplicate content screams search engine penalty. You do not want to do this.

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WestCoastVinyl

just make the name short, makes it easy for the customer to remember your business, so they can look u up easily..