Apollo Hosting- Company Blog

Perhaps you've noticed the free domain offer on the website. I would certainly hope so, since it was, quite by design, made entirely difficult to ignore. It's the real deal, an actual domain name that you own. We're not registering it in our name or anything. Granted, you have to stick out the entire term of your hosting account, but that's sorta the point, isn't it? You host with us for a year or two, and you get a free domain, very simple. Then again, I'm not a lawyer, I can just photoshop them.

Speaking of which, Adobe's lawyers just reminded me they "discourage" the use of "Photoshop" as a verb, adverb, participle, and past-pluperfect subjunctive preposition.

I have already blogged a bit about domains, a "long time" ago. It was the first of the more "conversational" blog entries, after a few attempts at a more classic "essay" form in the beginning. I realized writing an essay every two weeks was a lot like being in college again, even if I was getting paid for it. Having double majored in two very writing intensive subjects, I really didn't care to think in terms of research vs. deadlines once more. Besides, it's a lot easier to just crack wise about these geeks instead of actually doing research on topical subjects.

Those Domains...

Anyway, you can get a free domain now with 1 and 2 year signups on hosting plans. That statement is familiar to me because I've recently finished writing it in a few different places on our website. The question that now grips us...? What should this domain name be... Choice in domain name is important, as I've mentioned before. Primarily its one of those "you're stuck with it" situations. Yes, you can change your domain name, but if you have any stake in search engine optimization (SEO), you're in for a rough ride. Search engines like a lot of change in terms of content, but changing a domain name is one they might still choke on.

If you don't care about SEO, then you really only need to consider some basic factors that are applicable to any domain. Ideally you need something that isn't overly long, directly identifies yourself, your company, or what you do, and is easy to remember. Unfortunately, this might not be as easy as it was back in, say, 1994. There are a lot more domains registered today, and the likelihood your first choice is available is pretty slim. If it is, you probably had a bad first choice anyway.

Depending on your luck, you might find some other company with same name or product has your domain, or you might just find somebody squatting on it. "Squatting" is easily identified by finding the page that says "thisdomain.com is for sale" when you type it in. Whether that constitutes good luck or bad luck is in the eye of the beholder, and of course, in the virtual price tag dangling from that piece of virtual real estate.

You can try other TLDs (Top Level Domains). In terms of recognition and acceptance into the "everyday lexicon", .com is the way to go, but if you have to settle for .net, so be it. It starts getting a little more tricky the further afield you wonder. Off the top of my head I can't name a single .info domain I remember. Still, there's probably a lot more domains left in .info, or .ca, or .us, than in .com or .net. In terms of search engines, there doesn't appear to be any conclusive evidence that the lack of a .com will hurt your rankings.

Then again, the term "conclusive evidence" and "search engine algorithm" are rarely uttered in the same breath.

Those of you looking for SEO in your domain name need to consider just what keywords you'll be targeting. Having a target keyword in your domain isn't going to immediately shoot you to the top of the rankings, unless it happens to be a really, really uncompetitive term. It's not going to hurt you, either. Note I said "a" keyword. I didn't say, "every single keyword you want separated by hyphens." Domains like "keyword01-keyword02-keyword03-keyphrase04-keyphrase05.com" are going to start sending up red flags.

Maybe your ideal domain has a hyphen in it. Not to worry. One, possibly two, aren't going to kill you. Everyone might have a slightly different opinion on how many are actually "safe", but erring on the side of caution is always a good idea. It's just those ten word long, hyphenated monstrosities that start giving search engine spiders reason to stop and think, "Hey, this might just be spammy..."

There's always something to be said for a good compromise. Having part of a targeted keyphrase in your domain name can be helpful. More likely than not, your business name may, in fact, include some keywords for which you'd be optimizing. Spacely Space Sprockets is probably going to try to clench that coveted "sprockets" SREPs, and spacelysprockets.com will probably not hurt that effort.

Our own success with some keywords has been helped along by our domain name. It is still just one factor among many, though. As I pointed out before, age is part of it as well. Don't labor under the impression that just nailing down that perfect keyworded domain name is going to solve all your SEO worries.

So there's some info on getting that right domain. Even if you don't have a "right" domain, get one anyway, because sooner or later they'll all be gone, even the really stupid ones. Really, you don't want to have to tell all your friends to find you at "ahahg325ve532and1155dg1vwa4ds.com"

That's just... complicated.