I’m all for branded URLs – I’m even using one for Selmore. But I still don’t think you’ll ever be able to beat a no-brainer domain name.
The kind of domain name that leaves NOTHING to the imagination.
Why?
Results.
I bring all things business back to lead generation and sales.
Businesses are built on communication.
It’s the very beginning of demonstrating value to audiences.
You’ve got to be able to say it.
(…and equally as important, your audience has got to be able to get it.)
So as a business with a website online, who exactly are your audiences?
Google and Searchers
Online, your business serves predominately 2 audiences.
Google Search spiders and your prospective customers.
Your hope is that by communicating with them, they will:
- find you
- understand you, and;
- value you (and your products or services)
And as old adages go about 1st impressions, you’ve got a rapidly cascading countdown within a micro-window of time to get your message across, loud and clear.
Domain name
The #1 thing that both Google and your customers read and respect about your website is your domain name.
It’s the primary online identifier of any business.
The conversation starter.
And key always with Google and searchers is:
RELEVANCE.
In other words, “Have I come to the right place?”
Your domain name is the first contact point and therefore the point at which you should knock out all doubt and inspire confidence immediately.
Next…
Taxonomy
Now, there’s got to be order.
For you website to have logic, it must have hierarchy.
A top down approach to how you’ve organised your messages.
In fact, your website is one big message – and the pages/posts are chapters of that message.
The overall effect, being a seamless thread of communication that makes sense and convinces the reader (or robot).
One topic must lead naturally and intuitively on to another, from the greater topical umbrellas down to the smaller.
All content leading on in correct order. From the head topic, down.
This kind of arrangement of content leads to a zero-friction journey through your pages, ease of findability and quick build up of understanding.
You win – seeds are sown and now you can look forward to growth and harvest
Results
If the content speaks clearly and authoritatively on relevant topics valued by customers…
…all you then need is frequency of new fresh content and both Google and your customers will rank your business highly.
Example
WPBeginner.com – the #1 place on line for beginners to find tutorials for using WordPress.
Today, WordPress is a website building platform with a half a billion dollar eco$ystem.
15 years ago, WordPress was a fad for the ‘tech in crowd’.
Using WordPress has always been easy, but to get professional results – you need custom tweaks, which often involve a specialist product add-on, or writing code.
The problem is, the developers of WordPress haven’t written a beginner-friendly manual for getting the best business results out of the software.
Enter, Sayed Balkhi (author and founder of WPBeginner.com)
In 2009, Sayed started out on a one man blogging journey.
Over a decade on, that project would eventually scale up to become the #1 place to visit online for armies of newbies pouring into business niche worth half a billion dollars.
(Not to mention also an 8-figure online business in itself.)
How did he do it?
Simplicity. Lead generation. Sales.
And it all begins with the name.
Sayed knows WordPress. But he knew sales first.
Where many have fallen in pursuit of entrepreneurism in the WordPress ecosystem is knowing WordPress first and sadly not even knowing sales at all.
But their loss has been Sayed’s gain.
Take a look at his blog.
He called it WP Beginner and the domain name is simple wpbeginner.com (WP – of course, being the capitalised abbreviation for WordPress.)
Why did he call it this?
Quite simply, that’s exactly who he’s speaking to.
And more importantly what he knows they are and no longer want to be.
He therefore set up his blog…
“to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).” – Sayed Balkhi
Almost too simple. But a launchpad for explosive growth on Google and among…WordPress (WP) beginners.
The chosen name simply says what it is, who it’s for and implies what it does in just a few letter.
And because of that, Sayed strikes a resonating chord from the very first words of his sales introduction to customers – and Google loves it.
Now, over to you…
For your new web project get super simple on taxonomy – starting with the right domain name.
Then plan a hierarchical, top down approach to your topics.
Then, launch.
For more help on SEO taxonomy: https://linchpinseo.com/taxonomies-findability-and-seo/