Resources: Choosing a domain name?

[Russ H]

Looking at different domain names for our upcoming napa valley site (about all things in the napa valley).

Now that we have google instant, when you start to type "napa valley", it starts to give you results before you're done (see attached screen grabs).

For this reason, I'm not sure if names like napaval.com make sense? Prolly not, but I thought I'd bring it up.

If not, I'm looking for an easy to type (like from an iphone) keyword phrase for a domain name.

I'm assuming .com, .net, and .org are still the biggies--- but it's interesting to note that ALL of the napavalley-dot- domains are taken.

So, what to do?

What are the things google likes, from a domain name perspective?

Things like napaval.com?

napavalley1.com?

napavalley(word).com?

or, perhaps, just napa(word) or napa(short something).com?

Are there any websites/blogs that talk about this?

Anyone who has studied it (not just hot air-- actual results)?

All ideas/feedback from folks who have worked on this kinda stuff, are welcomed.

Thank you,

-Russ H.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

My best SEO tip... choose your domain name for people, not for Google. Imagine telling a friend on a telephone call go to "MySite.com" if it doesn't pass that test, then you're on the wrong track.

Domains that won't pass that test: anything with a number or dash, any word that doesn't make sense, words that are ambiguous, words that are tough to spell, names that are too long, etc.

To summarize, forget Google, think Facebook and Google will love you even more.

 

[Russ H]

To summarize, forget Google, think Facebook and Google will love you even more.

Funny you say that-- I'd mentioned Facebook, but deleted the reference. :thankyousign:

My first 'big' website was home-theater-guy.com.

Stoopid (hey, it was the 90s, I didn't have a cloo).

So . . . what would Facebook love?

-Russ H.

 

[Jonleehacker]

So . . . what would Facebook love?

Anything that's easy to talk about on the telephone, seriously, it's the best domain name advice I can give. Think of a few domains and then try and tell them to a friend on the phone, you'll see what I mean... most names won't pass the test.

By what Facebook loves, I don't mean the engineers running the Facebook algorithms, I mean the people who use Facebook... think "word of mouth." In a year or two link sharing will be way bigger than Google and Google will use link sharing in social networks as a larger and larger factor in its algorithm (it already has quite a heavy weighting for certain topics).

 

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[Russ H]

gotcha.

Thanks.

-Russ H.

 

[DeletedUser394]

This is what I came up with.

NapaValleyTimes.com
NapaNewsAndViews.com
NValleyNews.com
LivingInNapa.com (I like this one)
AroundNValley.com
EveryDayNapa.com
CaliforniaGem.com
NothingButNapa.com

 

[Russ H]

My fave so far:

letsgotonapa.com (we own it)

also own:

guidetothenapavalley.com (own it, but a bit long)

-Russ H.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

I like guidetothenapavalley.com even though it's long, it's easy enough to remember.

 

[mottdog]

I'm thinking thenapavalleyguide.com

 

[2 Shoes]

Hey Russ!

As far as Google goes, they care more about your content and whether it's going to be useful for the searchers of a certain term than domain name. Domain name does have some authority in the algorithm, but not as much as it used to. (Of course, none of us really knows how the Google algorithm works)

I typed "Napa V" into Google and it appears that every site on the first page is a pretty well established authority site from napavalley.com (and .org) to Wikipedia. Good luck trying to get ahead of them.

I would say figure out exactly what long tail keywords you would like to rank for and write plenty of content for those keywords. "Napa Valley Guide" looks a littel easier to rank for. The first two sites are still authority, but you could probably make the first page with some work.

"What to do in napa valley" and "what to do in napa valley with kids" and "best places to see in napa valley" look pretty good too.

Ultimately, a domain name that's easy to remember and content that provides what people are looking for in an easy to understand manner is what you want to do.

As far as domain names... why not what you mentioned in your post: www.allthingsnapavalley.com ?

 

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[Russ H]

2 Shoes-

I totally understand what you're saying-- go for the niches, b/c I can get much higher google placement there.

Thing is-- the other napa valley sites are WAY behind the times-- they have been slow to pick up on social media, and videos, and other things (like forums and blogs). Sure, they have all this stuff-- but it's almost like someone told them they should have them-- they don't *use* them.

I would be doing our sites mostly for lead gen, so doing niches makes sense (and it's what Rakona suggested when I first met w/him @ this year's B&P). So I do understand the merit in that approach.

But I can't help but wonder if I could make a play for the big time-- getting first page for "napa valley", doing the things I've learned so far.

Might be a waste of time.

Or, who knows-- I might actually get somewhere.

-Russ H.

 

[Jonleehacker]

But I can't help but wonder if I could make a play for the big time-- getting first page for "napa valley", doing the things I've learned so far.

Just for the point of discussion, I question the merit of investing time and money into owning the term "napa valley" for a B&B business.

That term comes with A LOT of inquiries that have nothing to do with booking a B&B stay.

Keywords go from general to specific and the more specific, the more buying intent the searcher has. Napa Valley is way over on left of the scale that runs from general curiosity to "wallet in hand" keywords. The goal is to own as much "wallet in hand" traffic as possible, and from there work your way up the ladder towards the general curiosity keywords. But realize that the farther you go away from the "wallet in hand" keywords the more effort that is required to turn people into buyers and the lower the conversion rates, no matter how perfect your effort is.

At a certain point along the spectrum the returns/effort equation will dramatically diminish.

Think of an example of someone searching for "economy car" and the amount of decision making that needs to go on before that person gets to "buy toyota yaris scottsdale arizona" ... it's a big process, could take 6 months.

And in 6 months still a vast majority of them will decide on some other make of car, or go to a dealer in a nearby city even if they do choose your model. Is it really worth it for a Scottsdale Toyota dealer to chase "economy car" traffic?

If your business system can really handle that investment and still turn a profit, then awesome, but it's my guess that the same investment, going after terms closer to the buying end of the keyword spectrum, will grow your business more efficiently.

 

[JP66]

Russ,
Where are you going to get your domain name? I think you mentioned in another post you were using godaddy. Are you still with them?

What are the best sites to go to for buying domain name? and for Hosting?

I searched a few other threads on the forum about domain names, but many are a couple years old.
Any new advice from anyone?

 

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[Russ H]

JP66-

We've gotten them at a number of places, mostly Network Solutions and GoDaddy.

Here is a thread that talks about our domains, and what we plan to do w/them:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/we...ting/28558-how-develop-websites-lead-gen.html

I specifically did NOT include some of the B&B-specific domains we have, so as not to give my competitors too much of an edge on what we have (some of them would come up in daily google alerts, and many of my competitors have these set for keywords).

-Russ H.

 

[Russ H]

Just for the point of discussion, I question the merit of investing time and money into owning the term "napa valley" for a B&B business.

That term comes with A LOT of inquiries that have nothing to do with booking a B&B stay.

Keywords go from general to specific and the more specific, the more buying intent the searcher has. Napa Valley is way over on left of the scale that runs from general curiosity to "wallet in hand" keywords. The goal is to own as much "wallet in hand" traffic as possible, and from there work your way up the ladder towards the general curiosity keywords. But realize that the farther you go away from the "wallet in hand" keywords the more effort that is required to turn people into buyers and the lower the conversion rates, no matter how perfect your effort is.

At a certain point along the spectrum the returns/effort equation will dramatically diminish.

Think of an example of someone searching for "economy car" and the amount of decision making that needs to go on before that person gets to "buy toyota yaris scottsdale arizona" ... it's a big process, could take 6 months.

And in 6 months still a vast majority of them will decide on some other make of car, or go to a dealer in a nearby city even if they do choose your model. Is it really worth it for a Scottsdale Toyota dealer to chase "economy car" traffic?

If your business system can really handle that investment and still turn a profit, then awesome, but it's my guess that the same investment, going after terms closer to the buying end of the keyword spectrum, will grow your business more efficiently.

Jon,

Again, you make some really excellent points (I am reminded to "focus, focus, focus" on our target market!).

Here is my reasoning-- please let me know if it's wrong-headed, or I should be going about it differently:

1. We have a large B&B, actually 6 buildings, all historic homes. We need to fill these rooms profitably.

2. The biggest reason folks give for NOT staying at a B&B? "It never occurred to me".

3. Lots of folks come to the Napa Valley-- and the key word gets searched 550,000x a month (450,000 are local-- Q: does that mean *inside* the Napa Valley, or does it mean the general SF Bay area?). So I'm proceeding under the assumption that, if we were visible, at least *some* of these people would look at our other info (wineries, hotels, restaurants, etc)-- and see "Napa Bed and Breakfast"-- and at least consider it at that point. Not a good assumption? Or lots of bad/inappropriate "lookers"?

4. I want to develop a "guide" site anyway, for part of our lead gen strategy (can't completely disclose what we're doing here, I'll send you a PM w/specifics). So we'd use the "guide" sites to develop the "napa valley" keyword relevance. Does that make sense?

Does any of this make sense? I am reminded of one of my old my roomates (an 8th degree black belt). He often referred to misguided folks w/a small amount of knowledge as "yellow belt karate experts"-- since some folks, once they got to yellow belt, felt like they knew enough to kick anyone's *ss (since they did, indeed, know more karate than the average layman). But this got them into all kinds of trouble, since they didn't know as much as they thought. A black belt could take them down literally w/both eyes closed and one arm behind their back.

Soooo . . . I don't want to be a "yellow belt karate expert" here-- taking the small amount of knowledge I have and using it the wrong way!

Your continued guidance and feedback is greatly appreciated. :banana:

-Russ H.

 

[NoMoneyDown]

Another piece of advice from a psychological POV is to try to limit the number of syllables in the domain name. It can be long as far as characters, but people tend to gravitate (cognitively) towards words/phrases with smaller number of syllables.

For example:

diary (5 letters, 3 syllables)
thought (7 letters, 1 syllable)

While "diary" has 2 less letters, it is "less work" for your mind to remember/recall "thought".

Again, this is NOT something that should be at the top of the list when searching for a domain name, just something to ... well ... keep in mind.

 

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