Which is more important when launching a website?
Is the priority to optimize for search or to reinforce your brand? I met with an accounting firm yesterday morning to discuss their plans to launch a new website. Although the company is long established, the previous owners never saw the need for a website. The new owner recognized the importance of having a site and developing a web marketing strategy.
My new client was excited that he had secured his company’s brand domain, www.companyname.com. I explained that protecting his brand was a important, but developing that site made little sense from a search perspective. When I said this he looked like I had just thrown cold water in his face. What could be more important that establishing his company (his brand) as a force online?
I went on to explain that the online world revolves around keyword search and that people searching for an accounting firm or CPA would NOT be searching on his corporate brand name. They would search on keywords such as “CPA, accountant, bookkeeper, etc.” I went on to explain that including any of these search terms in his domain name could accelerate his rise in search results dramatically.
He still seemed confused, so I asked him, “which domain name do you think will rank higher (and faster) in Google and which do you think will get more clicks?” I wrote the following domains on the back of his business card…
www.companyname.com
or
www.YOURCITYaccounting.com
Seeing this example was all he needed to get the picture. If people know your company name, they will search on that name and if your website (regardless of the domain name) is optimized to feature your company, you will appear in searches for that term. However, if your domain name is composed of strong search keywords (Toledo accounting, bookkeeping, etc.) you have a better chance of ranking for those generic terms and thus, receiving more clicks.
Followers of this blog know that I have often stated that we cannot afford to brand our company name the way that the big boys do. Ford, American Express, Chase, GE, GM, etc. spend gazillions of dollars to reinforce their brand. Small businesses do business locally, optimizing for the search terms that define your services or products will generate more traffic to your website than spending thousands of dollars promoting a company name.
The best solution is to acquire two domains…c’mon, we’re only talking about a $20 per year expense here. Use the keyword-rich domain for your primary website, i.e. www.YOURCITYaccounting.com and then have the brand domain forward to it in the event someone does enter your company name as a domain. This way you give search engines what they are looking for and you don’t miss those people who know your company name.
Branding delights your ego…
Optimizing drives traffic!
PS: Search for your domain names here, get one free and host both for $5.95 a month! Best deal in hosting anywhere!
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