Domain Names

Everything to do with using your own website to advertise your rental property. Design, usability, hosting, getting listed on the search engines, optimising your site, pay-per-click, etc, etc.
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Alan Knighting
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Domain Names

Post by Alan Knighting »

When choosing a Domain Name for a Personal Website what approach should one take?

Random characters? Personal Name? House Name? Location? Type of property? Type of holiday? Or what else? Should it be a “.com� or a “.co�? Is there any significance in the name? Does it help with Search Engines?

I guess something short and easy to remember would be good.

I would love to know.

Alan
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

I chose ours by area and something that would roll of the tongue.

I would go for .com if you can as most people world wide are aware of it.

I just had a quick look and lelaussoucottages.com is available so is lelaussouholidaycottages.com
Cheers
PC
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Chalky
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Post by Chalky »

lelaussoucottages.com is available
I'm amazed that it hasn't been snapped up by some multinational conglomerate :wink:

Happy New Year everyone :!:
Chalky

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marcus
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Post by marcus »

Alan,

the words in the URL are used by search engines - they play a part but not a major part in results, I understand. Less than a title but more than normal text I would imagine. Same with filenames within a website, but to a lesser degree.

So yes a placename is good in the name, especially one like Monflanquin that quite a few people search on.

But my suspicion is that memorable is ultimately better, so you want both ideally.

Now I'm off to snap up regislovelygiteslelaussoumonflanquinbergerac.com before you get hold of it (if it is available of course)

Cheers
Marcus
mvus
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Post by mvus »

I would say use names that are easy to remember, easy to spell correctly, avoid hyphens where possible and use .com whenever you can

I think .net is 2nd best

I tried a .ws once on as ite as .com was taken and it didn't work
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Paul, Chalky, pja & Marcus,

Many thanks for the quick responses.

My immediate location is Laures and my cottages are sometimes referred to as Laures Cottages. My hameau is Regis but that name is used a million times on the Internet. My commune is Laussou and my nearest small town is Monflanquin. Confusing isn’t it?

Interestingly, if I do a Google search for “Regis + Monflanquin� some of my Rental Websites come up on the first page. Does that mean that those Rental Websites are working hard on Search Engine optimization?

Similarly, if I do a Google search on my own name “Alan Knighting� I have eight entries on the first page but which holiday maker would search on that criteria? None.

Anyway, back to Domain Names. I am tempted by something local but meaningful with a “.com� if available. Incorporating the commune “Laussou� might be good but “Monflanquin� is much better known. Marcus, it takes a long time to type “regislovelygiteslelaussoumonflanquinbergerac.com� so I think I might pass on that one.

Alan
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

How about monflanquinholidayrentals.com ? its free.
Cheers
PC
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Paul,

How about monflanquinholidayrentals.com

That's definitely on the short list.

Alan
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

By the way. Is £24 for 2 years a reasonable amount to pay for the registration of a ".com" Domain Name? Doesn't sound like much to me but, what happens at the end of the 2 years? Do you have to re-register? Why is it not for ever?

Alan
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

24 quid sound's about right. You should get a reminder, then you pay for another 2 years. As for having it for ever....good question, and don't know.
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mvus
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Post by mvus »

Alan Knighting wrote:By the way. Is £24 for 2 years a reasonable amount to pay for the registration of a ".com" Domain Name? Doesn't sound like much to me but, what happens at the end of the 2 years? Do you have to re-register? Why is it not for ever?

Alan
Costs about £12 -£14 sterling with godaddy.com for 2 years. You get a reminder well in advance to renew
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Does this speculation mean that a Fluffy website is in the offing? :lol:
www.thepetitmanoir.com
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

By the way,I meant to write this last time but I got carried away by the thought of lint free,fluffy websites...go with a name that's easy to remember and spell!!!

www.thepetitmanoir.com
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debk
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Post by debk »

Alan -

I've had success registering names with godaddy. Cheap and also provides reasonably good service. (They email a reminder before your domains expire so that you can renew without missing a beat.)

Also, if you get a compound name you might consider purchasing your name with and without hypens. For instance, I have
www.Visiting-Portugal.com and www.VisitingPortugal.com

Why?
Strangely enough, I've already had someone piggyback on our site (stealing our text, maps, site format, etc) and I don't want someone else trying to piggyback on our reputation by using a common name. Basically, I bought the hyphened "Visiting-Portugal.com" so that no one else could use it. (I suddenly feel embarrassingly paranoid. :oops: )

Also, as mentioned above, I have read that having elements of your most common search term in your domain name may help slightly with search engine placement.

If you want to choose a name that may enhance your search engine placement, probably the most important piece of work is deciding exactly what you think the people who will rent from you will be typing into Google/Yahoo/etal. For instance, if you were selling cheap, which I know you aren't, AND your area is well known enough for people to search directly for Laures then a popular search term might be "Laures cheap holiday" and a good domain www.LauresCheapHoliday.com

If few people will search on Laures, then you would perhaps need to broaden to Monflanquin.

Overture.com is fun to play with. It gives a reasonable idea of how many people search on which specific terms (limited to certain search engines, etc). However, getting to the top of RELEVANT search engine results is no easy matter.

Most important, in my opinion, is something easy to type.

HNY,
debk
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marcus
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Post by marcus »

This is all very well but I have just searched on Monflanquin and found that our site bastide-vacances is the only site on page 1 that doesn't have monflanquin in the URL or filename.
So Alan, you will probably shove me down to page 2 never to be seen again.
Might I suggest instead something like alanandjoangites.com?
Only kidding, good luck with the website
Marcus
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