Domain Names Revisited – Or What’s in a name?

A Search Engine Marketers Psychological Perspective

When I was an organizational psychologist in the military in the 90’s, my main expertise was in motivation, discipline and locus of control. What that basically means is that human behavior is shaped by various influences and the whole debate of nature vs. nurture comes into play. If you can change someone’s belief system, you can change that person’s behavior. Most people today are familiar with motivational and inspirational speakers in the fields of politics, religion and business. What most people are not familiar with is the psychology behind the forces that drive the Internet. Domain names are the first line of influences in a short list of every day messages that people (consumers, managers and business owners) mainly skip over when they go through their lives in modern day 2006. Here is your opportunity to jump ahead of the curve with a few tools of the Internet trade in hand.

The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon that is not only influencing society’s consumer behavior, but also the way that business people market their products and services to the general public. Now that there is a medium that exists that is a global tool (search engine) vs. just a local tool, (old yellow pages) things have become a bit more challenging. No longer does the shopkeeper hang a sign on their door or window that states the name of the establishment. (And if you are still doing that, read on). Now you see the name of the business, (Wall Street Locksmiths), what they do, (“keys made here”) AND their domain name (www). But this is where my lesson starts. Let’s analyze this business for a moment and point out a few things.

The example I will be using today (because I am sitting in my Wall Street clients office), is “Wall Street Locksmiths.” Seems harmless enough. One would suggest the domain name www.wallstreetlockmiths.com says it all. Some would say that the domain is too long. Others would recommend www.wsl.com. But now that its 2006, everyone knows that three-letter domain names are out. So what is a business to do in 2006? Do you go for a four-letter domain name? Not so fast…

In 2006, your Internet domain name or URL is the gateway to your business. As a recent client said to me, “EVERYONE now googles you.” He was referring to going to a conference where people meet you, take your card, go back up to their hotel rooms and google the person to see how much they have going for them to see if they are worthy enough business associates.

As you can see, there are a number of perspectives when thinking about the domain name you are going to choose for your business. And we haven’t even entered into the legalities of this whole issue. (Since I am not an attorney, I will leave that up to them to worry about.)

What I have learned over the years is that choosing one domain name doesn’t do my business justice. I have so many products and services that I prefer to have many different domain names that tell it like it is. While everyone should have a corporate domain name, (the legal name of their business or what people call their business), they should also have a domain name that the search engines will be looking for as well.

In the world of search engine marketing, keywords are salt of the earth. In addition to your corporate name, you should also be telling people your a)location, b)services and c)products. Wallstreetlocksmiths.com only satisfies the location and services part. Digging a little deeper, is “Wall Street” truly the best “location keyword” name for them? Is “locksmith” the most indicative “service keyword.” I would question why they wouldn’t choose the location as “New York” and service as “keys.” Putting it all together, is www.newyorkkeys.com a better domain name than www.wallstreetlocksmith.com? Of course the only way you can answer this question is to go to our trusty Internet Bible. AKA every SEM’s companion tool, the Overture Keyword Selector Tool (inventory.overture.com) (But please don’t forget that Overture only measures Yahoo! and related properties…not Google. So though you get numbers, they are really even higher when you think about the amount of search traffic Google gets compared to everyone else. So why doesn’t Google give numbers? Great question. I don’t know. But maybe someday I will and I will let you know.)

When I look up “new york,” I come up with 708,634 searches in January. When I look up “Wall Street” I only get 25,365. Don’t get me wrong. It’s very possible that if you are just jockeying for local business, you should have the local domain location to hone in on your target audience. But if you want to make more money this year than all of the other locksmiths or keymakers out there, why not take the “New York” domain name also.

Yes Raphi. We understand. Now we should also buy New York or Los Angeles or Massachusetts before our corporate domain name… right? Unfortunately, the article isn’t over yet. Here are some more factors (and why the domain name companies aren’t going out of business so quickly). Now you have to ask yourself, “do I live/work in a location that people abbreviate the state or local name? Do people use “ny” or “nyc” when they search through Google? In Massachusetts, even John Kerry doesn’t use the whole word. He uses MA or MASS.

And that brings us to our next factor, services and products. After working with Gary Rome Hyundai for a number of months, Gary (Tim and Josh) purchased around 20 domain names. I had asked them logically what people in their local area do on the web when they look for cars and car parts. We all agreed that not everyone was putting “Gary Rome” (corporate name) or “Holyoke, Massachusetts” (location) into Google. What they are doing is putting in key words “Hyundai, auto dealer, dealership, Boston, Albany, New England” etc. etc. etc. into the search engines. My prediction is that because of the web strategy they have in place, they will become the #1 Internet Hyundai car and auto accessory sales force on the web.

The above can be applied to any business, product or service. Four Star General Cleaning owns the domain name www.cleaningserviceny.com and http://www.officecleaningnyc.com. Though I work with Fred on his whole Internet strategy, Fred teaches me a lot about his business and together we have created an incredible lead generation campaign. His phone rings off the hook from Internet search results. (Moreso than any Yellow Page ad ever brought him.) Fred not only invested in a search engine friendly website and a number of relevant domain names, he also has invested in the Google Adwords PPC or pay-per-click Program. Google allows you to purchase advertising based upon keyword bidding. You choose the keywords that you think are going to drive people to your ad and you set a budget. The higher the budget, the more impressions you can buy and hopefully the more click-thrus and of course conversions (definitions in future articles) or sales. I know I know, you knew that already. But now I want you to think about being human again and all that psychology stuff I was talking about earlier.

You see, to a behavioral psychologist like myself, it always seemed obvious, but perhaps in your marketing 101 course they never told you what my behavioral psychology professor taught me. When you want someone to know something, you tell them. When you want someone to do well on a test, you give them the answers first and teach them the questions afterward. The soldiers that I interviewed and documented were never given the answers before their tests. A high percentage of them were thought of as “failures” until my unit came in, motivated them, told them they could do ANYTHING and that they had that power internally. Suddenly, a transformation took place, and though it took time, we re-educated these soldiers into not thinking they were failures with a little bit of confidence and positive attitude poured in. The same formula applies to teaching your website that it is capable of doing anything you want it to do. And with that, here is my simple recipe for success with PPC or pay per click advertising. The marriage of human psychology, financial budget, keywords and your domain name.

Remember we were talking about location, services and product keywords in addition to your corporate domain name? Well guess what happens when you OWN the domain name of the keywords people are looking for. They click on you. They trust you. You are automatically branded as being the ONE they were searching for. And then guess what happens. They call you and ask you for proposals. And it gets even better. When you apply the above formula to ecommerce, they buy your product. And why not, you are exactly what they were searching for. And you have it in stock. And your site is aesthetically pleasing. And you were courteous on the phone. And they became a loyal customer. And you made lots of money on the Internet. And as I say to my son every day after I read him stories, “that’s the end of the story.”

Though there is of course more. You will just have to stay tuned…

Copyright 2006. Raphi Salem. SalemGlobal Internet. All rights reserved. You can republish as long as it links back here and gives me the credit.