I’m making my way through all the free site reviews and I am noticing a problem that a lot of people have with their search engine optimization.

Most people have the wrong domain for the keywords they want to target.

If your website teaches poodles kung fu and you want to rank #1 in Google for the term “poodle kung fu” then you really need to have PoodleKungFu.com.

If PoodleKungFu.com is taken then try one of the many variations
i.e. Poodle-Kung-Fu.com, PoodlesLearnKungFu.com, KungFuForPoodles.com, etc.

Put on your thinking cap for 10 minutes and I bet you can find something that is available with your keywords.

But Nick, I heard you can still rank high in the search engines without having your keywords in the domain. Isn’t that true?

Yes you can.

But ranking high in Google for a competitive keyword phrase is a difficult task. Not having your keywords in your domain makes it even more difficult. Do you really want to make things harder?

Learn More:  Do You Have The Wrong Domain? 4 Tips For Choosing The Best Domain

A week ago I blogged about having issues with my web host (GoDaddy) and that my blog was down and server was unavailable for a couple hours.

This was terribly frustrating especially because I had a scheduled email being sent to my subscribers that morning and the email had a link to a post on my blog.

This all happened on Friday the 10th.

1 phone call changed things

One week later (yesterday) I got a call from GoDaddy saying that they wanted to contact all of their customers that were affected by the outage and let them know that they would be receiving one free month of web hosting.

The phone call only took them 1 minute to make but it made me happy and ensures that I keep spending money with GoDaddy.

The best part is that I never filed a complaint with GoDaddy or sent them nasty emails; they, of their own volition, decided to give me a free month of hosting because of the downtime with my server.

Is your customer service this good?

In a previous post I showed you how to find out the age of a domain with a whois lookup.

One of my readers asked:

What would be idea is to check a couple of domain ideas out and also see their ages (assuming they’re not totally new). Any ideas other than manual cross-checking?

Here is my video response

Check out SEOQuake

As you probably heard, domain names are the real state of the 21st century. Whether you want to build a personal blog of a startup company, the first step will be to find a good and available domain name. The task is not an easy one, but with the help of the 30 tools we listed below we are sure you’ll manage it!

Read: 30 Awesome Tools To Find Available Domain Names

A reader asked:

How do I find out the age of a domain?

My video response

Did you know that there are 500 million domains that have been registered?  (see Domain Counts & Internet Statistics)

With so many domains registered it may seem like a difficult task to find the right domain for your website.

So I have come up with 4 simple tips to come up with the right domain for your website.

1.  Does it contain your keywords?

What is your website about and what keywords would you ideally rank #1 in Google for?

For example if you want to rank high for “Toledo computer repair” then by all means go purchase Toledocomputerrepair.com. Having your keywords in your domain name helps a lot with search engine optimization.

Can I still rank high in Google even if my keyword is not in my domain?

Yes you can but it will be harder.

It’s kind of like running a marathon and asking, “If someone tied my hands behind my back would I still be able to complete the marathon?’  You could, in theory, still finish it but running a marathon is hard enough without any extra handicaps.

And ranking high in Google is a lot like running a marathon; it takes time, effort, and training.  Why would you want to make this even harder?

What if my ideal domain is taken?

You have a couple options here.

First, you can try putting dashes between words.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try Toledo-computer-repair.com or some variation.

Second, you can add 1 word to the front of your domain.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try BestToledocomputerrepair.com or A1Toledocomputerrepair.com or MyToledocomputerrepair.com.

If your name is Bob you could try BobsToledocomputerrepair.com.

Third, you could try adding additional keywords to your domain.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try ToledocomputerrepairAndService.com or ToledoPCcomputerrepair.com or ToledocomputerrepairAndSupply.com

What if I don’t have the time or patience to do this?

If you want to rank high in the search engines then you need to make the time and have the patience to do this. If you spend an hour or two finding the right domain it could save you 10 or 20 or 30 hours later on by making your search engine optimization easier (or less difficult).

Talking with a friend and generating ideas with someone besides yourself can really enhance your ability to be creative and come up with good ideas.

2. Choose a “.com”

I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this but you really should get a “.com”. I know there a lot of options and some of them are very popular i.e. “.net”, “.org”, etc.

But when someone tells their friend about your website they are likely not going to remember if it was a “.biz” or “.us” or “.ca” or one of the other zillion types of domains.

All they will remember is that it was something like Bob’s Computer Repair. And when that friend goes to search for it it will likely type in Bobscomputerrepair.com.

So do yourself a favor and buy the “.com”.

Also make sure you avoid “.info” domains. They have historically been used by spammers and I believe it’s harder to rank with them.

But the “.info” is so much cheaper. Is it worth buying?

There’s a reason it’s so cheap. Very few legitimate bloggers and website builders want to use them.

Don’t be enticed by a low price. You may save $5 or $8 right now but you may lose 30 hours or more to extra search engine optimization. Is this what you want?

3. Is it easy to spell?

Business owners sometimes like to have cute spellings or made-up words in their name. Just don’t do this in your domain.

For example if you are selling chocolate covered strawberries on the Internet you may think it would be cute to have a name like Ear-ResistibleStrawberries.com.

When people see it they may think it’s cute or funny but many of them won’t remember the actual spelling of the name. Instead they’re going to remember IrresistibleStrawberries.com and that’s probably what they’re going to search for.

It’s also wise to avoid words that are difficult to spell in general. Check out the 100 most often misspelled words.

4. Is it easy to remember?

I’m amazed at how often I drive down the road and see signs or billboards displaying someone’s domain like LearnHowToMakeMoneyOnlineWithNoMinimalInvestment.com. Seriously, who’s going to remember this domain later on and look it up? Absolutely no one.

Worse yet, some people don’t even bother to capitalize the first letter of each word so you end up with learnhowtomakemoneyonlinewithnominimalinvestment.com.  Imagine seeing that on a billboard while driving by 80 miles an hour.

A much more effective domain would be something like MonthlyMillions.com or MakeMillions.com.

Tips for more memorable names

Marketing genius, Eben Pagan, gave some simple rules for coming up with great names for products, businesses, and domains:

1. Sound repetition is a good thing.  Products with great sound repetition: Palm Pilot (both words begin P), Black Berry (double B sound), or Coca Cola (the hard c is heard 3 times!)
2. Make it rhyme.  Example: the two words in Coca Cola rhyme.
3. Keep it short.  Don’t use more than 3 words for your product/domain if you can help it.  And 2 words is even better.

Here’s a video of Eben explaining this in greater detail (scroll down and watch video 3).

Case Study

A few years back I wanted to launch a blog that specifically dealt with traffic generation.  But before I could buy the domain for it and start blogging I had to come up with a really good name.

And the name had to conform to the 3 rules listed above (sound repetition, rhyming, and keep it short).  I went through many variations of names that included the word traffic.

I finally came up with Nick’s Traffic Tricks.  It has sound repetition (Tr sound in Traffic & Tricks); it has a rhyme (Nick’s & Tricks); and it’s relatively short (only 3 words).  And each word is fairly easy to spell though a few people think my name is spelled Nic.

As an extra bonus there was virtually no one competing for the phrase Nick’s Traffic Tricks and so from day 1 I ranked #1 in Google for the phrase.  (Too bad no one was searching for the phrase. )

In retrospect I think Nick’s Tricks might have been a slightly better name because it’s shorter and the rhyme comes off a little better.  But overall I am pretty happy with the name I came up with.

This video is part of my 30 Days To More Traffic Video Series

There is a web host called Globat and they are ripping me off.  Years ago I had a hosting account with them for some of my websites. I closed the account 5 years ago because I found a better hosting solution.

Imagine my surprise when I found a $95 charge on my credit card from them. Included with the charge was a phone number for their billing department.

I called their billing department asking to have this charge removed. They asked for my account information which I don’t have (it’s been 5 years!).

They then asked for my credit card number to look up in their system. They couldn’t find a charge for any credit card with that number!  Yet somehow they seemed able to charge me.

I have called them three different times and spoken to different people. No one can help me.

I have no choice but to do a chargeback.

Readers beware:  Globat Web host is ripping me off and they will do the same to you.

Determine what you need

Before you jump in and sign up for your first Web host is a good idea to take stock of what you really need.

Some of the questions you should ask yourself are:

• How many domains am I looking to host?  For most people the answer will be 1.
• What am I going to use my website for?  Many people want to start a blog on their website and this requires a couple things like PHP and MySQL.
• How much traffic do I anticipate getting?  If you anticipate getting a lot of traffic the price for your web host may be higher.

Price is not everything

I learned the hard way that price is not everything.

A few years ago I went with the discount web host and their service was terrible.  My websites would be down and unavailable for days at a time and the web host would not respond to my numerous phone calls or e-mails.

This was definitely not worth saving a few dollars per month.

Ask your friends

One of the best ways to find a good web host is to ask your friends who they use.

If your friends have had good experience with a certain company then you most likely have a good experience with them also.

Use an affiliate link

One way to save money on a web post is to become an affiliate for that host.

Once you’re an affiliate you can make anywhere from $30-$100 simply by referring someone to that web host.  So what you do is you refer yourself!

The Web hosts that I recommend

Over the past 12 years I have used numerous Web hosts for my site beginning with GeoCities back in 1997.  Web hosts of come along way since then.

If you’re just starting out and need a place to put a website or two then I recommend BlueHost.

They make it very easy to host multiple domains and you can have pretty much as many blogs as you want.

It’s also great if you’re looking to start your first blog or website.

And they’re quite affordable.

If you need something beyond a simple hosting account, like a virtual Private server or a dedicated server and I recommend you use GoDaddy.

I’ve used both of these services for some time and have been very pleased with them.

And in case you’re wondering I am gaining nothing by recommending these two companies to you.  I’m just a happy customer.

What do you think?

I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below.

DailyBlogTips has posted a great video on making your site’s name and domain match.

Watch here: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/…website-name-and-domain-match/

Having them match makes it easier for people to find you in the future.