While there’s nothing wrong with using authority sites like Hubpages and Squidoo (we’ll talk more about them later in another article) to host your pages, think about your potential customers. When they’re searching the web for your products or information, they’ll see a link that says something like squidoo dot com/ buy-my-products.html. Think about the long term consequences of putting your products and information out there. Wouldn’t you rather your customers saw a link that said: BirminghamsBest BarbequeSauce.com?
Think about the keywords people will use to search for your product or information. They’re more likely to remember your barbeque sauce dot com address than the page they bumped into on Squidoo. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. We’ll discuss them later.
After you’ve decided to buy a domain name, how will you start? First, before securing a name, it’s important to do some keyword research. It won’t matter how great your website is if nobody can find it. This is where keywords enter the picture. Use the Google keyword suggestion tool to find out exactly what words people are typing into Google when looking for information related to your products. When I first started out online, I could have saved myself a lot of time in reaching visitors by titling my pages after popular keyword search terms. If you’re developing your site without using popular keyword search terms, you’ll be missing out on important search engine traffic.
Here are four helpful links discussing keywords in greater depth:
Keyword Learning For Beginners: Why It's So Important
The Most Used Keywords & How They Affect Your Online Success
Keywords: Optimization - Finding Good Keywords & Measuring Keyword Competition
After you’ve decided on an appropriate domain name for your first site, go to Network Solutions to search their database to see if the name is available. You don’t have to register it there. You can buy domains by themselves or get them free when you buy a combination domain/hosting plan.
Certainly, there are lots of ways to earn money without your own website, but knowing how and why to buy a domain name could help you reach your goals faster. Think of your domain name as your own specialty brand. Your domain name represents the face and essence of your company.
