Choosing Good Real Estate Domain Names

One of your very first steps is securing the perfect Web address, also called your “URL” or your “domain name.” One often underestimated part of a real estate investors online marketing campaign is the domain name. A good domain name can play a major part in the success of your web site.

You’ll use it as a domain, as a page title, in your logo, and possibly in the design. A name is much more than this, though. Your site or business name will be:

If you don’t believe this, think about it for a moment. You want to buy a book on the Web. You don’t go to a search engine and type in “books”; you go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble Similarly, when you have a good experience on a site, you might say to your friends “I found great book prices at Amazon.” Users who visit a site they find especially valuable will bookmark it so they can return to it easily.

Whatever the name of your site — and however you promote it — it’s vital to realize that the name is going to be a major part of your success. You’ll want to capitalize on your site name and use it on all your printed materials.

Much like a logo or slogan identifies a brand or business, domain names also provide an online identity for any business. A domain name is the virtual street address that your customers will go to when they are looking for your company’s resources. If you do not have a discernible home for your company on the Internet, it is likely your customers will quickly find one of your competitors instead

Choosing a domain name that represents your brand is essential, and using domain names to unify a marketing strategy can boost exposure and sales. For brand consistency and online presence, you may also want to grab a domain name that matches your current marketing slogan, product, or campaign theme. It is possible for customers to remember a slogan or phrase before they even realize what company it relates to.

What IS A Good Name?
So now you understand the importance of your site’s name, how can you ensure that you pick a good one? The first thing you must think of, obviously, is domains. There’s no point in having a great name for a site if you don’t have the domain, so the Whois databases are the place where you’ll do your research. Remember that there can only be ONE person or entity who owns a particular domain name. Once you decide on a domain, you must register it so that it cannot be used by anyone else. Domain names are available on a first come first served basis.

So, what makes a good domain?

Good Extension
If you believe the spam which arrives in your mailbox every morning, dot-ws is the new dot-com, dot-us is the new dot-com, or dot-tv is the new dot-com. But the reality is simple: there is no new dot-com. Whatever develops in the Internet industry, the dot-com domain extension will always be synonymous with the top Web sites. If you’re surfing around looking for a site, and you know its name, 9 out of 10 times you’ll try dot-com.

So, for the Web site owner who wants their site to be found, the rule is:  get a dot.com name.

Short
I’ve mentioned length before, but it’s important to understand why short domains are so good.

Firstly, of course, they’re easier to remember. Anyone who has tried learning “Hamlet” quotes will tell you that a word is easier to remember than a phrase. Two word domains are probably fine — three at the most, but if you have a really long domain it will just be confusing, especially if the words aren’t capitalized.

A simple name will also:

Easy To Spell
Ever heard an ad on the radio in which the Web address for the company is spelled out to you? The lack of good domains over the past few years has lead many companies to secure what might be regarded as “nonsense” names. If you find yourself spelling your site’s name to people, you’ve got it wrong.

If you want people to remember you, they must be able to remember your site as a word. Again, words are easy to remember. This immediately outlaws the use of “unnatural” spellings, of course, so don’t replace S with Z under any circumstances!

Also, be careful about double letters. Take CyberRadio2000, for example. Their domain uses a double R, as you might expect, but there is an uncertainty there. The two Rs together look a bit strange if written without capitalization, and a good name will not force the user to assume anything about the name. Of course, if you really must have a double letter, the best solution is to buy both versions of the domain, but it’s not ideal.

Avoid using dashes (hyphens) in your domain name wherever possible. It’s a great way to find a good name that hasn’t been registered, but can make your domain even harder to remember.  If you choose multiple domain names, dashes CAN be a good thing, however – it separates important [searchable] keywords. (see “Keywords” below). But don’t ever use a hyphenated domain as your primary marketing domain, as it will only be mistyped more often than not.

One more thing. Avoid using the number 4 for the word FOR. You might think it’s cute, but again, it can lead to confusion. You are trying to be professional here, not cute. If you insist on being ‘cute,’ get the domain with the FOR spelled out also, as people most surely will mistype it.

Descriptive
A good site or business name will describe exactly what the site is about. Consider the “real world” example of the Royal Mail in the UK. In an infamous marketing move, the company was renamed Consignia. Now, what does that mean? If I said the name Consignia to you, you wouldn’t associate it with letters and parcels. In fact, Consignia has since discovered this, and renamed themselves, “The Royal Mail Group”! It just goes to show that, though a “made up” corporate name might be flashy or cost a lot of money to create, it is not necessarily your best option. Such names don’t make it immediately obvious what you do, and surely that’s the whole point of a name.

Of course, many companies have succeeded using a non-descriptive name: “Egg”, the online bank; “Google.com (search engine); and “Amazon.com”, the online bookseller. How did they make these names successful? Through huge marketing campaigns designed to establish brand awareness. But surely it’s better to have an instantly-recognizable purpose than to have to spend millions to tell people what you do?

REALTORS® have it fairly easy in this respect. The words “realty”, “real estate”, and “property” can be combined with your service area to produce a domain name that fills the bill perfectly. What could be a better domain name for a broker in Seattle, Washington than to have the domain “SeattleRealty” or SeattleRealEstate” or “SeattleProperties”? It not only conveys the company but also tells users exactly what the site is about. Be sure NOT to use the trademarked name realtor® in your domain. It can only be used in tandem with your personal name, but NOT with a locale or city name.

Using Your Name
If you’re an agent and want your personal business site, one obvious choice would be to use your name as your domain name. Although using your name says nothing about what your site is about, it will be easy for your clients and prospects to remember. Another idea is to register your name, then have it set up to point to your real site. This way, prospects can find you either way.

Keywords
An interesting use of domain names for SEO Purposes has now begun to appear: keywords. Put keywords as part of your domain – even using a ‘dash’ to separate them (i.e., Boston-homes.com, Boston-real-estate.com). However, only choose this strategy for secondary domains after you have chosen primary domains.

Sites I have worked on have achieved very high search engine rankings by having a search term as their domain. With no real technique for obtaining high rankings as easily on engines like Google, this could be just what real estate Webmasters are looking for.

Finding A Name
Now that you know what to look for in a name, it’s time to start the search! You might already have an idea of a name you could register, but unless you are very creative, you’ll probably find that it’s already been taken (unless, of course, you’re registering a company name which isn’t comprised of generic words).

USE THIS LINK TO FIND DOMAIN NAMES AS FAST AS YOU CAN TYPE

http://InstantDomainSearch.com/

Register Your Domain From Below Site.

Once you decide on a domain for your site, you will need to register it. The registration process locks your domain name so that no one else can take it.  I have had the best luck with www.MyRealEstateWebDomains.com  (GoDaddy’s Reseller account)  The price is right, and customer service is excellent.

Remember that your domain name registration must be renewed every year to remain viable on the Web. When you receive a renewal notice, do it immediately. Forgetting about renewing your domain name will allow it to expire. After that, it again becomes available to anyone who wants it.

ARE YOU STILL STUCK?

When you get set up in this business, you need to feel very good about the company you have created – you need to feel that essential ownership. Creating a business can start with naming it as it builds excitement and you can have some fun with this. You’re going to need to do some brainstorming, so if you don’t consider yourself to be creative, then ask someone for help that is. Start with 5 ideas and you can further refine them…

Ask Yourself The Following About Each Idea: 

• What does the name make you think of? Commercial or residential? Does the name suggest that you are a hobby investor or emerging real estate investing business? Maybe you like dogs, but if you named your business “Black Dog Properties” for example, it has a much less professional tone, and it could backfire and make people think you sell dog houses or are a dog sitter for example, not that you buy/sell residential homes.

• Are you stating the nature of your business in the company name? Does it contain the word “homes,” “properties,” or “investors” in it? An example of a business name that does not state the nature of your business would be “Lakeside Investments” or “Smith Holdings”. Neither one gives a seller or buyer a clear idea that real estate is your core business. I had a hard time with this because I wanted to get creative but realized that the further I went, I was no longer explaining what the company did in the title. You want to be easily remembered, and a good way to do that is to name your company something people think of and relate to without any doubts on what your core business is.

• Is the name specific enough? Add descriptive words, so you get, “Wholesale Property Store” or “Best Deal Homes in NY”…those words can work well in a business name.Most people will be searching for “Manhattan real estate” or “Manhattan properties”. Furthermore, once they’ve visited your site and moved on, it will be much easier for someone looking to relocate to Arcadia, CA to remember the name ArcadiaHousesForSale.com or WeSellArcadiaHomes.com

  The best domain names should be descriptive and serve to identify your target market. Ideally, it would also contain keywords that potential clients would search by. This simple change will help improve your site’s search engine rankings dramatically.The words “Real Estate”, “Properties”, or “Homes” can be easily combined with the locations you serve, creating a domain name that is both descriptive and contains the highly important keywords. An excellent domain name for a helping distressed homeowners in the city of Oakland, CA would be www.WeStopOaklandForeclosures.com.

  Although many of these names may already be taken, you could try using the names of smaller neighborhoods you serve instead of the larger metropolitan area. In the case of the Oakland example, you could try using the communities of Rockridge, Claremont, or Lake Merrit in your domain name.

• Is it too broad or generic? A name that is too generic may be “Texas Properties”… this will lead you to have all kinds of Google results that won’t take people right to your business “Texas Properties” is a generic search term like “Italian food”. **Another problem with names that are too general is that the domains are usually not available any longer, or you have to buy them from the domain owner for sometimes thousands of dollars (if it’s popular).**

• Is your name included? Some people jump to include their personal name –first, last, or both – in their real estate investing business name. It makes logical sense, doesn’t it – your company, your time and energy behind it, your future real estate investing empire…right? No…not necessarily…I received some great advice that you do not want to include your personal name in your business for a few reasons. You don’t necessarily want to be that visible. Having your personal name in your business name could potentially make you more vulnerable to liabilities, (tax, insurance, lawsuits). Also, in some cases, you can risk seeming like you have an inflated sense of “self-importance” even when that is certainly unfounded.

• Other helpful considerations: Something to keep in mind that helped me through this process of naming my business was planning for consistency through my domains. I wanted my main website and my squeeze page domains to be uniform to make again it easy for people to know what I do. (Just a reminder, “squeeze pages” are the sites that are designed to build your buyers and sellers list by offering visitors a free download – usually a report or eBook – in exchange for the visitor’s name and email address.)An example of consistency through your main site domain and your squeeze pages would be “Wholesale Property Shop” as your business name, then getting the domain “wholesalepropertyshop.com” for your main site well as “sellatwholesaleshop.com” and “buyatwholesaleshop.com” for squeeze pages.

 Another option is to register more than one domain name or even have more than one website. By having more than one domain name and website, you can target each smaller community and establish yourself as the expert in that area. 

While the availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.

USE THIS LINK TO FIND DOMAIN NAMES AS FAST AS YOU CAN TYPE

http://InstantDomainSearch.com/

DOUBLE CHECK AGAIN! CRITICAL

1) Always use “.com.” If yours is a serious business site in America, avoid using domains ending in “biz” or “info” or any one of the scores of new top level domains. Your business will have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a “.net” domain, but since most people are familiar with “.com,” it is better to stick to convention. The exception is if you are running a business in a country other than the United States. Consider using your country code. As a listener from Zurich, Switzerland pointed out “Australians will want to see “.au,” the Swiss want to see “.ch” and so on. People in other countries are very familiar with their local TLD.”

2) Don’t make your primary domain too long. Even though 67 character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain name like ” www.buymyterrifichomestoday.com “?

3) Avoid using hyphens in your domain as a primary domain. Domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce. I have a client who registered “Homes-A-Z.com,” which I advised against. I told them they would get tired of telling people about the dash.   *** You can buy the hyphenated version as an optimization tactic later.

If you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens or numbers. Once you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.

4) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword for your investing niche.This will help your people remember your domain name better. Furthermore, for searches engines, a higher ranking will be given to those Websites which contain the keyword in the title. And according to Google and Yahoo’s instructions, the title should always be the official name of the site. Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the title which will improve your ranking in Yahoo!.

5) Don’t register a domain containing the digit “0” in it, unless it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000). This is because of the digit “0” is often confused with the vowel “O.” If you feel that you must register a domain with the digit “0,” make sure that you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel “O.”

6) Try to avoid using domains that contain ‘2’ for “to,” ‘4’ for ‘for,’ ‘u’ for ‘you.’  People will easily get confused. I advise against this totally, However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering “FirstAid4Foreclosures.com,” also register “FirstAidForForeclosures.com.”

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How to Find Real Estate Keywords That Will Help You Rank High In Search Engines

Here is one advanced tactic to see how much traffic you can anticipate for the keywords you use in your domain. We will use this tool again when we start using Google Adwords to display adverts when people search for solutions.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Step 1: Input your main keyword into the field provided. Let’s say that you are targeting a phrase: “sell house.” Input that phrase into the field. Then, check the “Use synonyms” box, fill out the captcha field and hit the “Get keyword ideas” button.

Step 2: Google will now give you a list of about 200 keywords that are related to your main keyword. Once you are there, you will have to do the following: In the top right corner right above the keywords results area, there is an option called: “Match Type.” Click on that option and select “Phrase.” Now, all of your keywords will have “quotes” around the keywords.

What that means is that the number of search results Google gives you are the results for the actual phrases people searched. For instance, for a phrase “sell my own house,” Google will show you the number of times people search that exact phrase, “sell my own house.” They didn’t search for “sell my house” or any other combination of that keyword. They searched for that specific phrase.

Why would you want to do that? Well, you want to use the phrase match to drill down on a more accurate number of searches for that keyword.

Step 3: Go through the list and hit the “Add Phrase” link to add keywords to your selected bucket of keywords. All you do now is just hit the “Add phrase” link, and you’ll add all of the different keywords you want to use for your business.

Now you have a list of keywords that you can utilize in your real estate business. But how competitive are those keywords? There is a simple and quick strategy you can use to see what kind of competition the keyword phrase has on Google.

Step 4: Here’s what you do. Just copy the phrase, with quotes, and head over to google.com. Now paste that phrase into the search box and the number of results you are going to receive will give you an idea of how competitive that phrase is on Google. Obviously, the smaller the number of search results, the better.

See the below screenshot below where I have inserted some domain name suggestions as exact keywords along with a small daily Adwords budget.  As you can see from the results that these keyword phrases would NOT make great domains names, that will get ORGANIC traffic.

 

 

Now That You’ve Brainstormed And Have Some Solid Candidates, You Should Do The Following:

• Visit your State’s Secretary of State website – This will give you a way to check whether or not someone in your state has already filed a business under that name… essentially whether or not the name is taken. Some states Secretary of State websites are not the exact place to check this – so I suggest you Google “business entity search, MI” or the state that you live in. I tried it for a few states and each time I did, it showed me the right link to enter the business name someone is considering.

• Visit the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office website – this link will be sure you are not infringing on any other business’s federally trademarked rights to a specific name   http://www.uspto.gov/
  Click “Search Marks” under the “Trademarks” box. Under “Select a Search Option” click “Basic Word Mark Search (New User)”d. You will see the box enter your desired business name and then hit “submit query.”

• Search Google & Other Search Engines – Google your proposed business name – see what comes up. Sometimes people don’t register their business before starting a website, so it’s a good way to check and get an idea of what is already out there around the names you’ve brainstormed about.**There are tools to search for available domains like “domainsearch.com” and “bustaname.com” but I recommend going right to “www.MyRealEstateWebDomains.com” where you can see what’s available and then be able to purchase the domain all in one place.**