To .ie or .co.uk ???

At Grow Sales Online we have what we call the "whether you use us or not" philosophy. Alot of clients we come across have been through 2 or 3 designers before they get to us and not all their experiences are positive. We are not saying that we are perfect but we do have a conscience! So, here's the first "use us, don't use us" talk.

Choosing a domain name, or the name or your website, does require some thought. Firstly, you need to think about your Top Level Domain (TLD). What's that? Well, your TLD is the bit at the end of your website address - .com, .co.uk, .ie, .de, .fr etc - our website has a .co.uk TLD.

Why does it matter? Well, your TLD matters because it has an influence on search engine optimisation (SEO). Your website name needs to be hosted by a hosting company and when you put the TLD together with where the website is physically hosted it can have a major impact on your position in search engines such as Google. So, here's lesson number 1 - You should register the website yourself - not through a website design company. Why? Let's put the "Why not" retort to one side and consider this - would you let a builder build you a house and then keep the keys to the front door? If, like us, you would not do that, then why would you let a website designer hold your passwords for your website? Secondly, very, very few website design companies will host your site themselves. When you see a price for hosting on their quotation what that usually means is that they are paying someone to host your website and then they are charging you an ever so slight mark up. So, when you see that a price for hosting on the website proposal ask the web designer to give you the name of the hosting company they use, then go on to that hosting company's website and compare the prices on their website to the price you are being charged - and remember, the price you see on the hosting compny's website is the retail price, your website designer will not be paying that price! Lesson number 2, if the website designer will not give you this information then our advice is run!

When you choose a hosting company ask them where the web servers are physically located - all you need to know is the country. Many clients ask us about the .com versus .co.uk issue, which one is better. As a rule, if you want to target the UK market then having a .co.uk TLD and having the website physically hosted in the UK (London, Manchester etc) will be your best bet.  If the .com version of your TLD is available, then our advice is to register the .com TLD (to at least protect your website name) as well as the .co.uk TLD. If you are targetting, say France, then the advice remains the same - you should register the .fr TLD you want, so ours would be www.growsalesonline.fr, and host the website in France - any other approach is not necessaryily wrong, but it is simply not the best way to do it.

There are many hosting companies out there and we have tried quite a few of them - 123 Reg, 1 and 1 , Go Daddy,  Fast Hosts to name a few. At Grow Sales Online we use these hosting guys - we have found them helpful and knowledgeable. If you already have hosting and want us to do some work for you then that is not an issue but if you are looking for a hosting company to use then UK Cheapest are what it says on the tin, but do not let the name fool you, what they offer is second to none!

Once you have decided on the .co.uk or .com and where the website is going to be hosted, then the next big question is what do you actually call the website? Does it have to be your company name, such as www.adidas.com or could Adidas call their website www.runninggear.com - well the answer is as they say, six of one and half a dozen of the other! There is an argument to be made that a domain name or website name should be "keyword rich", meaning that it should contain words that reflect the search terms for which you would like to be found. But our opinion is that your domain name should be easy to remember. If it can have keywords in the domain name then great, let's run with that, but if it cannot then make it easy to remember and spell! The worst website name is one that we should which was, www.brreeezzzz.com - if that is even right! How could anyone remember that! Keep your website name easy to remember and easy to spell. If you find yourslef on the telephone having to spell your domain name, then maybe that's a slight sign that the domain could be better. What is much more important is the search engine optimisation or SEO that is carried out for you.

Now here's a thought - The .ie Domain Name

Many clients we talk to want to know why their website is not appearing in Google.ie.  Here's a simple exercise which you can do now. Go to www.google.co.uk and type in any search term you wish but write the top 5 answers down - just the website addresses of the top 5 answers in Google.co.uk for that search term. Now do the exact same exercise but in www.google.ie. Now, compare your answers - if they are the same then contact Grow Sales Online for your FREE website! They will not be same - so lets go back over it again, if you want to target custoners in Southern Ireland, then to give yourself the best chance possible, you need to have a .ie domain name and your website needs to be hosted in Southern Ireland - that strategy will give you the best chance of being found in Google.ie. Clients we say this to then look at us and say "So, that's 2 websites I need?" and our answer is "If the Southern Irish market is important to you, then the short answer is yes, that's 2 websites".  The next question we get is "So, is that double the price?" and our answer is "No, it's not double the price, but it is extra!".