Web Design
Complete Guide on Choosing Domain Name
If you follow the story on newspaper today, you know that the domain name sex.com is being auctioned at millions of dollars. That means, the domain name is an important part of you online business. It’s a kind of your brand. So, pay attention to choosing a domain name
When choosing a domain name or name your website, the following points should be taken into consideration:
1. Your Domain Name Should Be Your Website Name
Naming your site after your domain may seem obvious to some of you, but you’ll be surprised to learn that not every website is named after the domain name even when the webmaster owns that domain name.
Naming a site after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they’ll think of it by name. If your name is also your URL, they’ll automatically know where to go. For example, when people think of tranloi.com, they don’t have to wonder what URL to type into their browser to get there. The name of the site is also the URL.
Imagine if your business (or website) is called “E-commerce“, but somebody else holds that domain name. Instead, you have some obscure domain name called, say, “mybusiness.com”. What happens when your customers, recalling that E-commerce has a product they want, type “www.E-commerce.com”? They’ll wind up at your competitor’s website. One lost sale.
In the modern world of the Internet, where people automatically turn to the Web for information, it pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. There are just fewer things for your customers or visitors to remember. Moreover, you don’t seriously think that they’ll try to memorise an unrelated URL just because you want them to, do you? The only people who’ll memorise it are you and your competitors who want to compare your prices.
What if you cannot get the domain name of your choice? It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you’re known for, you’ll probably not want to ditch that name just because you couldn’t get the domain name. After all, it took you a lot of time and money to establish that name. If so, you might simply want to try to buy over the domain name from the current owner. Check up the “whois” information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they’re willing to sell it. You probably should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher fee than you’ll normally get when buying new domains (assuming they want to sell it in the first place).
On the other hand, if you’re just starting out, you might prefer the cheaper alternative of trying to obtain a domain name first, and then naming your website (or business) after the domain that you’ve acquired. So if you’ve acquired, say, the domain name “acme.com”, then your website and business might be named “Acme” or “acme.com”. I know this seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but that’s the reality if you don’t want to lose out on the Internet.
2. Generic Names Or Brand Name Domains?
I know that a number of people seem to think that your domain name really must be some generic name like “cars.com” if you are selling cars. Witness, for example, how much money those generic names are being sold for. But seriously, if you were looking for a car, you’ll probably already have some brands in mind, and you’re more like to try out things like generalmotors.com or toyota.com rather than just cars.com.
For that reason, I personally feel that a domain name that matches your brand name is very important. The very name that you use to advertise your product is the name that you will want for your domain, because that is the first thing that people will try in their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember, and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than the obscure domain name.
3. Long or Short Domain Names?
Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. You don’t have to settle for an obscure domain name like avab.com when what you mean is AcmeVideosAndBooks.com.
Having said that, there appears to be some disagreement about whether a long or short domain name is better.
Some argue that shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type and far less susceptible to mistakes: for example, “getit.com” is easier to remember and less prone to typos than “connecttomywebsiteandobtainit.com”.
Others argue that a longer domain name is usually easier on the human memory – for example, “gaepw.com” is a sequence of unrelated letters that is difficult to remember and type correctly, whereas if we expand it to its long form, “GetAnEconomicallyPricedWebsite.com”, we are more likely to remember the domain name.
Some of these arguments are actually academic. It’s increasingly difficult to get short meaningful domain names. I have not checked, but I’m fairly certain that names like “getit.com” and “good.com” have long been sold. If you manage to get a short domain name though, the key is to make sure it’s a meaningful combination of characters and not the obscure “gaepw.com” in my contrived example above.
Long domain names that have your site keywords in them also have an advantage in that they fare better in a number of search engines. The latter give preference to keywords that are also found in your domain names. So, for example, if you have a site on free C++ compilers with a domain name like freecpluspluscompilers.com, it might fare better in a search for “free C++ compilers” than my other site, thefreecountry.com.
Which would I go for? I’d go for the shorter name if I can get a meaningful one, but I’m not averse to longer names. However, I would probably avoid extremely long names verging on 67 characters. Aside from the obvious problem that people might not be able to remember such a long name, it would also be a chore typing it and trying to fit it as a title on your web page.
4. Hyphenated Names?
Should you get a hyphenated name? There are a few things to consider here:
a. Disadvantage: It’s easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Many users are used to typing things like freecpluspluscompilers.com but not free-c-plus-plus-compilers.com. They’ll probably leave out the hyphens and wind up at your competitor’s site.
b. Disadvantage: When people recommend your site to their friends verbally, having hyphens in your domain name leads to more potential errors than when the name does not contain hyphens. For example, how do you think your visitors will refer to your site if it is named “acme-books-and-videos.com”? They might say, “I visited Acme Book and Videos dot com yesterday. It was fabulous.” Their friends, remembering that comment later, might type into their browsers “acmebooksandvideos.com”. Oops.
c. Disadvantage: It’s a pain in the neck to type. Enough said.
d. Advantage: Search engines can distinguish your keywords better and thus return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords occurring in your domain name.
e. Advantage: The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain name you want.
Personally, I prefer to avoid hyphenated names if I can, but I guess it really depends on your domain name and your situation.
5. Plurals, “The”, and “My” Forms of the Domain Name
Very often, if you can’t get the domain name you want, the domain name registrar will suggest alternate forms of the name you typed. For example, if you wanted website.com, and it was taken (of course it is), it might suggest forms like:
thewebsite.com
mywebsite.com
websites.com
and the like, if they were not already taken as well. The question is, should you take them?
My personal opinion is that if you take the “the…” and “my…” forms of the domain name, you must always remember to promote your site with the full form of the name. Otherwise, people are likely to forget to affix the necessary “the” or “my”. For that reason, I always advertise my sites as “thesitewizard.com” and “thefreecountry.com” in their full domain name forms, rather than just “Free Country” or “Site Wizard” (without the article).
On the other hand, I would not take the plural form of the domain name (eg, websites.com) if I cannot also get “website.com”, since the chance of the visitor failing to type the “s” in the name is very great. Think about the famous name tussle between etoys.com and etoy.com. Many people wanting to go to etoys.com were apparently going to etoy.com instead. If it happened to them, it can happen to you too.
6. COM, ORG, NET, etc?
One common question I encounter is from people who can’t get the “.com” domain of their choice, but find the “.net”, “.org” or other country-specific top level domains (TLDs) available (like .de, .nu, .sg, etc). Should they try for these?
The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. If your website or business caters to the local community, such as a pizza delivery business or recruitment agency or the like, then it makes sense to get a country-specific domain. You actually benefit from having such a local domain because the people in your country know that they’re dealing with a local entity, which is what they want. After all, if they stay in (say) the United Kingdom, they’re not likely to want to try to order pizza from tranloi.com, which suggests a US or an international site. You’ll have better luck calling it tranloi.co.uk, ie, with a UK domain.
What if yours is a site or business that can benefit from an international audience? There are actually many schools of thought on this. I’ll just mention a few common ones.
The first school of thought goes on the premise that it is better to have a domain name of your choice “myperfectdomain” even if it has a TLD of “.net”, “.org” or some other country specific extension, than to wind up choosing an obscure domain name for the simple reason you can’t get your first choice. Thus they would settle for domain names like “myperfectdomain.de” or “myperfectdomain.net” or whatever. Against this is the argument that if you get a country specific domain, people might think that your business only caters to that country.
Another school of thought finds that “.net” and “.org” extensions are actually quite acceptable domain names. For some, the “.org” extension actually describes the non-profit nature of their organisation. So, for example, the famous Apache web server can be found at “apache.org”.
Others settle for the “.com” extension and no less. As grounds for their arguments, they cite the browser algorithms used to locate a website when a user simply types a name like “acme” into the browser. Apparently, the browser searches for a domain name “acme.com” before attempting “acme.net”, etc. As such, people who do that will be delivered to your competitor’s site if you do not also own the “.com” extension. Indeed, even if people do not rely on their browser to complete their typing, many simply assume a “.com” extension when they type a domain name, so if your business is “Acme”, they’ll just assume your domain name is “acme.com” rather than “acme.net” or some other such name.
As you can see, there are actually good grounds for accepting any of the above views. My personal footnote to the above arguments is that if you get a domain name with an extension other than “.com”, make sure that you promote your business or website with the full domain name. For example, if your domain name is “dogandcatfood.net”, make sure that when you advertise your site or business, call it “dogandcatfood.net” not “dogandcatfood”. Otherwise people will assume a “.com” extension and travel to the wrong place.
In Conclusion
In case the forest got lost in the trees (or the reverse) in my arguments here, let me reiterate the main point of this article: get that domain name before you start your site or business.
Don’t make the mistake of attempting to retrofit your domain name to your business or website. thefreecountry.com did not originally start out with that name, and I encountered a huge hassle (and lost visitors) as a result of the URL changes. Don’t make that mistake too.
Credit: Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
SEO for Ecommerce Website Design
If you have a great e-commerce website but no visitors, thus no customers, you fail. Search Engine (SE) is one of the biggest sources of visitors to your website. So, pay attention to search engine optimization and search engine algorithms.
Ecommerce websites have always been playing an important role in the success of a business. But, the importance of a good website has now reached to zenith. Though everyone knows websites are momentous but many people still don’t pay attention to this particular aspect and lose a lot of their customers.
These are the people who create a website and forget about making regular changes. You must always keep it in mind that ecommerce website design should be according to the latest trends. Basically, the design should be according to the rules of search engine optimization and search engine algorithms. If your website is not designed according to these rules, it is not possible for you to get new customers.
That’s the reason why you must always be ready to make certain changes to your existing website so it may keep attracting new visitors. One way to achieve all these tasks is visiting Jelecos.com. This particular site is the best for those who need to make chances to their website design. This website doesn’t only help people in website designing but also offers quality assistance in terms of other ecommerce solutions. So, visit this site to find a solution to all your website related problems.
Source: afronttx.com
E-commerce website Design tips
Ecommerce website design is the art of designing and laying out content onto a page which is specifically designed for selling products or services online.
Keep in mind that there is a sea of competition and your ecommerce website design is the thing that is going to set you apart from the rest and encourage people to buy from you.
Your eCommerce website design is crucial to help you get more customers to your site and to get them to make a purchase. The key to good website design is visual impact, ease of use and that it exceeds your expectations.
Here are some tips i hope you can find useful in your online business.
Design:
With more businesses making money off the Internet than ever before, ecommerce website design is essential for converting visitors to customers. If you have an ecommerce site, you know that web design can make the difference between visitors and buyers. It is also the business of excellent website design for ecommerce sites to make the business “sticky” so that customers come back time and again. This can be accomplished by providing consumers with great content, but the great content must also be enveloped and accentuated by great design.
A note about Domain names:
Before designing your website you should consider what is it for or what are you promoting and pick a domain name that fits closely to your product or service.
Free web hosting vs. pay hosting ( something to consider)
Free web hosting is very enticing for the beginner or newbie, but if you are serious and plan on making your business grow it is vital that you pay for commercial web hosting because free web hosting companies rely on advertising from businesses and when they go elsewhere for their business needs the hosting company no longer exits. But you can find professional web hosting on the Internet or go to my website for more information.
HTML editors, Content Management Systems and PHP scripts:
You will have to do some research here and determine what is best for your business. For ecommerce websites it may be better to have a CMS or a php script for your website. This is because you can easily update and ad new content to your website as your business grows. But this is for advanced users so if you are new to website design you can start out with an editor and learn some basic HTML and go on from there.
Keyword rich content:
Keywords are used for helping people find products or services they are looking when using search engines like google or yahoo. So it is important part of your website design. You can do this a number of ways, including using keywords in your meta tags, text, links, and search engine friendly pages.
And finally, validating your website:
Validating your website is essential in making your site search engine friendly and ranking high in search engines like google and yahoo. You can do this by visiting www.w3c.com and type in your website address and it will return any errors your website may have.
So do some research and implement some of these tips into your new online business and most importantly is have fun doing it.
Source: examiner.com
Six Essentials for E-commerce Website
You can have the E-commerce website development in just matters of some days and get your business running. All you need is a good web hosting and good E-commerce portal development company which can direct you the pathway to success. In recent times solid, reliable and reasonably priced e-commerce services are available. A hosted E-commerce service resolves the businessman’s non-product needs such as hosting, shopping cart technology, merchandising, payment, shipping, and so on.
However, there are certain points that need to be kept in mind while looking for E-commerce website development. The following article lists down the six important points that can give you quick and expected success in E-commerce. Here are certain denominators to consider while choosing E-commerce service provider.
•Full Wizard driven setup- First of all, you need to select a hosted E-commerce solution that is all in one. It should provide you with set up facility as well. A wizard enables to take you from start to the finish in the completion of a fully operational e-commerce storefront.
•Selection of templates- As one size does not fit all, similarly, one template is does not go for all the products and services. There is a wide range of products that you wish to sell in you E-commerce website and therefore, ask the host to provide you with customizable templates, designs and styles.
•Payment Gateways- PayPal is the most commonly used medium for getting and making payments. However, having only PayPal is not enough. You need to have other payment gateways as well which can cater to the needs of all your customers. The best E-commerce portal development company will provide you with the facility of multiple payments.
•Features of Import/Export in Catalog- All most all E-commerce storefront permits you to create a catalog but there are only few that will allow you to import or export data. This is important for you in case if you wish to change the host.
•Marketing Capabilities- Building an E-commerce storefront is enough in itself. You need to market your E-commerce storefront well enough to get you good amount of customers. Make sure you market you E-commerce website in a proper manner.
•Shipping – This is undoubtedly an important part of your E-commerce website. Hosted E-commerce must include automated shipping calculation for hosted E-Commerce solution to be of any practical use.
Viteb is your all in one E-commerce solutions provider. You need not go looking for any other E-commerce portal development company as you get all you need at Viteb and that too at the reasonable costs. Viteb can make your business reach to the acme in your business that you have imagined.
Source: myfreearticledirectory.com