by Karen on April 17, 2009
Whenever a client wants to have a blog on their website, I caution them that they need to set a schedule for posting to that blog because one of the first things I look at on a website is the date of the last blog entry. Theoretically, if that date is well in the past it’s an indication that the website is stagnant (and possibly the business is dead or dying).
Trying to keep up with my own blog when I’m very busy made me re-think what a stagnant blog may really mean. I haven’t felt like I had the time to post because I’ve been working so hard.
But it hasn’t changed my mind about needing a regular schedule of posting to the blog. I still think that people will look at the dates of the blog entries and even if it means that the company is busy with off-line work, it can still be used to indicate whether the information on the website is up to date and accurate. If they haven’t had time to post, they probably haven’t had time to update their hours or put up their newest specials.
So, you still need a regular schedule for blogging. It keeps you hooked in to the world wide web, it puts more stuff out there for Google to index and people to find.
by Karen on August 25, 2008
Not a whole lot, actually. When you bought your domain name (internet address or URL, like cornercode.com), whoever sold you the domain name probably suggested that you get a few extra ones, maybe with different endings or similar words in the name.
Should you get those extras?
That depends. If you’re trying to protect your name, you may want to buy the domain names that end in .inc, .biz, .org even, if you can. That way someone can’t set up shop at acme.biz when you are acme.com. You may also want to get domain names that are very similar to your name. If you are acmewidgets.com, you may also want to get acmewidget.com for the same reason. The last thing you want to happen is to have someone else’s website come up when a customer puts in your company name.
But should you buy similar domain names? Some people suggest that you can actually get traffic from owning just domain names. The only way that works is if that domain name used to point to a site and people are still typing that domain name into their browser to visit that now-defunct site. If your sites are similar and the defunct site had a following, then that’s a good way to get some new customers. If you’re buying a completely new domain name, it won’t have any traffic associated with it.
Web users are pretty savvy now, they don’t just type words in the the location bar of their browser, they type search terms into the search bar or into google. None of your other domain names will show up in searches because they don’t have any web pages associated with them.
So, if you’re buying extra domain names to protect your company name, I say go right ahead. If someone told you that buying 10 extra domain names that use different words for your products will get you traffic, well, they’re just trying to get you to buy more domain names (and give them more money).
