Is It Really ALL In The Name?

I was asked recently whether it's possible to generate leads for a company without having a great, or easy to remember domain name.

The answer is that yes it is. In fact I run such a site and it generates about 50-60 extremely targeted visitors per day on average that regularly turn into sales of a niche service.

To do this means getting the site visible in search engines, which of course, means at least on the first page.

This is still relatively easy if you know what you're doing, no matter what the search engine experts say.

The key, and this is very important, is to know what to target in the first place.

Even though the UK is a small country, smaller businesses are unlikely to want to operate on a national basis. The costs of travel means that local competitors will usually be cheaper than somebody operating nationally. More so in larger countries of course.

So the key is to target an audience that is looking to buy a product or service in a specific geographic region.

A business owner selling widgets for example, might offer to buy "widgets.com", though I doubt my friend Rick Schwartz would sell it!

But how would a local business person think? How does a local buyer think?

Let's take Birmingham as an example, simply because I live on the outskirts and it's my nearest big city.

If I want to sell widgets to a client base in Birmingham, the *maybe* I should be looking at birminghamwidgets.com or better still, for a local audience, birminghamwidgets.co.uk.

Similarly, although the Internet is a global phenomenon, what's the point of trying to capture a global (or even national) audience if you can't service the enquiries or satisfy the need.

For this reason, if I am doing search engine placement work, I tend to look for the low hanging fruit.

The low hanging fruit tends to be (though is not always) local.

People like doing business locally. It makes sense, it's more comfortable and of course, you can build a proper, personal relationship with your customers.

So taking our "widgets" example, if suitable domain names were not available, I would look to promote the company in the search engines, by targeting local customers.

If someone searches Google for "widgets", the chances are that he is looking for information about widgets - it's a general search with no qualifying information. This is probably somebody at the information gathering stage of their research.

If that same person searches Google for "widgets birmingham", he is looking for a local supplier - in other words, he's already made up his mind to buy!

What's the stronger lead?

Do you want to provide information and let someone else get the sale?

I know which search terms bring me money and I know which ones bring me useless enquiries.

As my online work involves generating real sales leads, I always include geographical elements when optimising pages for search engines.

It's not always down to a domain name.

Luckily, many search "experts" don't tend to educate their clients about this and that's why, as they spend tens of thousands of pounds / dollars on SEO, I sit back and make money from the fact that I target the right visitors, not high volume visitors.

The same is true of pay per click advertising too - always include the geographical locations you are targeting in your key words, because people doing local searches expect to see it there - and you're more likely to get the click.

Of course, it's only my opinion.