What's in a domain name?

Editor's note: Richard Geller's column, Marketing Madness, appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.

Choosing a domain name should be a simple decision that enhances your practice's online presence. But choosing the wrong one can cost you.

If you miss picking a good domain name, a competitor can snap it up. Then you will be sorry.

I recently negotiated for a friend a sale of a domain name he should have gotten when he had the chance. Now he is $3,000 poorer, and this is much less than what they originally wanted for the domain. I saved my friend thousands of dollars, but since he could have originally picked this domain up for $8, he was in a difficult position. He had to pay to buy the domain name on the secondary market.

Don't fall into this trap.

With that in mind, let's look at domain names from the standpoint of people who depend on domain names for every dime of their business income: internet marketers. Internet marketers sell services and products strictly on the Internet, so they have to pay special attention to using the best domains.

Internet marketers know that a good domain name can make a marketing program successful, while a poor domain name just costs money.

A good domain name should have a verb in it. I like "get" as a verb, like GetImplantsNow.com. But wait -- that doesn't have geography or location in it. If you are providing dentistry in a defined area, you should tell people that by putting the location in the domain name. For example, GetSantaMonicaImplants.com would be good. (If you are going to advertise, keep the entire domain name under 35 characters.)

GetSantaMonicaImplants.com is good for implants, but what about veneers? You will want GetSantaMonicaVeneers.com also. And probably GetSantaMonicaWhitening.com.

But wait! What if someone misspells a word? There are many common misspellings when it comes to Internet searches, such as leaving the "s" off a plural word. So you should also grab:

GetSantaMonicaImplant.com
GetSantaMonicaVeneer.com

I'm not sure if these are very common misspellings, but you might also want to buy:

GetSantaMonicaVener.com
GetSantaMonicaWhitning.com

But wait, we aren't done. For defensive purposes, just so nobody else can get them, you need to buy the .org, .net, .info, and probably also the .biz versions of these names as well. This strategy is often called "defensive domains" because you purchase a lot of domains simply in case you need them, and to keep competitors from grabbing them.

The good news is that domains can be registered cheaply. I use GoDaddy.com and pay around $8 per domain.

I'll be holding a webinar on getting unlimited patients from Google. If you want to join and get more tips like this, visit www.Cases4Dentists.com/webinar.

The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.

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