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WWW.WHATTHEHECKDOESTHISSAY.COM

Your Web Address Should Be Easy To Read, Easy To Understand, And Communicate Something About What You Do.

Your Web Address Should Be Easy To Read, Easy To Understand, And Communicate Something About What You Do.

Don’t Make Your Prospects Translate Hieroglyphics Just To Figure Out Your Web Address, Your Company Name, & What You Do.

By Rich Harshaw

About once a month Monopolize Your Marketplace answer questions that come to me via email or via one of my call-in webinars. If you have a question, please email it to me at rharshaw@mymonline.com.

Rich:

We are an HVAC company in the Denver, Colorado area. We are in the process of rebranding our company, and as a part of that, we want to find a company name that can also double as a domain name for our website. In the past we’ve used the word “HVAC” in our company name, but nobody really knows what that means. We don’t want to put the words “heating, cooling, and ventilation” in the company name because it’s just too darn long. Can you help us come up with something better that what we have (below)?

  • DENVEREXPERTHVAC.COM
  • DENVERHVACEXPERTS.COM
  • DENHVACEXP.COM
  • HVACEXPERTSDENVER.COM
  • DENVERCOMFORTEXPERTS.COM

WE don’t think any of these are particularly good, but our brains are stuck. Help!

Alex Walter, AlexWalter.com (soon to be changed!)

Thanks for the question, Alex. And I’m glad you asked. Because bluntly speaking, all of your ideas above are terrible.

Not in a “I hate your guts and I can’t believe you’re that stupid” way. But in a “please, please, please whatever you do, don’t name your company DENVEREXPERTHVAC or anything like it” way.

So how DO you name a company and find a good URL? Here are a few tips for you:

Company Name & URL The Same: First of all, the company name and the URL do not have to be exactly the same… but it does help. It helps from clarity standpoint; a person who sees or hears your company name is also hearing your web address—that’s easy! So that’s one consideration.

Think Keywords: Another thing to consider is putting keywords into your URL that people will be generically typing into Google. That way, when they search what they THINK are generic search terms, they will actually also be searching for your company—and they won’t even know it! You must win the search wars, and this is one way to give yourself a leg up from the start.

Avoid Weird Words: For instance, HVAC. You’re right, Alex, nobody knows what that is or what it means… even though the word is routinely used inside the industry. Just stay away altogether. This goes for any “insider speak” that might be commonly used in your industry.

Ditch The Platitudes: Alex’s desire to use words like “Expert” or “Comfort” isn’t really helping anything. It’s extremely unlikely that somebody’s going to see a company name “Denver Comfort Experts” and say to themselves “Wow, I finally found the actual experts in the industry that can make my house comfortable!” Nope. Instead, they’ll ignore and/or discount whatever platitudes you jam into your company name. See this blog post for more on this.

So, What DO You Do? Think about what you actually do sell, and start there. I talked to Alex on the phone and asked him if they mostly service heaters or air conditioners (since he’s in Denver and all). He said they do a healthy business in both. Okay, so what are the keywords? How about: Denver, Heater, and AC?

Use A Domain Finder Tool: I use GoDaddy, but I’m sure there are 1,000 others. Just go there and type URLs you’re interested in into the search bar and see if you can find any good combinations that are available. Sometimes it takes five or ten tries to find something that’s available. This time, with Alex, we got lucky. Check this out:

domain

Make It Easy To Read:That’s still kind of a long URL… and pretty tough to read. But a little bit of creativity in the choice of colors can go a long way. Check this out:

denverheaterandac.com

magically becomes

DenverHeaterandAC.com

See how easy that is to read? That’s a great company name! That’s a great URL! Google will love it! Humans will remember it! That’s a formula for success for years to come!

Thank you, and drive through.



Free Marketing Review: Contractors, send us any piece of marketing—advertisement, brochure, web page, etc.—and we’ll check it out and give you our unvarnished opinion of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what needs to happen to make it better. Do this BEFORE you spend big money on marketing. Fill out the form below.

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© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.

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