How Well Do You Rank for Your Own Domain?
Posted On: 2007-02-02
That may sound like some more Friday silliness from but it's not, it really is a very serious question. How well do you rank for your own domain name or names? If you're only just starting out in this industry then it's probably not going to be a big concern right now but the longer you stay in the industry the more it should begin to concern you.
Some years ago, back when various online businesses and search engines began publishing reports on what was the most searched for terms everyone began noticing something quite odd. The most searched for terms back then - after adult terms were deleted - were often the names of websites and even partial URLs.
The trend has become even stronger today. Hitwise reports that the top US search in 2006 was 'myspace' and the second most popular was 'myspace.com'. Number three was 'ebay', number four was 'yahoo' and number six was 'www.yahoo.com'
Now why would people be using those search terms in the search engines? Don't they know who to use a URL to get to a website?
Obviously they don't and some people are actually being taught by 'experts' that the way to find a website is to type the URL, or part of the URL, into Google. Some months ago Steve and I met with some retired people here in town and they told us that, to find one of our mainstream sites, they always typed the URL into Google.
When we asked why they approached the site in that way we were told that the person who had conducted the seniors' computer classes that they had attended told them that putting the URL into Google was the best way of getting to the site. These people don't even bother bookmarking the site; every time they want to go back they type the URL into a search engine.
And obviously they're not the only ones. Lots of people are doing it and that number is going to continue to grow as search boxes begin to appear embedded in the browser. So how well do you rank for your own domain?
And before you think that you will always rank at the top of the search engine results pages for your own domain name think again. There is no guarantee that you will and taking the top spot away from the 'rightful owner' of a domain is not difficult.
Steve just typed several of our old adult domains into the Google search box and only one sits at the top of the search engine results page. Even worse is the fact that, quite frankly, the listings that appear in positions two and three look much more interesting and they are there using our URL somewhere in their site.
For another one of our domain names we don't even appear on page one. The top listing for that domain is an old post on GG&Jim's message board that references the site and number two is another old post on Adult Netsurprise that does the same thing.
Why should we find that rather alarming? Well we may not have done anything much with those two sites in a while now but they are both domains that have catchy names that people will remember. If they type those domain names into a search engine search box they're not necessarily going to see our sites and the same thing could easily be happening to you.
For us, not doing so well for our own domain names means that those two sites - where the index page is virtually a hub - are probably not getting the search engine traffic that they should and we're going to have to address that problem.
But what would it mean for you if you don't rank well for your own domain? You could be losing traffic just like us and the more people who use the search box as a way of navigating to your site then the more traffic you are going to lose.
Hitwise points out that the number of people who are using the search engines as a navigation tool is growing. Not everyone is like us and knows how to access a site via the URL or a bookmark and so we have to cater for those people.
If we don't then we're losing traffic and that means we're losing money too. And if you're serious about this business you really don't want to lose traffic or money.
And that's it for this Friday, we've all got the weekend in front of us and I hope that you do use the weekend to spend some time relaxing. Everyone needs to spend at least a little time away from the computer so make sure you make time for some rest and relaxation.