Trying to pick a brandable domain name. Any help is appreciated

Marketing
1

Thank you for reading my question

I have a domain which is also our business name - All Specialty Buildings

We build pole barns, indoor riding arenas, and steel buildings.

Our rankings have been up and down, but I was told that my company name is not brandable for a website domain name.

The All is considered a stop word, and so it leave Specialty Buildings, which is not specific enough.

So I am looking for your friendly suggestions on what you think I could try to do.

We only service Colorado

So I am not sure if I did an abbreviation with Colorado in a domain id this is considered Location spam? or if it would be ok?

Say Asbcolorado or something like that?

Or would you go more of the emd approach and do say barnscolorado or something to do with contractors in Colorado?

Again any thoughts are appreciated. I cannot afford 3500 a month for seo, so I am trying to do it myself and so thank you in advance.

Chris

2

This is obviously related to your preious thread: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?1204303-Domain-name-unbrandable-Is-this-possible&p=5650988#post5650988

Did you try any of the suggestions there?

I’d be very wary of changing the name of an established company, as you’re likely to confuse existing customers, who may look for the old name, not find it, and conclude you’ve gone out of business.

There is an awful lot of nonsense talked about SEO. The most important thing you can do is to build good content for your site, and ensure your content specifies that your business covers Colorado only. At the end of the day, search engines will pay far more attention to your content than your domain name or business name.

3

Thank you Techno

I tried to repost as I got only one real response.

I was appreciative, but it was more along the lines of colorado is highly competitive.

I just did not want to dump many man hours into creating a new website if my domain is holding me back.

Sometimes when I type in my companies name, it actually drops off the All in google results, just leaving specialty buildings.

So I did not know if I added inc . To it if google would consider it a business name and not something I am trying to scrap together.

Thank you so much Techno for your thoughts

4

I can understand that, but I don’t think you need to worry about it.

I think that may be because it’s a short, common word, and unlikely to be included in search terms, so Google ignores it. It doesn’t cause any problems, it just isn’t considered. What people are more likely to be searching for (I imagine) is something like “Colorado speciality buildings” or “speciality buildings Colorado”, and you rank in the top two when I try either of those terms. :slight_smile: You also rank on the first page for “pole barns Colorado”, but do less well for “steel buildings Colorado”.

I’d advise you to think of whatever search terms your customers are most likely to use when looking for you, then see how well you rank for each of those. Where the term ranks less well, go back and see if you can improve your content a little. Include “Colorado” if you haven’t already, but make sure it sounds natural and not forced. For example, you could add “Colorado” to your h1 headings. Or you might be able to add in more details, such as “this type of building is ideal for the Colorado climate because…” or “is particularly suitable for the Colorado landscape” or whatever. The more relevant information you can provide, the more it will appeal both to search engines and potential customers.

5

Chris,

TechnoBear’s advice is spot on. In addition, keep in mind that the domain name is just one of a large number of “signals” that search engines use to rank a site. Changing any established branding is always something that requires careful consideration. Doing so merely for what might be a very small SEO benefit seems highly dubious.

I don’t know anything about your business or your site, but I’d bet there are other ways of improving your search engine rankings, without jeopardising the the value of your brand.

Mike