Picking a domain name? What to consider

Whether or not you already have a website, you should always buy a domain name that contains your own name. And you should get both .com and .net suffixes - e.g. FirstnameLastname.com, FirstnameLastname.net, FirstnameMiddle-initialLastname.com, etc.

That way no one else will be able to use it. You don't have to set up a website with your name in it, just own the domain names.

If you don't own those domains, other people could buy them. For example if there is someone else with your same first-and-last-name combination, they could grab the domain name and set up a porn site. Or, if you have enemies, they might buy your name as a domain and put up a parody site.

A popular source to check on domain name availability is godaddy.com.

What if your name is already taken? If your first and last name are common, e.g., John Johnson, you might find that someone else has grabbed the domain name. You can find out who owns the domain and offer to buy it from the person.

Or, use a variant:

• Try putting hyphens between your first and last name

• If you have a professional title like dr or doctor, or Ph.D., or MSW, or CPA, you can append those to the name and see if it's available that way.
  
  
• Or just add the word "the" to your name - e.g., thejanedoe.com

Other considerations when choosing a domain name:

1. Branding yourself: Have your name, company or specialty in your domain name. Your website is thus descriptive of who you are or what you do. If you wrote a book, it's a good idea to have a domain name containing part or all of the title.


2. Search-friendly: If you want your website to be easily found by search engines, use keywords in your domain name.

This is primarily for people who don't search for you by name, but who enter keywords for a specific service into search boxes.

For example, if you are a therapist in Detroit who works with families, you could get the domain: detroitfamilytherapist.com (which is still available as of this writing.)

Then, when someone searches for: family therapist detroit, your website will end up near the top of the search results.

To hyphenate? or not?

Some experts say that search engines can more easily "read" individual words in a string when they are separated by hyphens, so you might want to do this - e.g., detroit-family-therapist.com - especially if you have three or more words running together.

But then again, hyphens are often omitted by searchers.

In any case, it's a good idea to buy both the hyphenated and unhyphenated versions of your domain name. You can set the non-hyphenated name to be automatically redirected to the hyphenated version, which is your actual website. Thus, whether people type in detroitfamilytherapist.com or detroit-family-therapist.com, they'll end up at the same place, and you'll be more visible to the search engines.

When setting up a domain name containing keywords, consider what your intended audience might be searching for. There are synonyms and alternate forms for most keywords - so with a little creativity you'll probably find something that fits.

3. Easy: Your domain name should be easy to say, easy to spell, and easy to remember. And make sure that you don't inadvertently put together a combination of words that could be interpreted in more than one way- a popular example is therapist.com.

Keep in mind: Even though your domain name is important, it's not as critical as the CONTENT of your website. If you're using your website to market your practice, make sure you emphasize benefits for your audience. See my earlier blog post on this topic.

-- Pauline

Competition is GOOD for business!

Are you afraid of competition? Don’t be.

Competition is actually good for your business. When several people offer the same types of services, it implies that these services are popular and in demand.

People flock to what’s popular, because popularity is an endorsement – The herd mentality is: If others are using a service, it must be worthwhile.

It’s actually much harder to sell services that no one else is – especially if you’re in the mental health field, which still has some stigma in many communities.

No matter how much you say you can help people, they might be skeptical. After all, in most businesses, if there is something worth paying for, a lot of people would probably want it – and there would be enough demand for similar businesses to sprout up.

Therefore, instead of fearing competition, embrace it. Here are some tips:

• Promote what’s different about you. Figure out at least one way that you’re different from your competitors, and emphasize that in your marketing. But the difference must be of benefit to your audience. If you are fluent in Swahili, and no one in your community speaks Swahili, that’s not much of an edge over your competition. However, if you offer evening hours, or babysitting, or if you are a specialist in a sub-niche of your field, people will be drawn to you.
  

• Support your competition in a way that does not undermine your business: Refer people to your competition whom you would not work well with. If you come across an article that might be helpful to your competition, send it to them. When they have the opportunity to refer to you in the future, they will be more likely to do so.

• Network with your competition. Give them a chance to get to know you, like you and trust you. They may end up referring some of their family or close friends to you, which would be the ultimate endorsement of their respect for you.

Build Your Online Presence - Slideshow

A few weeks ago I gave a talk at the American Psychological Association Convention, on ways to build your online presence.

I condensed the content into an 8-minute slideshow with audio narration. Click the player button below to start.

If you'd like to learn step-by-step how to build your online presence, take a look at my Home Study Course.

Readers of this blog can get the Deluxe version for half price. I'm running an unadvertised special. Email me for details: drwallin@drwallin.com