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5 Tips for Creating the Best Domain Names for Online Business Entities

November 2, 2020/0 Comments/in Digital Business Owner/by NathanIves.com

Whether you’re ecommerce, offer an online portal, or something else, you’re online. The best domain names for online business entities are the ones that are easy to spell, easy to say, and are truly memorable. Just as the domain name itself matters, so does the extension you use. These tips will make it easier for you to have a domain name that will help you succeed.

Look at What’s Successful

There are some companies that are killing it with the names of their businesses. They’re memorable, they’re easy to remember, and it shows they know how to be creative. By looking at some of the most successful names out there, you can be inspired.

Think about descriptive words that can be used to explain your online business. You may want to use SEO keywords. You may also want to combine two words to create a completely new meaning.

Keep it Simple

The last thing you want to do is make your business name so complicated that no one remembers it. Just because web browsers give you over 2,000 characters for a URL address doesn’t mean you should use them. Ideally, the character length should be less than 15. Anything over that and you risk people forgetting important details.

The best domain names for an online business are easy. They only contain one to three words, they’re easy to remember, and they can be spelled out phonetically.

Remember that while some people will reach your website organically, others will be typing it in after hearing about it on the radio, from a friend, or even seeing it on the side of your company vehicle. Make it easy for them to remember it long enough to type it into their web browser.

Tell a Story

Who are you? What makes you unique within the marketplace? The name you choose is all about the storytelling process. Particularly when you are exclusively online, your business name and your domain name should be one and the same. Otherwise, it’s going to lead to people being confused about who you are.

Be authentic about who you are. Consider what your goals are within your business. There are countless stories of how businesses came to be. The ones that pull at the heartstrings or that make people smile or laugh are going to be the most memorable.

There’s no way that you can come up with the best domain names for your online business until you know who you are and how you came to be. Write out your story. Highlight some of the words that stand out. Those could be used within your business name and domain name.

Maintain Your Identity

Once you set your domain name, you’ve set your brand. This means that you can’t let your identity falter.

If you choose a fun name, people are going to expect you to be fun. The same goes for a name that is serious. And guess what will happen if you choose a boring name?

Additionally, your keywords could lock you into something that’s too specific. You have to consider the potential for growth when you choose your domain name. For example, if you are a wedding photographer and you use ‘wedding photography’ in the domain name, it can limit you to the events that you may photograph in the future. People may never reach out to you for a quinceanera, a bar mitzvah, or any other special event.

It’s best to keep your name a bit broad so that you can expand in the future without scaring off future niches.

Explore Your Options

There are plenty of options for you to consider when choosing a domain name for your online business.

Consider:

Specific keywords
A geo tag (city, county, state)
A fun word
A word that combines two keywords

Use a name generator to help you come up with some variations of your domain name. Maybe one combination is taken but another three are worth considering. There’s also nothing wrong with breaking out the thesaurus to help you explore word variations. Just don’t get so carried away that you choose a word that no one recognizes.

Your business name is who you are. It’s how people will refer to you. It will be one of the most important marketing tools that you have. Think about the different business names that operate entirely online. You know them by their web address – Google, Amazon, Yahoo. The list goes on and on.

The most successful businesses, online and locally, have brand recognition. You can say the name out loud and everyone knows who you’re talking about. It takes hard work to get to that level, but it all starts with a name. Finding the best domain names for online business entities is easier when you’re not fighting for a .com extension like everyone else. Prove that you’re different by using .ONLINE. It can open up the domain opportunities significantly and give you a name that you can be excited about

Why SEO is important for SaaS businesses

November 2, 2020/0 Comments/in Digital Business Owner/by NathanIves.com

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is vital for any company with an online presence. It refers to the process of improving the visibility of your website in the organic results of search engines such as Google. Many factors go into the algorithms that generate search engine rankings, including keywords, links and mobile optimization, which means there are lots of techniques you can use to improve your website’s position. If you run a SaaS business (one in which customers pay for access to a software product), SEO is going to be particularly important for you and your company. Here’s why.

Drive traffic to your website

This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of having a good SEO strategy. The higher up your website appears on Google when people search for a relevant keyword or phrase, the more likely they are to click through to your page. It’s estimated that over 25% of people click on the first organic search result on Google, and people rarely go on to even the second page of results. Combined with the fact that most online experiences begin with a search engine, it’s easy to see why SEO is a vital part of getting customers onto your site.

Publicize your business without spending money on advertising

Lots of SaaS companies turn to paid advertising to promote themselves, which is a completely valid strategy but can take up a lot of your budget. Therefore when it comes to SEO SaaS companies have a cost-effective alternative to help generate more web traffic and gain more customers, particularly in the long term. This is especially helpful for newer SaaS businesses that perhaps don’t have a large budget for advertising, or who are happy to invest some time in creating the sort of high-quality content that ranks well. In the highly competitive world of SaaS, this can be a fantastic strategy.

Stand out from your competitors

As mentioned above, the SaaS market is a very competitive one. It’s rapidly growing and expected to be worth over $140 billion globally by 2022. Standing out in such a crowded marketplace can be difficult, but a good SEO strategy can be a big help. By consistently appearing at the top of search engine results, it’s more likely that potential customers will remember and recognize your company name – even if they don’t click through to your site at first. Plus your main competitors will probably be utilizing SEO themselves, so you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t do the same.

Get more customers

Essentially this is what it’s all about. The reason that you want more traffic to your site and greater brand recognition is all to help get more people to subscribe to the software you’re offering. Appearing at the top of search engine listings doesn’t just encourage people to click through to your site, it also helps boost your company’s credibility and trustworthiness. Organic content such as blog posts and videos tends to be viewed more highly in comparison with advertising, so packing your pages with great content not only helps improve your rankings, it also builds you a better reputation. It’s a win-win!

Web Design Tips for Plastic Surgeons

November 2, 2020/0 Comments/in Digital Business Owner/by NathanIves.com

When creating a website for your plastic surgery practice, your aim should be to convert your visitors into clients, but that doesn’t come on a silver platter. You have to work for it by ensuring your site is easy to navigate, loads fast, has the right content, can be found through organic searches, and reflects your brand identity.

That may seem like a lot of work, but it isn’t if you get your web design blueprint right. Read on for basic web design tips to keep in mind when creating your plastic surgery website.

Prioritize SEO

Search engines are the regulators of the internet. It is hard to find someone who gets into a website without first passing through Google or Bing. So, when designing your website, keep all the elements of search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. An SEO friendly web design will not only help boost your ranking and increase your domain authority but also complement your plastic surgery marketing plan and expedite your growth.

Simplify the navigation

This has little to do with the search engines and a lot to do with your visitors. Any effective website should be easy to navigate both for the frequent visitors and the first-timers. If a user is on your site for the first time, they are likely to leave if they can’t find the link to a webpage they are looking for. That will be one potential client lost, and if more and more visitors do it, your bounce rate will shoot, undercutting your other SEO efforts.

Keep Things Simple

Simplicity is crucial in retaining first-time visitors to your site. A landing page crammed with visual and textual content can be confusing, and not many people may have the patience to pore over all that information. If you have an extensive service catalog or simply too much information to post, create many web pages, and optimize your navigation bar for easier content location.

Don’t forget your mobile users.

With more people using mobile devices to access the internet, there is a need to ensure your plastic surgery website is mobile-friendly. Failing to optimize your website for mobile access is one easy way to turn away the bulk of the internet without even realizing it. Ensure your site doesn’t have unnecessary elements and visuals that may not fit or load properly on the smaller smartphone screen. If that’s too much to ask, provide different URLs for your mobile visitors.

Be comprehensive and informative

Plastic surgery is a massive decision to make on the client’s part when you think about it. Most prospects don’t know what it entails and will drain you with questions on your first appointment. You can save yourself this by ensuring your website has answers to all basic questions clients may have. It should include service descriptions, financial information, pre-op and post-op information, and expectations for clients.

Endnote

Albeit relatively young, the plastic surgery industry is hyper-competitive. However, with a well-thought-out web design strategy, you can boost your web presence and pull yourself closer to the leading lights. Hopefully, the above tips give you a place to start as you look to build a highly converting website.

Blog Like A Pro

October 26, 2020/0 Comments/in Digital Business Owner/by NathanIves.com

In case you haven’t noticed, a business can make good use of a blog. Whether it’s on the business site itself or a different address linked to it, content marketing can do plenty for you. It can increase your visibility, give legitimacy to your brand, and build the kind of connection you want with your consumer. But blogging is a venture that takes skill all on its own. If you want to look like a pro, you have to blog like a pro.

Value must be your focus
If you want to improve the search engine optimization of your business and build its visibility, it’s easy to focus on quantity rather than quality. However, that’s not going to do you much good in most cases. Search engines use algorithms, such as visitor interest, to see just how valid content is. For that reason, as ever, value needs to be the core of what you need to know about your marketing strategy. Make it informative and newsworthy or helpful and instructional. It can even be focused solely on entertaining. The fact is it needs value for you to consider publishing it.

Make it your own
That’s not to say the text is all that matters. The visual style of a blog has to have a certain uniqueness to it. If you can’t pay for your own design, then at least try to find ones that aren’t widely used while still being relevant to your theme. Even with images heading blogs, you should take care to personalise them. Instead of throwing up generic images, find or make ones that stand out and customise them further by turning them into banners. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking a generic content mill. That’s the kind of design that will ensure readers don’t even stick around long enough to read what you’ve written.

Reach out
Those readers are important. Not just because they can lend the blog credibility. Those are the kind of leads that the blog can build. As with your social media and all your other marketing efforts, you need to put the work into making a community out of them. Reply to their comments. Get them involved in giveaways and competitions. Ask if they have any topics they would like you to cover.

Don’t be afraid to have a personality
When marketing for a business, it’s easy to play things safe and stick to the branding message and tone alone. When it comes to a blog, however, showing your human side is important. Finding your voice gives you the chance to enliven the intros and outros to articles. It enables you to write comments without sounding like a corporate robot. It creates the human connection of the blogger that a lot of blogger-followers want to see. Blogging is a very social kind of marketing, so you need to get sociable.

Building your audience on the blog is only going to improve the business. That means you have to take time. Time for the audience, time for the visuals, and time, most importantly of all, for the content. Happy typing.

Top 5 Tips To Produce The Right SEO Content

October 15, 2020/0 Comments/in Digital Business Owner/by Laura Jimenez

The world of SEO is always changing, as Google’s algorithm acts as a black box: no one knows what is coming next.

Being an SEO professional is all about adapting your digital marketing strategy according to the right web design. Focusing on those factors that are determinant, the phrase “content is key” summarizes all. High-quality content can be one of the top factors that will make you stand out of the competition, helping you rank higher within the SERP. However, a common crossroad that most SEO experts encounter is related to quantity versus quality. Is it better to have tons of content, and make your pages/posts larger for the shake of it, or maybe is better to make posts shorter but straightforward? We will share some light on how you can produce quality content to make it the cherry top of your SEO cake.

1.Identify your Audience and their Needs

While it may seem like a simple and straightforward tip, a lot of businesses write content just for the shake of it. The main goal of writing a piece of content is to create awareness and value for a chosen topic.

On the other hand, if you write blog posts and articles with the sole intent to promote your products or services, people would feel that their needs are not taken into account. You should ask yourself: is my blog covering a wide range of topics? Are we answering those questions that targeted and future customers are asking to themselves? Therefore, you will have to conduct extensive research into your target segment to determine what are you missing in your content.

If you push the right buttons, your site will stand out of the crowd and will enable you to rank higher then your competitors.

2. Schedule your Content Using an Editorial Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar will help you organize your content. It will dictate you when to publish new content or which blog posts you want to update. Just make sure that you stick to it, you must create blog content on regularly. Some features you might want to take into account are:

Use a calendar app. E.g. Outlook or Google Calendar. Calendar apps are great for reminders and to organize your daily schedule. It will also enable you to share the editorial calendar with your marketing team, so everyone can collaborate with it!
Keep an eye on your competitors’ updates. If you want your content to be relevant enough, check on the competition to see what kind of content is creating, and when are they doing it. This will help you simplify the whole process of engaging with your audience and will keep you at the same level than the rest of the bloggers.
Create special features for your site. Add some originality to your blog here: create categories, weekly updates, contents etc. Try to be engaging at all times.

3. Assign Keywords to Search Intent

One of the most common mistakes that people make is to fill up their content with a lot of keywords, just because they want to rank for them. If you overuse keywords into your content, Google will not be happy with it, as the searcher is always trying to find content that is tailored to a keyword. If the content you produce focuses on improving the search volume for your keywords instead of providing value, Google will penalize the readability of your blog.

This is why mapping keywords to search intent is so important: is an easy step but is not that difficult to leave it behind. Therefore, you may want to perform a Google search for your keyword and see the results that the SERP displays. For example, if you want to rank for “best SEO tips”, you should map your keyword to a “best SEO tips 2020” blog post, or a related service website.

4. Update your Evergreen Content

First of all, make sure that you know what evergreen content is:

Searchable
Easy to share
Non-time sensitive
Enduring

Once you know which post/article you want to update, you may want to prioritize those posts that have earned more engagement. Check on the metrics: use ahrefs to see your top pages and pick up the right topic. Then, identify that data that is eligible for being updated, and reshape it: give it refreshment by adding some relevant information. Moreover, include internal and external links to your new content. This way, you can add new additional pages that are relevant to your article, which will add new value to your piece of content. Last but not least, remember to change those old and outdated images for new and shiny ones.

5. Focus on Quality AND Quantity

If you do have the resources to create as much quality content as possible and you can write several high-quality blog articles in a short period, just do it! However, if you cannot afford it that way, focus your attention on the 80% rule: put 80% of your efforts on quality and 20% on quantity or vice versa. Furthermore, it is harsh to put a 50%- 50% focus on both, as you will have to focus on relevant topics or publishing every day. Last but not least, identify which your overall goals are: are you looking to engage users and offer them new pieces every day? Or are you looking to create high-quality, unique content? That only depends on you, but I will try to focus on both at the same time.

About the Author

Laura Jimenez is a recent International Management & Business Communication with Marketing graduate with a masters’ degree from Heriot-Watt University. With a dynamic, pro-active, and positive can-do attitude. You can read more on her website: https://www.minttwist.com/