Clicks and Mortar Domaining
In speaking with a client today concerning making his website, the entire campaign to get traffic and new business for his company unfolded. But the customer remarked, that he was “just talking about a website”, but what I was talking about was marketing and advertising. I had a hard time not falling out of my chair. Where in the online business world, or even click and mortar commerce, did he think the two were supposed to be separated?
This client owned a small contracting business and had a FaceBook page. He was awake to the Internet possibilities. But the effort to get the website up was “ongoing”. Big red flag: the client didn’t even have a domain picked out yet. This told me that no timetable or launch date had been set. Without these milestones, website projects and domain sites wither and die. Domains get registered by competitors because the project team waffles around.
One of the biggest reasons a website never happens is that the domain marketing effort is devoid of strategic initiative. The necessary decisions about form and intent never get made. Without a game plan the project simply never has a shape and becomes an endless talking point that ever materializes. I wasn’t surprised to hear that the client both scoffed at a coherent marketing plan and had no site up yet. The two tend to go together.
One of the ways to evaluate a potential website’s strengths and weaknesses is to see what kinds of options to participate visitors and referred readers will perceive when the landing page loads. Can they call, email, to stop by the office? Just the integration of company data to directories of local business was probably not even done. A broad campaign to saturate the site with discoverable keyword elements and SEO related geo data was indicated.
Without anything online, there is nothing to market, discuss, or promote. Practically any business today that does not have a website feels very fly-by-night, not the vibe a customer is looking for in a construction contractor. This type of site can be as bare-bones as possible and still serve its purpose. Very little flash and flimflam features need to be added. I suggested the client author both write a blog detailing past projects with photos, and contribute to his own keyword rich forum describing construction issues.
Astonishingly, the client told me his brother was a web designer and was “working on the website”. This is another red flag. Websites are professional advertising tools, not weekend hobbies. Unless the strictest standards of professional respect are brought to bear, nothing will result. The world is full of back burner website projects that never see the light of day. That a family’s livelihood depends on this site production makes the situation acute.
The company name hadn’t even been searched for the associated domain name yet. I could tell at once that the “brother” was extremely ambiguous about the project and controlling his brother’s commercial success by suppressing progress. These are sticky dynamics where nothing but the truth will serve. I told the client to get his domain secured with capable hosting.
The client was wearing a company t-shirt with lots of text almost constructed like a minisite front page. The construction services, I told the client, had an appeal for immediate geographical users. These would be prospective customers who would be looking for companies to do work locally. These, I told this client, would be looking up the services using keywords and local city names or even possibly zip codes to find workers.
I advised this client to emphasize his Spanish and English bi-lingual service and outline all the contracting services his company did with a short paragraph or two each. These would be a valuable SEO incorporation of important keywords relative to the search engine descriptors browsers would use to find local project help. I told him the information on his t-shirt, expanded into sentences and paragraphs, would make an excellent website.
I also suggested he link to another minipage where images and short descriptions from past projects could show people without reading how the company worked and what kinds of projects he did. This type of simple task compeltion would both lead to the meaning of the domain, but support its keyword and topical subject matter. We discussed a domain name with the geographic suffix if the company name dot-com was taken.
These steps immediately focused the domain buy and initiated a sketching out of the domain name in the customer’s mind. Every stage of the text construction and the content writing would now lead back to the domain name. With an independent hosting buy and a website project under personal control, the client was now individually responsible for his domain and construction progress for his new company website.
Thanks I really needed this.
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.
Thanks for the article, I have a question: what do you recommend playing games on? I’m considering buying a new computer or a game console.
ha, great post but dare you tell us the company name, lol?
much appreciated very much, I have to comment that your site is amazing!
great post. Thanks for the info!
Hi, I found this site on Bing and found it quite informative and just wanted to say thanks for sharing information.
Just what I was looking for! Found your site on Google. I’ve saved this post for future reference
Nice article – Thanks
This is a great weblog posting and really useful. I really appreciate the study you put into it
Great post. It’s useful for online buyer and merchant. I think lcd TV sellers should provide more service to buyers making them competitive. I will follow you then. Thanks.
Perhaps you have considered adding extra video clips to your blog posts to hold the visitors further entertained? I mean I just read through the entire piece of writing of yours and it was completely pleasant but since I’m more like a visual learner,I found that for being extra helpful well let me know how it turns out!
I love what you guys are always up too. Such bright job and reporting! Continue the great works guys I’ve added you guys to my blogroll. This is a great article thanks for sharing this informative information.. I will visit your blog regularly for the latest post.
Great job!
Hehe, echt gut. Komme nun oefters.
It looks like you know a bit about viral internet marketing, if not please stop by for a free report.
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
excellent writing about site health, it is actually useful for me. keep writing and happy blogging.
Fascinating! But you might want to check your comments more frequently. You seem to be getting hit some spam comments. I had the same conflict myself. So now I go over everything with extra care.
Appreciate this blogpost relating to to getting the site together. This is precisely what We am trying to find!
Heyy, Found your blog on Google and I will definatley be recommending and coming back to the site! =)
Appreciate your this particular blogpost! I’ve the research now with regard to my personal thesis in my nursing topic. My professor will like this.. I really hope so.. Bless you again!
very nice post dude! great website… will be back soon!
Great information you write it very clean. I’m very lucky to get this details from you.
Thank you for this particular blogpost regarding to business online. This is exactly just what I am trying to find!
Thank you for this blogpost! I have the reference now for my nursing website marketing plan. Many thanks once more!
This post might be pointed out on Twitter by somebody. definitely?…
thanks for the ideas , i’d love to stick to your weblog as generally as i can.have a great day~~
Yes, I was totally in tune with that. So was my brother. He said he will check it out next week. We will return before you can say anything.
I love it!
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing :
I was scanning something else about this on another blog. Interesting. Your linear perspective on it is diametrically opposed to what I read earlier. I am still mulling over the various points of view, but I’m tipped heavily toward yours. And regardless, that’s what is so superb about modern democracy and the marketplace of thoughts online.
How did you make this template? I got a blog as well and my template looks kinda bad so people don’t stay on my blog very long :/.
Maybe you could edit the page name title Clicks and Mortar Domaining | Domain Owl to something more suited for your webpage you write. I enjoyed the blog post still.
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
Merely a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding pattern .