New Choices for Domain Names for Your Website

In the spring of 2014 a vast range of new domain name extensions are going to open up, with industry specific extensions becoming available after the dot, such as .photography, .london and .wedding.

It's likely that in time what's after the dot could become as important as what's before the dot and it allows for the whole of your domain name to have meaning.  Some of the most popular domain extensions that will be available are:

• .photography
• .london
• .web
• .services
• .ltd
• .blog
• .hotels
• .football
• .wedding
• .training
• .media
• .holiday

The Business Week article - New Domain Names are in the Works has more information on the latest domain names.

This gives you a wealth of extra choice in deciding what you want to name your website and it's likely that these extensions will be become important for SEO (appearing high with search engines) too.

Given that there's more choice in what to call your website, how do you go about deciding on your domain name?  The infographic gives some suggestions that are important to consider when deciding what to name it, both from a user-friendliness perspective and from an SEO perspective, whether you're looking to launch your website locally, nationally or internationally.

The "New choices for domain names for your website" infographic was designed by Allison Carmichael at Indigoextra Ltd, a creative multilingual web design and SEO company.  Allison has 2 boys and created the infographic to compare naming a new baby with choosing the name of your website.  It wouldn't surprise me if people put as much thought into both!

Allison lives in Montpellier, South France and is a film fanatic of all genres (although there's only a few French films she likes) and is home educating her two boys.  For work, Allison is the Art Director of Indigoextra Ltd and runs the graphic design team.

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Choosing between PPC and SEO

If you’re entering a foreign marketplace like France, then choosing whether to use PPC (Pay Per Click) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to promote your business can be difficult.

This infographic gives some guidelines about when to choose SEO and when to choose PPC.  If you’re promoting your site in a language that you don’t speak particularly well, then PPC is obviously the easier route, as it means that you only need to translate your PPC ads and your site (yes, if you’re targeting France, then it’s still essential to have your site in French, even with PPC).

Let’s assume you speak the language fluently.  If so, then PPC generates immediate results on the day you place the ad, however if you stop paying for the ad then the results disappear just as immediately.  SEO on the other hand takes a while to start, but if done well will generate organic traffic for years to come with just a minimal top up.

If you go the SEO route, it’s essential to use a company that’s familiar with the latest Google algorithms.  These days links have to be high quality and relevant to be effective.  As the infographic shows, it’s not always necessary to choose between them and you can use SEO for some keywords and PPC for others.

The infographic was written by Martin Woods, the SEO Director of the French SEO Team at Indigoextra Ltd.  Based in the UK and Montpellier, France, the team offer SEO in English, French, German and Spanish.

When he’s not unravelling the ever-changing puzzle of SEO, Martin loves unravelling and creating cryptic crosswords and has written over 500 crosswords for The Big Issue in the North, a homeless charity.  He home educates his two boys and also enjoys skiing, reading and walks in the beautiful countryside that South France offers.

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