Choosing A Money Making Domain Name For Your Real Estate Website Part 1

July 22, 2010

Your real estate website’s domain name is very important.  The domain you use can make the difference between a website that makes you a lot of money, one that makes some money, and one that doesn’t help you make any money.  It’s that important!  So this article series will walk you through the different things you need to know about when choosing your website’s domain name.

Making your website’s name the same as your site’s domain URL may seem like an obvious step, but not every website owner does this.  Doing this is important because it makes your site’s URL memorable.  People think of websites by name, so if your website’s URL is the same as the website’s name then people will have no problem finding your site without using a search engine or any advertisement.

For example, when people think of the site name Mississaugarealestate.com they automatically know the URL for that site. So it’s important having a domain name that describes your business.  If your site’s name doesn’t match the site’s URL it’s unlikely people will spend much (if any) time trying to figure out your site’s URL.

The most common mistake real estate professionals make with their domain names is making it their own name (eg. johnsmith.com).  This does absolutely nothing for your branding because it says nothing about what your business is.  Prospects aren’t interested in you, they’re interested in what you can deliver to them.  Moreover, when it comes time to retire or leave the real estate business no one will want to buy a domain with your name on it, even if it’s got top ranking in major search engines.  But they will want a high ranking domain name that describes a particular type of real estate (eg. <yourcityname>homes.com).

The domain you want for your website may or may not be available.  You can do a search at major domain registrars like Godaddy.com.

If all the domain names you want are already registered, they still may be available to you.  Find out the domain owner’s contact info by doing a Who-Is search at www.whois.net.  Ask the owner if they’re interested in selling the domain to you.  They may have bought the domain to re-sell for a profit or they may be a real estate professional currently using the domain.  They may not realize the value of having this domain, they may be retiring, or they may not be in the business any longer, so it’s always worth inquiring.

Filed under: SEO For Realtor Websites

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