Naming a Website-What are the rules?

When Naming a Website

what are the rules was the topic of a discussion called Website Name. There is a lot of good information in the responses to that discussion. I started a response with I’ll just put in my two cents worth. Well next thing I knew I was up to a quarter. So, I decided to make my response into a blog post.

To begin with as far as rules go you can do what you want. So, there are no rules. But there are some suggested best practices.

For example Kyle’s response in the discussion is right. Your website name should be the same as your domain name and you should have a sub title.

Website Structure is Like a Tree

I sometimes look at structuring a website like a tree. I’m sure you’ve all heard go after the low hanging fruit when talking about which keywords to target. Perhaps I look at things a little different. To me, the fruit is your reward. The root structure you build is what grows and nourishes your tree that produces the branches that produces the fruit.

So I look at the website name/domain name like the main root or tap root. The tap root (main root) should include a very broad keyword and your brand. Something like: Marvelous Cakes. Cakes would be your primary keyword.

The secondary roots branching from the tap root should be slightly longer tail keywords like Funnel Cakes, Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Cake or Fruit Cake. The roots branching off of these secondary roots should be even longer tail keywords like Easy Funnel Cake, Best Chocolate Cake, Scrumptious Vanilla Cake, or Grandma’s Fruit Cake. I think you can see the progression.

By creating your keyword structure upfront like this you can also see the category structure of your site which will help in designing your site.

After your initial site setup, the growth of your site begins with the smallest roots, which are the longest tail and lowest competition keywords. Targeting these will get you a small amount of traffic and perhaps some limited results building the outer reaches of your tree.

Your Tree Grows Outside In

This part may be a little difficult to visualize. Your tree grows from the outside inwards. Each long tail keyword you rank for builds an outer branch to your tree. As you develop more roots you develop more branches. As your root system grows, the outer reaches of your tree becomes more substantial. This is like building authority. As your authority grows you are able to rank for shorter tail keywords with higher competition (bigger roots means bigger branches). And so your tree grows.

This is just the way I look at things. I’m a gardener at heart. But then the LORD created Adam to till the soil.