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Domain Names & Search Engine Optimization

By Cathy Tishhouse

Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Showcase Homes

February 13, 2008 08:57 AM

People around internet symbol I am purchasing some new domain names and of course, most are taken. Some of the terms I am looking for regarding Metro Detroit Homes and Oakland County Real Estate are available as ".org & .net". I am wondering if this makes a big difference in how they will come up in page ranking. I know that will not happen for quite a while and involves a lot of other dynamics but - in the long run, will this matter? Also, I have a domain name "metrohomes-detroit.com" and am wondering if the slash in a domain name has a positive or negative impact on SEO. I have been working on several of my sites and I come up on page one for Royal Oak Realtor and page 2 of many other terms - THANKS to Activerain! So, before I invest in developing a new site, I would like to know if anyone has thoughts on this.

Featured #1 Royal Oak Realtor on Activerain.com and Localism.com. TishHouse sells Houses - selling Oakland County Real Estate with RE/MAX Showcase Homes in Birmingham, Michigan. Helping People in a challenging market by specializing in Short Sales. See what my clients have to say about my extraordinary customer service selling Real Estate in Southeastern Michigan.

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Cathy Tishhouse

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak Real Estate

James: I agree that my question today probably will have little significance in the near future as they are always changing how the search engines decide relavancy.

John: Thanks for stopping back and again and commenting. With my question, I was thinking more of on-line advertising. I like your name "surf the turf" and can see the value of something catchy like that and people would naturally assume it is a .com. I will have to think outside the box to come up with something like that - so may ideas I have are already taken.

Melissa: I have been revamping all my sites with new title, tags etc. So, I did not want to do all that with a new site and find out I had a bad choice of domain name. Thanks for commenting.

Kay: I read where many people create individual sites for each listing - usually with the address. Well, I decided I wanted generic names that I can reuse when I sell the listing so I bought several and have seven of them running. For example: www.greathomehere.com - www.myroyaloakhome.com - www.possiblehome.com This way, I can gain some page rank and just change the home and tags etc. Then I have two generic sites like www.southeasternmichiganrealestate.com - www.bankownedforeclosedhomes.com I have a few other similar names like the first three that can fit on a rider on the yard sign and link to in all my on-line postings. My first site was my personal name before I knew better so then I started buying these.

Feb 15, 2008 04:20 PM

Vickie Nagy

Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA

Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

Thanks for the food for thought. I have only .coms. After reading your post and all the comments I believe I may spread out a bit.

Feb 15, 2008 04:22 PM

Lizette Fitzpatrick

Lizette Realty - Richmond KY - Lexington, KY

Lizette Realty, Lexington KY MLS - Kentucky Homes

Hi Cathy! I can't say one is better than the other. I purchased Lizette.com back in 1998 for my art gallery. That has always just been art. Now I have Lizette.US for my real estate. I'm thinking about swapping them but wonder if it is too late to make the switcheroo. I don't want to confuse clients that have bookmarked me. I'm in a dilemma over that!

Feb 16, 2008 12:47 AM

Cathy Tishhouse

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak Real Estate

Vickie: I have been sticking to mostly .com but now I want to expand further - hence this question. When I started expaning our, I learned so much here on Active Rain that my organic results are greatly improved and an individual blog is the next major step - and I believe very necessary (along with ActiveRain!!)

Lizette: I was in the same quandry with www.cathytishhouse.com (about 3 years old now). That was my first domain (before I knew better) and I get about 2,000 - 3,000 hits a month (I know many are all those companies that try to sell me something). However, half my business comes from the web. I wanted to host my domain somewhere else but it would be down for about 3-5 days and didn't want to risk it. So, I started buying names and each of those are now gaining page rank and some I have now had for a year. My office partner does nothing for her website so we just pointed her domain name to one of my generic sites www.southeasternmichiganrealestate.com and she is listed as my partner on that site. So, you could buy a more generic real estate related domain for your area and once it gains some momentum, just point the lizette.us to there. Everyone will find you that has you bookmarked. You seem to have a lot of momentum on the web and you can create a site that you can sell when you retire -- if we ever do that. Most people don't necessarily want a personal name even if it has a lot of juice. I life the signature that you add to the bottom of all your posts - I am creating something like that. You have a lot of great ideas.

Feb 16, 2008 01:02 AM

Mike Bowler Sr.

Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood - Lansing, MI

CRB, GRI, ePRO, RECS, SRES

Vickie, i agree with the above. If you real work your blogs, with local keywords, and links to your websites and other articles in your older blogs, you will gain more. I am at a point now, where I am dropping PPC on Google and Yahoo because my free blogging is getting better position than my paid ads. It's a matter of working your blogs. On a side note. I suggest lots of Localism on Active Rain, zeroing in on local communities, neighborhoods, events ect. The Search Engines like that.

"Expect the Best" Mike

Feb 16, 2008 02:18 AM

Mesa, Arizona Real Estate Mesa Arizona Realtor

Homes Arizona Real Estate LLC - Mesa, AZ

AzLadyInRed

Cathy, very good and thoughtful post. I enjoyed the exchanges as a result. I, too, have several that I've purchased - and I have - now, four websites. I am targeting different markets, but have a lot of work to do. I've been spending so much time on the Rain that I need to direct my attention to other areas of my business.

Feb 16, 2008 04:42 AM

Lanre-"THE REAL ESTATE FARMER" Folayan

Samson Properties - Bowie, MD

I don't make promises.I deliver results.SOLD HOMES

Sorry that I don't have no advice or suggestions. But I stopped by because I am going to bull dozer my website and get a new domain name. But have you tried www.newmetrodetroithomes.com. Or put the word new in it. Every home buyer these days are looking for a new home even though as we all know,all homes that is currently on the market are not new.

Feb 16, 2008 12:56 PM

Cathy Tishhouse

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak Real Estate

Mike: I agree with all the blogging etc. I do pay for some advertising on Yahoo so that I am in the blue box for three search terms and it is not real expensive. Because I do a fair amount with Activerain, I don't so paid advertising on google and definitely post all my listings on Localism etc. and always plan to post about about community info.

Teri: It is never a waste to do a lot on Active Rain but I totally understand directing your attention to other areas - I learn so much here but now I want to put more into practice - like a new independent blog. Glad to know you enjoyed the exchanges.

Lanre: After getting all this feedback, I am buying a couple of new domains today. I read a post (it was Karen George who has a wealth of info about all this) who said just adding a plural to a domain name - like if detroithomes.com was taken to use detroitshomes.com and usually it is not taken and will be equally picked up by search engines - you have a good suggestion on newmetrodetroithomes, I will check it out.

Feb 17, 2008 05:24 AM

Greg R. Benson

Keller Williams Realty Bellevue - Bellevue, WA

Bellevue, Kirkland, WA Real Estate

Hey,

.biz, .net, .us, .info wont effect SEO. The slight problem with buying those domains is if a person directly types in your domain and types in .com instead of .net, .biz etc you could be sending people to your competitor. This is really only a problem if you do offline marketing, but if you fully intend to optimize your site and have people find you via search engines then it doesn't really matter. More importantly the words in your domain are more vital than the .suffix. Really focus on key words that are heavily searched IE: cityhomesearch.com or subberbcityhomesearch.info or popularcommunityrealestate.biz or popularcommunityhomesforsale.net. dashes are ok in domain names for optimized sites IE: detroit-condos-for-sale.com or south-detroit-homes-and-condos.com. These can get cumbersome for people to type in if you intend to do any offline marketing of the site.

Domain name tips for Offline marketing would be something short, catchy, related to your biz and easy to remember. One last thing, be careful of the words in your domain if EI: a service that exchanges pets getting the domain name petsexchange.com some people will read "pet sex change" and not "pets exchange". Greg R Benson - Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond WA real estate

Greg R Benson - Bellevue, Redmond Real Estate logo

Feb 17, 2008 09:39 AM

Cathy Tishhouse

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak Real Estate

Thanks Greg:

I was particularly curious about using hyphens and this answered my question. I am focusing on optimization and not necessarily going to advertise these new names. So, thanks for taking the time to comment - and warning me about how they appear when typed--that is not something I was going to necessarily watch for.

Feb 25, 2008 06:45 AM

Cameron Keegan

RE/MAX Moves - Greenville, SC

Cameron Keegan

Although purchasing a .net, .org, or anything else won't effect search engine ranking, always think of marketing from a consumer perspective. Everyone associated websites with .com, therefore if you were to setup say detroithomes.net, you may inadvertantly send people to a competitor who owns detroithomes.com. People don't remember letters after the second "." but rather everything in between the two .'s

I also don't recommend going with a domain name which contains dashes.

Mar 03, 2008 02:31 PM

Chuck Willman

Chuck Willman - Alpine, UT

NewHouseUtah.com

The .com ending is king. I'd purchase .net to secure the rights if I already own the .com designation.

Mar 04, 2008 02:26 AM

Scott Guay

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services PenFed Realty - Ocean Pines, MD

Associate Broker. Ocean City and Ocean Pines MD

If you buy ant domain name .net chances are anyone keying it in will key in .com

Mar 04, 2008 09:12 AM

Cathy Tishhouse

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak Real Estate

Cameron: I am more looking for SEO and not expecting people necessarily to type in my domain - thanks for commenting.

Chuck: I always purchase .com as first choice but sometimes so many are taken. I did buy .net on a couple but I may go back and consider the .net for my sites that are starting to build traffice - thanks for the reminder.

Scott: As stated above, it's probably good to find a domain name where I can buy both.

Mar 06, 2008 04:13 AM

Lee Morof

RE/MAX Showcase Homes - Birmingham, MI

Associate Broker, Attorney, CDPE

Cathy, I am taking the Online Dominance course offered by Mr. Internet and they don't recommed having any domain names other than dot coms. They also don't recommend using dashes. What ends up happening is that you help market the owner of the url that has the dot com and/or the one without the dash.

Mar 13, 2008 09:35 AM

S J

Pittsburgh, PA

always buy them all. it's great for testing markets

Mar 14, 2008 06:02 AM

Joe Gonzalez

CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC NMLS #3029 - King of Prussia, PA

NMLS# 126036 (610) 739-6563

I am a firm believer in getting names that don't look like your company but rather consumer information. This allows people to let their guard down & get the valuable information you have available to them on your website. Try it.

Mar 14, 2008 06:18 AM

Walter Jones

901 Realtors - Memphis, TN

Real Estate Entrepreneur and Realtor

Good post! Great comments! I just had a guy pimp out my site and I'm thinking about purchasing other domain names. Glad I read the post

Mar 15, 2008 11:54 AM

Paul Viau

Nova Scotia Real Estate Blog - Halifax, NS

Nova Scotia Real Estate Blog + Photo Services

I have heard that you should stick with the site that works. If you pick up a few different extensions you could then filter them all down to one - But why bother - it means doing SEO for more sites!

Mar 16, 2008 07:52 AM

Kirk Westervelt

Van West Realty - Greenville, SC Realtor -Short Sale Expert! - Greenville, SC

Kirk Westervelt, Broker In Charge, Van West Realty - CDPE - Short Sale Agent - Home for Sale - Greenville, Simpsonvil...

My only thoughts are based on whether or not .org or .net are even a good idea.

I'm not a fan of using these compared to the .com option. Too many people might forget and type in your name with the .com option, instead of the one you might own, the .org or .net.

I would suggest getting creative with additional alternative options that kept in the .com world!

Jun 14, 2008 06:04 PM

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Cathy Tishhouse

Royal Oak Real Estate

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Royal Oak Realtor located in Birmingham Michigan, selling Real Estate in Birmingham, Royal Oak, Beverly Hills, Berkley and surrounding communities on Oakland County and Metro Detroit

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