Based on over eight years of experience working at providing professional web services to business, here’s my top list of web design mistakes you won’t want to make.

1. Don’t let your web designer register your new domain name under their own company name. Make sure you own your domain out right.

2. Make sure you have all the details AND ownership of your web design project in a contract. It is important that you clearly outline and understand who owns your website. You may find out that you do not that you only own a license to use the site and only if the web designer is hosting and webmastering the web site.

3. Make sure that your website is transportable. If you are using Yahoo Web hosting or even Hostway for hosting, if you have built your website using their proprietary tools including their graphics, it is important to know that sites of this nature are NOT transportable to a new web host if you get disenchanted with services.

4. Do not package your web hosting fees with web design and webmaster services. In all cases where clients have asked us to do a review these co-mingled services always cost more than going ala carte. Make sure that you are not tied to your webmaster for future content updates. You may want to stick with them for a while, but have the option to leave if they become unresponsive to your needs.

5. Don’t move to a new web host unless you really need to. Many clients think that they should shop around for price and get the cheapest web host. You may actually pay more to move your site depending on the technology and scripting used to move than you would have saved from a cheaper web host and webmaster. Every client who we have helped to move has always said at the end “this was much more complicated than I had any idea that it would be”. Our recommendation is to stay where you are especially if you have an e-commerce store or database driven application unless there is a real reason to move. Remember that when you move a site like this EVERYTHING will break. Your contact forms, database application, secure socket layer, credit card processing will all need to be set up and tested all over again.

These are just a few tips to consider before you start a new design or look for a new webmaster for your project.

The most popular domain name endings are .com, .org, and .us. But most of us without thinking will enter .com if we do not know the ending first. But did you know that the endings are actually meant for certain business sectors?

.com is for anyone

.org is typically reserved for non profits

.net is typically reserved for Internet communicators firms and telecommunications

However with the glut of website all this has been turned on its ear when a business cannot find its name in it preferred .com state. If you choose a domain ending other than .org and you are non profit, will you get a legal note demanding that you change. No, of course not, but I recommend that you check first to see if you can find your domain name with the correct – best business practices ending first, and then look outward to other domain name endings.

If your domain name is not available as a .com, I suggest considering the .us (if you are a US business), a .biz, or the new .pro (if you are a lawyer or other licensed professional). It is always best to try to stay within ICANN guidelines on domain names, but with the few .com’s that are still available you may need to consider branching out.

Clients have asked this question “will changing my domain name improve my organic placement on search engines?” The answer is no. It is the content and links to a website that affect organic position not the name of the site. In fact changing the name of an existing website may actually do more damage than good.

Google specifically looks at many factors for organic search position, in fact nearly 150 of them. One of them is the length you have held your domain name. I do not recommend changing the domain name of an existing website, but for new sites I do recommend careful consideration of domains that are memorable or contain keywords.

Recently I had a client who does work for HUD under a large contract ask for help in deciding a new domain name as they had no traffic on their website. The marketing team felt that changing the name would make the site more popular with search engines. A name change will simply not bring the results that a work-over of content and what is on the home page will bring in conjunction with a link and content creation strategy.

So if you are thinking that you need to change your domain name to get more traffic, instead look very carefully at your content and when was the last time you updated your website before you make a change to your domain name.

Choosing an effective domain name is an important part of creating your Web visibility plan, but not the main driver of website success.

If your company name or abbreviation is not available, then you may want to consider using keywords in your domain name. Don’t worry about .com or .us, search engines will get visitors to your site regardless of which one you use. But stay away from .net, .info, and .org if you are a commercial business. Here are our tips for selecting an effective domain name.

1. If your company name is not available as a .com consider a .us or try an abbreviated version of your company name. .Org and .net usually are for non-profits and communications firms respectively stay away from these unless they are a good fit for your business type.

2. Choose a name that will grow with your business. When we started our firm name was McCord Web Design. Our main domain selected at that time was www.McCordWeb.com. Now our business name has changed to McCord Web Services and our domain name still fits with our core business. We do own www.McCordWebDesign.com and www.McCordWebServices.com though and you should definitely consider locking up your domain name variations for future use.

3. If you choose multiple keywords for your domain name, separate them with hyphens particularly if you are not doing print advertising. A search engine will read this domain www.MD-real-estate.com differently than www.MDRealEstate.com. The first will actually help you with search engines as your domain when referenced in absolute links throughout your website will build keyword density on your top keyword “MD real estate”. A search engine will read the second domain as just a string and not differentiate the words in the phrase not allowing any keyword density benefits when used.

4. If you are going to use your domain frequently in print advertising stick with something short and with a .com ending. Try not to do hyphens or confuse others by having a .net, .info ending etc when your main domain .com is taken. You run the risk of driving traffic to the wrong website; the one that holds your name but with a .com ending as reader will type in a .com usually without thinking.

5. Short is better! I’ve seen really long domain names, and these are fraught with problems as they can be misspelled any number of ways. Choose something that reflects your business. We have one client named H & R Mortgage choose www.helpful-mortgage.us as her domain when all other variations of her name were not available. This domain is a very workable example of what to do when what you want is not available.

6. Don’t freak out if your domain in .com is not available. There are so few .coms left that .us for American companies is totally okay. Remember, search engines will list your website by organic placement and all a reader does is click the link to get to you, so your domain name really becomes crucial for print advertising and as a keyword strategy in some cases.

These are just a few tips about choosing an effective domain name, but remember it is the content on your website that gets you placement and traffic not what domain name you actually choose.

There are some ways to get your domain name to work hard for you. Read our tips on how to choose an effective domain name at our sister blog Design-World Watch today.

Choosing an effective domain name can be an art, there are definitely considerations about what you choose both for your business and for search engines.

Read our blog post at Design-World Watch before you buy your next domain name.

Nancy’s post for today is at Web-World Watch on the topic of domain name crisis and being held hostage by your registrar. Click in to read this article to learn the preventative actions you need to take.

Nancy’s post for today is at Web-World Watch on the topic of domain name crisis and being held hostage by your registrar. Click in to read this article to learn the preventative actions you need to take.

We’ve had a great response to our article last month on protecting your domain name and why you should not let your webmaster own it on your behalf. This month’s article is about domain name expirations and what you should know to keep your domain name safe.

It is very important that you keep your domain active. When you get a renewal notice from your domain registrar, you must take it seriously. Check immediately in your domain name control panel that your credit card information is accurate and up-to-date. Don’t assume that your registrar will auto-renew your domain. We’ve just had a client experience a problem on that issue. He was set up to auto-renew, but his credit card had expired. The registrar turned off his domain breaking his access to email and “taking down” his website. Fortunately, our blogger found out his site was down when she went in to post, and the client was able to work with his web host and domain registrar to get back up online the same day, but others have not been so lucky.

Make sure that you keep your contact information current in the accounts you have for your domain name and for your web hosting. Supply two email addresses whenever possible so you will make sure to receive these very important renewal notices to prevent problems.

If you don’t respond to the emails to renew or update your credit card information, after the expiration date of your domain name, and there an expiration date for every domain name, your registrar will allow you for a time to quickly repair the situation, pay up, and get back online. Wait too long, and the registrar will hold your domain. We’ve had a situation such as this and the fee to return the domain to the chastised owner was over $300. Sometimes the fees are so high that it is best to abandon the domain and select a new one. The registrar is not violating any laws or rules by charging a return fee.

Don’t think that to keep from paying this “hostage fee” and that you can rebuy the domain in a few days or weeks on the open market. Registrars know this, and some will actually hold your domain for several months under their own name hoping to charge a big “return fee” to you the original domain owner. If you have gotten to this juncture, at some point the domain may return to the open market, but only if someone has not placed a hold on your domain name to buy it when it becomes available. The reserve applicant will have the first opportunity to buy your domain name. Then and only if no one else wants it and sometimes after months have passed, your domain may actually appear back on the open market allowing you to rebuy it for $7 or so. But just think, you’ve been out of business throughout the whole process.

Don’t think this disaster could happen to you? Well, I have actually helped several clients in this situation and it is really a mess when it gets this far. My recommendation is start domain name renewal 30 days out. I recommend this as sometimes you have forgotten the login information to your renewal control panel, or possibly you don’t even own your domain name and you didn’t know it and need time to remediate that issue first. Don’t wait until the last minute to renew and risk being shut down and having to go into a “crisis repair”.

My next recommendation is that when you do renew your domain name, renew for a minimum of five years on your company’s main website domain and two years on peripheral domains. The reason is that Google actually evaluates the length that you have held your domain name and the length of your renewal as just one of the over 150 different and important factors they use to determine your organic placement on the search results page also known as the organic rankings.

So in conclusion, own your domain name outright, make sure you keep your email and billing information up-to-date, and renew 30 days out.

When you get a notice that your domain is about to expire, make sure you react, and react quickly.  There is nothing worse than having to let a client know that in their ignorance and lack of action that they have lost their domain name or will have to pay several hundred dollars to get it back if they can even get it back.

ICANN has rules on what happens when a domain name expires. However the charges to get it back are in part determined by your registrar. In several situations the client has ignorantly not responded to numerous notes from the registrar to renew their domain name. In some cases they felt that they were on auto renew, but did not realize that their credit card had expired that was on file with the registrar.

If you let your domain name expire, this is typically what will happen. First your registrar will give you a grace period, then they will repoint the domain to a parking page in some cases taking down your email and website. Sometimes they don’t do this, GoDaddy will hoping to get your attention. If you still don’t respond, then the registrar will take back and own your domain. You will have to pay sometimes several hundred dollars to get your domain back at this stage, but you really have no choice. If you still don’t respond, then anyone who had reserved your domain gets an opportunity to buy it. Finally the domain goes back on the open market.

I have seen some registrars automatically keep control of the domain for several months trying to get more money from you to return the domain to the original owner.

The bottom-line is that if you want the domain you should not let it expire. If you have, then sometimes the best action is to move to a new domain name. It simply may be too costly to get your domain back.

Routinely when I renew a domain I start 30 days out. Sometimes the client does not know the registrar and research needs to be done. Sometime the client does not even own the domain and work needs to be done to secure it first. DO NOT wait until the last minute to renew your domain, it is simply too crucial for your business! 

When you are a website owner, it is important that YOU keep control of your domain name. I cannot begin to tell you the problems that I have come across where a new client has let the previous webmaster or the original web designer procure their domain name for them. In the most serious cases, that person had done so under their own name tied to their own private registration account, where the client and real domain name owner had no access.

My top tip for domain security is that every website owner should manage and own their own domain name! It sounds easy to let someone else control this aspect of your website, but if you choose not to work with a web designer or webmaster in the future, you have lost all control of one of the most crucial elements of your web presence – your domain name.

Here are my recommendations for domain security:

1. Before you work with any designer or webmaster, purchase your own domain name and tie it to your credit card, your billing address, and your name using either GoDaddy or Network Solutions. I personally like GoDaddy as the domains are very inexpensive, the control panel easy to use, and they have an auto renew function. Your domain name registrar is not the same as your web host! In fact, your hosting can be at one provider and your domain at another.

2. Don’t let a new web host push you to move your domain registration to them. There is no benefit for you to do this. The hosting agent who encourages you, or misleads you, into believing that this is top priority, is simply looking for a domain registration commission every time you renew your domain.

3. Don’t let your webmaster control your domain name. You can let them manage the changes or additions needed, but don’t ever let them set up domains under their own personal account, with their name as domain administrator. They can be technical director, but not administrator.

4. Protect your domain name as you would your reputation! You never know what the future holds for whom you will use for your webmaster services. I can tell you “real life” stories of clients who have had to abandon their “bread and butter” domain name as the old webmaster either held the domain name hostage or refused to assist with access or transfer. If your name is not listed as the administrator on the domain registration, sometimes the only way to get back access to what you thought you owned, is expensive legal action and months of red tape. It is best to just be safe at the start and own your own domain name.

Nancy’s post for today is found at Design-World Watch and is on the topic of domain name security. The article has been taken from our monthly e-newsletter. If you like what you read make sure to subscribe today.

Nancy’s post for today is found at Design-World Watch and is on the topic of owning your domain name. This article is taken from our monthly e-newsletter. If you like it make sure to subscribe today.

It used to be a very smart search engine tactic to buy a whole bunch of domains and point them, using domain forwarding to your main hosted website. Another big tactic was to take multiple domains and domain mask them so that it appeared that your main website had many different domain names with the new domain even showing in the URL.

In today’s world, we simply do not recommend this tactic anymore due to Google’s duplicate content penalty. It is best to select one domain name as your main domain and to host your website there. We do not recommend domain masking as this can confuse search engines and end up penalizing your site instead of helping it by fooling search engines into thinking that another site has duplicated your content.

If you have multiple domains, you can point them,  however, now GoDaddy, as an example, doesn’t even allow you to forward domains. You will have to select a 301 or 302 error code (that is temporarily moved or permanent moved) if you really must consider domain forwarding. The days however of buying up every domain with your keywords in it is long gone.

How about spin off websites? Do those work? Here we are talking about a domain that you own, that matches a key service. Should you build a keyword dense site on that topic only, and if you do will you get increased traffic? I am testing this procedure right now and it is not looking good. But this is a new blog post as the topic is interesting.  Come back next Thursday for that information and whether this is a workable strategy for your business.

I had a client send me some information about Domain Tasting and wanted to share what I have found out about it.

Domain Tasting is where a firm usually involved in spamming or AdSense Arbitrage buys many domain names from a domain name registrar. They then set up Google AdWords programs pointing to these domain names and use them for five days. Before five days is up, the user then returns the domain names that have not generated income to the registrar for a full domain name refund.

I had never heard of this most likely because my firm is only involved in legitimate business dealings. I asked the staff at www.GoDaddy.com about this specifically. GoDaddy.com told me that yes the five day grace period does exist and is honored by ICANN. A domain can be refunded during that period. But GoDaddy.com told me that domain name refunds are done on an individual case by case basis. If a number of domains were returned for refund or refunds requested on a regular basis, the account would be red flagged. GoDaddy at that point may choose not to allow the refund for the domains purchased or may choose to close the account or not have future dealings with the person involved in Domain Tasting.

Yes it appears that Domain Tasting does exist, but this is a shady area and one that some people are clearly using to their advantage and by people of possible questionable business intent. It is clear that anyone who is involved in Domain Tasting is not using a main stream registrar and is using one who has questionable business policies.

One good thing for the legitimate business person is that if you spell your domain name wrong when you sign up or realize that you got the wrong ending like .bz instead of .biz, you can quickly get with your registrar and correct the problem.