Online Manual - Name Recognition (URL)
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Name Recognition (URL)

If your site is unique and the word used to describe your site is well known, then you may wish to ask your provider about registering a domain name with Internic. For example, let's go back to our tropical fish store that wants to get On-Line or maybe already is.

Their address might be http://www.connect.net/~tropicfish

A better URL for this site would be: http://www.tropical_fish.com

In this way, the user seeing this URL is more likely to remember it when browsing the web or telling his friends, than if it were the previous address.

But don't run out and register your domain name just yet. For one thing, there are not too many unique ones left to be had. And second, you may not ever need it.

Too many people are sold into registering a domain name when it is really not necessary. For one thing, the bill from Internic is $100 up front for two years registration, and then $50 per year after that. And your provider may have higher setup and monthly fees as well.

The plain fact is that over 99.7% of people searching the web for sites such as tropical fish are not going to type in http://www.tropical_fish.com

It is true, that some people searching for larger companies such as FORD or GM for the first time will type in www.gm.com to get to what they think will be General Motors site. And, it will be easy to remember if they have just seen it on a television commercial. But for the smaller businesses in America, it is not necessary to have a unique URL. So far, all of the promotion we've done has never made the user type in your address. All references to your site were linked, such as the results of a keyword search showing the title and description of your site, to the billboard ad.

If you have the money, it is nice. If you don't have the money, then don't feel like your page will be second class. You can still effectively market your site, no matter where it is located.


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