Natural Search &
Online Tourism Consultant

No they don’t have to have the www in there although it depends on how you display the URL to the end user. If you want the user to eventually end up at the www. version of the address then by not having it in there you’re just making Google have to do a redirect when it follows the link. You don’t want to end up with duplicate content, for example
http://www.mysite.co.uk, http://mysite.co.uk, http://mysite.co.uk/index.php and http://www.mysite.co.uk/index.php are the same URL.

This can be addressed with a Canonical redirect in your .htaccess file in the root of your domain. For best results, each page of a website should be reachable at a single persistent url. This address is known as the page’s canonical URL (Canonical refers to being the authoritative address).

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mysite.co.uk [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]
rewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.mysite.co.uk/$1 [R=301]

I have been receiving a lot of traffic recently related to people asking about free 301 redirects for their related domain names in their 123-Reg account. The redirect which 123-Reg actually implements is in fact a 302. The only way to implement a 301 on a domain name is to change the name servers to point at someone who does support 301 redirects, however, there will be a cost associated with this. If you have a Plesk Control panel you could set up an account and configure the .htaccess to conduct the redirect but this will result in a waste of account space for such a trivial task. Depending on the importance of the domain name will generally decide upon the best strategy.

Although documented in the press with large corporations, the domain highjacking issue is not of top priority when it comes to small to medium size online enterprises when it really should be. Recently I’ve been involved with closing ranks on many outstanding domain names that have either lapsed and been registered by third parties or never registered at all and the problem is a big one! Although not tried and tested yet Nominet offer a dispute resolution service where you can aim to retake control of what in your opinion is an abusive registration. In my opinion the service is priced wrongly and plays into the hands of the current registrant who will usually ask for a figure just below the DRS fee of £750 which for a domain name that cost at most £18, is not a bad return on investment and for large organisations is a quick resolution to their problem. I’ve seen situations where the domain was only 2 months old and the company paid out £500 for it’s return, although they would have had no problems in taking the domain through the DRS due to the nature in which the domain was being used and having sole trade mark, it was a critical part of their branding…the first question I asked myself was why had the .com been registered and not the .co.uk!

For any online or offline UK company it’s imperative to get both domain extensions (if you’re UK focussed I’d always 301 redirect the .co.uk to the .com it’s amazing how many companes run a duplicate site on both…this will be seen as duplicate content and will effect your natural search performance.)

1.Until domain syntax is learnt by an entire generation there will always been a 50/50 split about what is entered into the address bar.

2. Search engines will give preferential treatment to a .co.uk with a UK IP in their country specific listings.

3. If your brand is a generic one then you don’t want anyone else being able to register a powerful top level domain which could impede your brand marketing.

There are many tools out there which can help you to manage your domain names and most are free if you register your domain with your host, goDaddy and 123-Reg are two I’d recommend although 123-Reg do regularly have performance issues (so why I stay with them is a mystery) however their domain management tool is one of the easiest I have seen. If you’re on an enterprise scale then your going to need to put someone in charge or monitoring your domains unless you get a third party in like netNames or similar, however cost is going to be 3-4 times more than doing it yourself. The main concern I hear is what if it lapses…123-Reg will regularly remind you 60,30,15,3,2, and 1 day before expiry and will renew automatically unless you choose not too. I’d set the email address for the accounts to domains@mycompany.com and on the outlook exchange server have it forwarding to at least 3 chosen parties. If you choose to go for a third party to manage your domains they will usually guarantee you won’t loose a domain name but will charge you accordingly; around £5000/year for a mixture of 150 .com and .co.uk so it’s not cheap but what would be the cost if you lost one?

Domain strategy and management like reputation management is crucial in any organisation for brand longevity.

From the 29th June Nominet will be changing its DRS Policy and the way that complainants can initiate action. There will be a summary decision from a domain expert at a cost of £200 + VAT. The expert will not be required to write a full decision with reasoning in these cases, but only to certify that Rights and Abusive Registration have been made out by the Complainant.

The new Policy and Procedure are both available together with a summary of the principal changes .

As of today Nominet have introduced online transfers so all the registrant of a domain needs to do is to access their online services and they can transfer the domain name to you/the buyer directly.

The old system relied on the completion of transfer forms and copies of suitable identification. The new system is based entirely online and can generally be completed in a matter of minutes.

Registrant transfer will be available in the online services account associated with the domain name. Where multiple domain names have been merged into a single account, you can choose options to allow individual or bulk transfers.

This will save a huge ammount of time in the business of domain transfer. Well done Nominet!

Having read the Lyndon Antcliff creation about the two US kids who hired the hookers on Money.co.uk it confirmed for me the power of the generic domain name and the benefits that come with it. There’s little debate that your choice of domain name doesn’t play some part in your hunt for good SERP listings for your chosen keywords…but that’s not what confirmed it for me; it was the speed and uptake of the story by some of the major news corporations around the world and I think a big factor in their running of the story was their belief in the domain name.

Here is an Alexa report for the traffic spike as a result of his story:

Owning a few generic domains in the online tourism sector, I’m always looking for domains that I know visitors will have confidence in, city names are a firm favourite of mine; the instant connection you get with visitors is priceless, provide a good service to your city and you’ll often become the first port of call for other services whether hotel web design or SEO services.

I remember cold calling a potential client back in 2004 to try and sell them a hotel subscription and she said “Why would someone choose Mumbles.co.uk over my own web site. I said “There’s possibly a trust issue…” that was my first and last mistake. She responded by saying she had been in business for 30 years and how dare i make such a statement. What I actually wanted to say was that being a city guide we are often preferred to over individual accommodation websites as the user thinks we offer an impartial service on their accommodation decision.

The benefits

• Instant brand awareness
• Better click through rates (CTR) in the SERPS for competitive terms
• Customer retention
• More effective PPC campaigns if required (Getting the search term in the display URL if you’re fortunate to have it, it will increase CTR and improve quality score thus lowering costs in the short and long term)

The downsides

• They’re notoriously expensive but that cost might be offset by your savings in marketing costs and customer loyalty down the line.
• Domain owners often become personally attached even if they’re not doing anything with name. It’s like their sending off their pet dog to a new home and want it to be loved, which at the price you’re paying your new dog will be in bed with the other half and you’ll be the one in the kennel.
• They are few and far between. On any given keyword/phrase there are 2/3 domain names which have what it takes.

If you’re looking for a “brand out of the box solution” and you’re confident in your copy maybe the generic domain is for you…but it’ll cost you in the short term.