When an Internet user types a domain name into a website browser a request is sent out to the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) asking where it can find that website. The ISP checks with the relevant master domain name server for the country then the server points the user to the location of the website.

Now to speed these domain name queries up, whenever the local ISP makes a query on a domain name it will store the result for a period of time so that it doesn’t have to ask again. This is a process called caching. Every now and then the ISP will update their stored cache with the information stored on the master domain name server. This period of time can range between a few minutes and 48 hours.

Whenever you want to update the information that is stored about your domain name on the master domain name server, because of caching, it can take up to 48 hours for every ISP around the world to update their records. This is a process called ‘propagation’.

Own your domain name

Every serious business website needs at least one domain name. The choice of what domain name(s) you purchase is absolutely crucial. Do not use the ‘free’ domain names that are offered by some websites. These free domain names usually come in the form of www.someothername.com/your_name. It is unprofessional and less enticing for users to follow a free domain name made up of unrelated words, in a line-up of search engine results.

Choosing a Domain Name

If your target market or your future target market is an international one, a domain name ending in ‘.com’ should be your first choice.

Unfortunately, a ‘.com’ domain name is difficult to find these days. There are now over 24 million ‘.com’ names registered so the chances of finding the name you want will be difficult.

Other international alternatives to a domain ending in ‘.com’ is a domain name ending in ‘.net’ or ‘.biz’. These domain names are not as good as a domain name ending in ‘.com’ but can be used successfully with careful marketing and branding.
 

If your target market is local or predominately local then a domain name ending in ‘.co.nz’ should be your first choice. If your audience know you as a New Zealand company they will expect you to have a ‘.co.nz’ domain.

If your target market is a combination of both international and New Zealand users you should consider using both.

Registering Multiple Domain Names

You may have multiple domain names and ‘point’ them all to your website, so users can access your website with any of the chosen names.

For many companies it is a good idea to register other secondary top level domain names such as ‘.net’ or ‘.org’ to protect your business brand. Very few people will use these domain names to access your website, but by registering them you prevent other businesses taking them and stealing website visitors or damaging your brand by displaying obscenities at their addresses.

If your domain name combines two separate words, make sure you register versions with and without hyphens. Search engines prefer domain names with hyphens and users prefer them without. If it is easy to misspell the domain name – consider registering the misspelt version of the domain name.

It is also a good idea to register the domain name of individual products, especially if these are well known brands and people have heard of them and are searching for them. This will also protect your product names.

Brainstorming ideas
Your domain name should reflect your business name and if possible portray who you are and what you do. Try to obtain a domain name that is:

• Catchy
• Easy to spell
• Easy to remember
• Easy to pronounce
• Easy to type.

Look to reflect your business name in your domain name. Zeald is our domain name and our company name. When we tell people we work for a company called Zeald, it instantly tells them that our company has something to do with the Internet and that we have a website.

Some great domain names include key words that your audience are searching for. Search engines will often credit words in the domain name as part of their ranking process. So if your domain name includes popular keywords that your target audience are searching for, your website will have that added advantage.

If you are just starting a new business, try to research popular keywords and see what domains you can register before you brand your new business.

Keep in mind that cute or non-traditional spellings may elude potential visitors.

Choosing a Domain Name for an Existing Business

For an already established business making its first step online, you may find that your original business name does not suit the web. It may be too long or too generic. It may not reflect the product or service. It may be impossible to find the appropriate domain name.

In this situation, we suggest you register the original business name so you don’t lose that traffic, but also register a name made up of popular keywords that would attract more targeted traffic, perhaps a name that focuses on the product or service as opposed to the company. You can use this keyword-rich domain name as your main address and redirect the traffic from your original ‘company name’ domain name to the same address.

If the business is completely changing to an online focus, or your brand is not well established, you may want to consider changing the business name altogether.

Don’t feel restricted by an existing business name in order to purchase a good domain. Even what may seem like a perfect keyword domain name, is not a guarantee.

Tools for Brainstorming Domain Names

• ‘Who_is Source’ (www.whois.sc)
  This is a great tool for finding available domains and brainstorming different ideas for domain names.
•  
•  
• Word Tracker (www.wordtracker.com)
  Word Tracker has a free trial version of their service, which shows you detailed information about what keywords people are searching on and how many websites are competing for rankings on those keywords.
•  
•  
• Overture’s Term Suggestion Tool (www.overture.com)
  Overture is similar to Word Tracker and has a free version of their tool that will show you information about the keywords people are searching for on Overture.

Finding out Who Owns a Particular Domain Name

Free Parking (www.freeparking.co.nz) allows you to quickly find out who owns a specific domain name you may be interested in. Since many domain names are registered but never used, this is a great tool to track down the contact details of the owner, allowing you to make an offer to purchase it.

Infringing Trademarks

Because ‘online business’ means doing business internationally, you should make sure the domain name you choose does not infringe on any existing trademarks. Domain name disputes tend to go to the trademark holder, so even if you have the domain name you could have it taken away.

Consider establishing a trademark on your name - during this process you will discover any possible infringements. For information on establishing a New Zealand trademark go to http://www.iponz.govt.nz. You can also do a free search of US trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark office’s website at www.uspto.gov.

How to Register your Domain Names

If you would like to register a domain name contact Zeald on 0508 WEBSITE or email us info@zeald.com and we will make all the necessary arrangements for you.

Keep in mind that when you purchase your domain name, you are essentially reserving the name for your own usage, for a set period of time. You are not required to put up a website on the new domain name immediately. You also don’t need to have your website hosted by the same company that registers or hosts your domain name.

Finally make sure you keep your contact information up-to-date, as you do not want to miss being notified when your domain name is about to expire, thus letting your competition scoop it up, along with all your hard-earned website traffic.

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“Is Your Website Producing Amazing RESULTS?”

If you answer anything less than a resounding yes, then you need to learn about Zeald and the ‘Websites that Work!” program. Because results that are anything less than ‘amazing’ means you are selling yourself short!

We are often asked if including target search terms in the domain name or website address will help to improve a websites search engine ranking.
It is hard to say for sure as the search engines don't like to give away their secrets for their ranking methods, and also these methods change on a regular basis - so something that may work today might not work tomorrow. But many experts believe that using search terms in the domain name will help to give a website a leg-up in the search engine results for those search terms.

The theory behind this technique

In theory it seems unlikely that the search engines would place any emphasis on search terms used in the domain name. When you think about it, by doing this the search engines open up the domain name for abuse by website owners.

However there are other reasons why incorporating search terms in the domain name might help to give a website a boost in the search results:

1. Often when other people link to a website they will simply use the address of the website. For example if I wanted to link to the website of Ron Giles, one of our e-business consultants, I might say: to find out more about Ron Giles visit his website http://www.website-consultant.co.nz/. This is a backlink to his website which incorporates the search terms of his domain name "Website Consultant." The search engines of course give points for inbound links, and they use the "anchor text" or the text used in the link to help them calculate the subject of the website. 
2. By using target search terms in your domain name you might be able to fool Google into thinking that the search terms are actually the name of your company. So when a user searches for the phrase "Website consultant" Google doesnt know if you are searching for a company called "website consultant or simply website consultant in general. If you can convince Google into thinking that the name of your company is your domain name, you will improve your chances of obtaining a top rank ofr those search terms, espicially for a local search.

It does seem likely that using search terms in your domain name will give your website a slight boost in the search engine ranking process. However you will need to consider if it would be worth the hassle of changing your current domain name and risking a drop in your current ranking for a period as Google recalculates your rank.
By all means it is definitely worth considering if you have a new website that is not live yet.

Which search terms?

If you choose to incorporate target search terms in your domain name to help with your search rank, you will need to decide on what search terms to use.

Consider your Branding

This is the hard bit. Firstly you need to decide if you should target your brand  name, or theme or both. If a primary objective of your website is to build a prominent brand for your business then you should target your business name or as close to it as you can. Make it short, snappy and memorable.

However, if your brand name is something quite unique, for example "Zeald" and you know that there is very few if any other examples of the term used online, then most likely you will achieve a number one rank without even trying. In which case, you could try targeting a theme, instead of or as well as.

Consider a theme

If you decide to target a theme as opposed to your brand, or as well as your brand, you will need to find and decide on a search phrase that:

1. Makes sense
2. is short and snappy 2-3 words max
3. is most relevant to your business
4. produces a high volume of searches
5. produces a high volume of sales or leads
6. produces good revenue for your business
7. you have chance of competing in the search results

This is the tricky bit. How do you work out what these two or three words are? The answer is keyword research.

Keyword Research

There a numerous tools out there that will help you to determine the search volume. Try Google Adwords keyword tool which allows you to segment the searches by geographic region. When you have a shortlist, use Google Insights to compare your top phrases and check that your phrase is trending upwards in popularity. Check the competition to ensure that you stand a chance to obtain a top rank for those search terms.
Calculate the relevancy. This is the really difficult bit. Some how you need to get inside the head of your target user and understand what they are thinking and "guess" what they are searching for when they enter those search terms into Google. This is referred to as the "commercial intent."

Make it local

If your primary target market is from a specific geographic region, then focus on this with your search terms and also your domain name suffix. If your target market is from Christchurch New Zealand, then make sure your domain name is a .co.nz and consider using Christchurch in your target search terms.

Make it short

In most cases many of the obvious short names will have been taken already, so you will need to be creative with your choice of search terms to ensure your domain name remains short. For example you want to avoid a domain name that reads "www.auckland-and-christchurch-ecommerce-website-consultant.co.nz" This does not look professional and appears obviously "spammy"

Use hyphens to separate each keyword

Because you are not able to use spaces in your domain name, you should use hyphens (-) to let the search engines and users know where one word stops and another word starts.

Consider using both theme words and your company name

If you can include you business name with theme words you capture the best of both worlds. This technique can also be a way to make the domain name unique. For example: www.Ron-Giles-Websites.co.nz

Use other domain names to point at your website

Once you have decided on your keyword rich domain name you will need to set it up to be the "primary" domain name for your website. Google will only list and rank a website by one domain name. You can have other domain names for your website and point them to it, but Google will only use one to rank and list your website with. You can use Google Webmaster Tools to do this or ask your website developer. If you already have an existing domain name that already has a presence with Google you need to make sure that you tell Google that you are changing your domain name. You can do this through webmaster tools.

With the keyword rich domain name setup as your primary search engine link, you should also think about links that are easy for your customers to understand and remember. For example Ron Giles might use www.auckland-ebusiness-consultant.co.nz for his primary domain name, however this is very generic and quite a mouthful for his users to remember. So he might also secure and point a simple domain name such as www.ron-giles.co.nz

Dont sweat it

With any marketing initiative you need to weigh up the return on your investment. You need to consider the amount of time and effort you spend on it and the results you might obtain from it.
The additional boost a keyword rich domain name will give your website might be subtle. If you struggle to find a good keyword rich domain name or you are uncertain about the choice of keywords, don't sweat it. Also think about the long term benefit of building brand recognition for your business.
Could that time be better spent elsewhere?

The following short tutorial video demonstrates setting up a new email account in Outlook 2003

Text instructions

If you cannot view the above video or would prefer a textual description, here are the steps involved in setting up a new email in Outlook

Setting Up Your Email Account

1. Open Microsoft Outlook. Click on the 'Tools' menu button, and select 'Email Accounts'.
2. Select 'Add a new e-mail account' and click 'Next'.
3. Select the 'POP3' server type and click 'Next'.
4. Fill in your name, email address, incoming mail server and outgoing mail server.

   The email address should have been given to you by Zeald
   The incoming mail server is 'pop3.zeald.com'.
   The outgoing mail server will be your ISP's mail server and will start
   with 'smtp'. For example, if your ISP is Xtra, your outgoing mail server
   will be 'smtp.xtra.co.nz'. If your ISP is Maxnet, your outgoing mail
   server will be 'smtp.maxnet.co.nz'.

5. Next,fill in the username and password. These are provided above.
6. Click the 'Next' button, and then the 'Finish' button.
7. Repeat for the remaining accounts.

Troubleshooting

I get an error on send/receive

First, check that the error is in your zeald account. In the tutorial above we have specifically not removed your old email account, since when transferring an account you may still receive email at your old address for a few days. However when you cancel your account with that other host this address will stop working. To fix this problem try removing that old address

When you need to setup your email accounts, Zeald will provide you with information about the details you need to enter into your mail client to setup the account.

Here we have detailed instructions on how to setup Zeald-hosted email addresses in a variety of mail clients.

General information

When you setup a mail account your email client will generally ask you for the following information

Your name, your email address

These appear in the "from" address of emails you send using this account

Username and password

Zeald will have provided you with an email and password.  If you do not have this information you can obtain it from the Support Team.

Incoming (pop3) mail server

Type: pop3
server: pop3.zeald.com
Ensure secure password authentication/ssl etc is turned off

Outgoing (SMTP) mail server

Your ISP will have provided you with the details of the SMTP server you should use.  Zeald cannot provide you with an SMTP server because many ISPs block access to external SMTP servers as a measure to control spam. 

If you dont know what SMTP server details to use you should contact your ISP's helpdesk, however you may find it in the following list
 

ISP	SMTP Server
Xtra	send.xtra.co.nz
Orcon	mail.orcon.net.nz
IHUG	smtp.ihug.co.nz
Slingshot	smtp.slingshot.co.nz

How to setup your email

We provide specific information to setup various email clients.  If your email client is not in this list refer to help provided with your mail client for further information on how to setup your mail account from the information above.

• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Microsoft Outlook

Note that a registration fee of $50 applies for registering a domain.

To register a domain Zeald require the following information (note that we may have some of this information already, however to avoid delays you should provide this information with your registration request)

Contact information

• The domain name you want to register
• Organisation Name
• First Name
• Last Name
• Email Address
• Address 1
• Address 2
• City
• Country
• Phone
• Fax

Email

What email addresses do you want set up on this domain? You can have up to five for free with the domain, however additional addresses attract a $2.50/month hosting charge.

For each address you can:

• Store the mail in a mailbox on the server or
• Forward the mail to another email address

You can also set up a "catch-all" address - this means that mail sent to "anything"@yourdomain.com will be sent to this account. Note that an account like this will tend to receive a lot of spam and virus emails, so unless you expect people to be emailing your domain on a lot of random email addresses we don't recommend you set up a catch-all account

Registering your domain

When you are ready to register your domain, please fill out this form

Domain Registration Request Form

If you would rather keep your domain name hosted with an external provider, you can point your domain name at Zeald's webservers while keeping control of the domain, email etc with the other provider.

To do this you will need to either use the web interface provided by your other host, or otherwise instruct that host to make the following changes

1. We will need to update your website's settings to accept this new domain name (until this is done the domain will be redirected to a page that says "Domain not found") - to do this contact the Zeald support team. The website can be updated to accept the domain before you make the following changes to ensure the switchover happens smoothly
2. Point the domain at the following IP address 60.234.65.226
3. Setup the www subdomain to point to zes.zeald.com (if you need to enter an IP address use 60.234.65.226)

It may take up to 48 hours for these changes to take effect.

In order for your website to be accessible on the internet it requires a "Domain Name". This is the name that users type into thier web browser to find your website - eg nzherald.co.nz or google.co.nz.

While your website is being loaded it will run on a temporary domain (usually ending in ".zes.zeald.com"). When you go live you will want to point a real domain name at your website
The information required for Zeald to be able to transfer a domain depends on what type of domain it is.

DNS Caching and delays in domain transfers

Note that in general when transferring a domain name it can take 48 hours or more for the transfer to fully take effect. During this time some people will see your old website, and some your new website. Similarly mail will still be delivered to both your old email accounts and your new ones (the actual time for this transition depends on the settings used by whoever is currently hosting the domain)

This is because the DNS system uses a caching system - when someone's ISP asks the domain server "where is mywebsite.com?" the DNS server responds "It is at 60.231.11.12, and this response is valid for 48 hours". The ISP will then not look the domain up again for another 48 hours - if during this time information about the domain changes customers of that ISP will not see those changes until that time expires. This helps to make the internet a great deal faster since ISPs only need to lookup domains once every 48 hours rather than every time you make a request.

The actual caching time (the "TTL" - time to live) of the domain name is set by whoever is currently hosting the domain. It is typically 24 or 48 hours, although can be as long or short as the domain name host wants. You may be able to contact them in advance and ask them to reduce this number.

.nz domains

Domain names ending in .nz are managed by the New Zealand registrar. In order to transfer a .nz domain name we require the following information

1. A UDAI number. A UDAI is a special key for the domain name that allows a hosting company like Zeald to make changes to a domain name on your behalf : it is a random sequence of numbers and letters, eg "JdwhRDRp". You can request a UDAI from your current hosting provider. Note that if you have an old UDAI that has already been used it may not still be valid!
2. What email addresses do you want set up for this domain? If you have your own email server you will need to contact us so we can ensure it keeps working after the transfer. You can have up to five free email addresses with your Zeald hosting (additional addresses will attract a charge). For each email address you can specify one of the following options
   1. Create a seperate mailbox for this account (with a username/password) (this is the default)
   2. Forward this email to another email address
   3. Or forward this email to multiple other addresses
3. (advanced) If you have other subdomains setup on this domain, tell us so we can set them up on the new domain (if in doubt, you probably don't have any subdomains)

.com, .org, .net and other domains

When transferring a .com, .net or .org domain, the process differs for different providers. If in doubt or you have any problems please contact your provider's customer support for help with using their systems:

In order to set up a .com .net or .org domain, the typical approach is:

1. Provide us with an EPP Code (also referred to as an Auth Code or an Authorization Code) so we can initiate the transfer. The Authorization Code must be requested from your current domain host.
2. Ensure the domain is unlocked, and ensure the registrant email address for the domain is set to an address which you check as the authorization transfer request will be sent there.
3. When you have given us the Auth code we will initiate the transfer and you will receive an authorization transfer request email (addressed to the registrant of the domain)
4. When you receive the email read it carefully and follow the 'Accept transfer' link. The transfer should then complete between 3 and 7 days.

Transferring your domain

When you are ready to transfer your domain, please visit the Zeald Domain & Email Manager.

The attachments I send to Windows users can't be read

To make files you attach to all outgoing messages "Windows-friendly," choose Edit > Attachments > Always Send Windows Friendly Attachments. To attach a Windows-friendly file to a single message, click Send Windows Friendly Attachments in the Attach dialog for that message. If you send attachments to Mac users with the "Windows-friendly" option selected, your attachment may be unusable or may be missing information (such as the preview icon for the file). Use filename extensions, such as .doc, in the names of files you send to Windows recipients. This way the files can be read by a Windows application.

Note: Certain links that this article refers to may not be available in this context; please consult the relevant product Help guide page on your computer for full access to these links.

Original source

Ensure that PDF files are created using distiller

All PDF files should be created using Distiller as opposed to the export function of the graphic edit software. Often a PC will not be able to read the PDF file created on a MAC that has been created without Distiller

This Article outlines how to setup and edit an HTML email template for Microsoft Outlook 2003

Setup a New HTML email template

Create the HTML page

First you will need to create the HTML Page to use as your email template. To do this you will require a HTML edit software such as Adobe Dreamweaver
or contact a Zeald consultant to enquire about Zeald's One to one Email template design services.

If you have chosen to employ Zeald's services to create the HTML template for you, you will be emailed a zip file containing all of the required HTML files including an HTML file and all of the images used in the design.

• Setting up your HTML email in Microsoft Outlook 2003
• Setting up your HTML email in Microsoft Outlook 2007
• Setting up your HTML email in Outlook Express

 

Microsoft Outlook 2003

 
Save the HTML files to the stationery folder

1. Save the HTML template zip file provided to you by Zeald to your desktop or other location on your hard drive. Unzip file to this position.
2. Navigate to the Stationery folder of your email application. For Microsoft Outlook you will find this at the following location.
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery
3. Copy and paste all of the files from the HTML template zip that you recently unzipped to this stationery folder. You have now installed the new template.

Set the new HTML template as your default stationery and change your email edit settings

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and open the Options window by selecting Options from under the Tools drop down menu.
2. Under the Mail Format Tab Select HTML option for the Compose in this format drop down select
3. Ensure that Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages is not checked
4. Check the Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to read Rich Text email messages option.
5. From the Use this stationery by default select drop down, select the HTML file that you have recently copied to this stationery folder.
6. Select OK. You have now completed the setup. You may now create a new message and you will note that the message will use the new stationery

Edit your HTML email template (for Outlook)

1. Open the Options Window and select the Mail Format tab
2. Select the Stationery Picker button
3. From the Stationery Picker Window select the Stationery file that you wish to edit and select the edit button
4. Use the Preview Window at the bottom of the Edit Stationery window to edit the text of your email template.
5. When you are finished making the changes. Select OK to save the changes.

Please note: If you require changes to content within an image in the template or changes to the design, you will need to edit the HTML source code or contact the Zeald support team for a quote to make these changes for you.

 

Outlook Express

The process is similar to the one above, the stationary settings are found under the Options on the Tools menu.

Microsoft Outlook 2007

 
Save the HTML files to the stationery folder

1. Save the HTML template zip file provided to you by Zeald to your desktop or other location on your hard drive. Unzip file to this position.
2. Navigate to the Stationery folder of your email application. For Microsoft Outlook you will find this at the following location.
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery
3. Copy and paste all of the files from the HTML template zip that you recently unzipped to this stationery folder. You have now installed the new template.

Set the new HTML template as your default stationery and change your email edit settings

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and open the Options window by selecting Options from under the Tools drop down menu.
2. Select the Mail Format Tab
   
3. Select HTML option for the Compose in this format drop down
4. Check the "Reduce the file size of the message by removing formatting information that is not necessary to display the e-mail message"
5. Check "Rely on CSS for font formatting"
6. Then click on the Stationery and Fonts button which will give you a pop up box
   
   
7.  Select the Personal Stationery tab
8. Click on the Theme button in the top left corner - this will display another pop up box.
   
   
9. This pop up will give you a list down the left hand side of themes you can use . The template you have just added will probably show up at the bottom of the list. Select the correct template and then click the "OK" button
10. Then click the "OK" button on the Signatures and Stationery pop up screen
11. and finally click on the "OK" button on the Options pop up screen.
12. You can now test your template by composing an email.

If you would like to register a web site domain name, please contact the Support Team and they will make all the necessary arrangements for you.

If you would prefer to register your web site domain names yourself, we recommend you use a domain name registrar called iServe (www.iserve.co.nz). Registering a domain name will generally cost between $40 and $50 per year.

Keep in mind that when you purchase your domain name, you are essentially reserving the name for your own usage, for a set period of time. You are not required to put up a web site on the new domain name immediately. You also don’t need to have your web site hosted by the same company that registers or hosts your domain name.

Finally make sure you keep your contact information up-to-date, as you do not want to miss being notified when your domain name is about to expire, thus letting your competition scoop it up, along with all your hard-earned web site traffic.

Free Parking (www.freeparking.co.nz) allows you to quickly find out who owns a specific domain name you may be interested in. Since many web site domain names are registered but never used, this is a great tool to track down the contact details of the owner, allowing you to make an offer to purchase it.

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Infringing trademarks

Because ‘online business’ means doing business internationally, you should make sure the domain name you choose does not infringe on any existing trademarks. Domain name disputes tend to go to the trademark holder, so even if you have the web site domain name you could have it taken away.

Consider establishing a trademark on your name - during this process you will discover any possible infringements. For information on establishing a New Zealand trademark go to http://www.iponz.govt.nz. You can also do a free search of US trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark office’s website at www.uspto.gov.

For an already established business making its first step online, you may find that your original business name does not suit the web. It may be too long or too generic. It may not reflect the product or service. It may be impossible to find the appropriate domain name.

In this situation, we suggest you register the original business name so you don’t lose that traffic, but also register a name made up of popular keywords that would attract more targeted traffic, perhaps a name that focuses on the product or service as opposed to the company. You can use this keyword-rich domain name as your main address and redirect the traffic from your original ‘company name’ domain name to the same address.

If the business is completely changing to an online focus, or your brand is not well established, you may want to consider changing the business name altogether.

Don’t feel restricted by an existing business name in order to purchase a good domain. Even what may seem like a perfect keyword domain name, is not a guarantee for your web page design.

 

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Tools for Brainstorming Domain Names

 

• ‘Who_is Source’ (www.whois.sc)

This is a great tool for finding available domains and brainstorming different ideas for domain names.

 

• Word Tracker (www.wordtracker.com)

Word Tracker has a free trial version of their service, which shows you detailed information about what keywords people are searching on and how many web sites are competing for rankings on those keywords.

 

• Overture’s Term Suggestion Tool (www.overture.com)

Overture is similar to Word Tracker and has a free version of their tool that will show you information about the keywords people are searching for on Overture.

The domain name of your web site design should reflect your business name and if possible portray who you are and what you do. Try to obtain a domain name that is:

• Catchy

• Easy to spell

• Easy to remember

• Easy to pronounce

• Easy to type.

Look to reflect your business name in your domain name. Zeald is our domain name and our company name. When we tell people we work for a company called Zeald, it instantly tells them that our company has something to do with the Internet and that we have a web site.

Some great domain names include key words that your audience are searching for. Search engines will often credit words in the domain name as part of their ranking process. So if your domain name includes popular keywords that your target audience are searching for, your web site design will have that added advantage.

If you are just starting a new business, try to research popular keywords and see what domains you can register before you brand your new business.

Keep in mind that cute or non-traditional spellings may elude potential visitors.

You may have multiple domain names and ‘point’ them all to your web site, so users can access your web site with any of the chosen names.

For many companies it is a good idea to register other secondary top level domain names such as ‘.net’ or ‘.org’ to protect your business brand. Very few people will use these domain names to access your website, but by registering them you prevent other businesses taking them to steal web site visitors or damaging your brand by displaying obscenities at their addresses.

If your domain name combines two separate words, make sure you register versions with and without hyphens. Search engines prefer domain names with hyphens and users prefer them without. If it is easy to misspell the domain name – consider registering the misspelt version of the domain name.

It is also a good idea to register the domain name of individual products, especially if these are well known brands and people have heard of them and are searching for them. This will also protect your product names.

If your target market or your future target market is an international one, a domain name ending in ‘.com’ should be your first choice.

Unfortunately, a ‘.com’ domain name is difficult to find these days. There are now over 24 million ‘.com’ names registered so the chances of finding the name you want will be difficult.

Other international alternatives to a domain ending in ‘.com’ is a domain name ending in ‘.net’ or ‘.biz’. These domain names are not as good as a domain name ending in ‘.com’ but can be used successfully with careful marketing and branding.

If your target market is local or predominately local then a domain name ending in ‘.co.nz’ should be your first choice. If your target audience know you as a New Zealand company they will expect you to have a ‘.co.nz’ domain.

If your target market is a combination of both international and New Zealand users you should consider using both.