2012/08/22

Choosing a website name - what's different in small towns? - Small Biz Survival

Choosing a website name - what's different in small towns?

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 04:33 AM PDT

Choosing a website name or URL for a small business is important, and most of the advice out there is written for big city businesses. For small towns, there are two basic tactics.

If you have lots of local competition
Big city businesses often compete over domain names that include the city and the product, like ChicagoPizza.com. If you have more than a few competitors in your small town, it can make sense. One local real estate agent went with AlvaHouses.com, rather than their business name because we have half a dozen agents online.

If you don't have much local competition
For my liquor store, I have only one local competitor, and they don't have a website at all. I stuck with my business name for my domain. I don't have any problem ranking for a search on "liquor store Alva." In fact, I rank well for a search on "liquor store Oklahoma," which I'm sure, irritates the heck out of the big city, big budget stores all across the state. (And yes, I just linked to my store with that. It doesn't hurt to give our ranking a little boost.)

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