Do Longer Term Domain Registrations Help with Search Engine Visibility?

Recently my friend Josh Hurley sent me the following screen capture. He asked "have you seen this -- it is part of the up-sell strategy when renewing with Network Solutions:"

In case you can't read that:

Did you know? Registering a domain name for a longer term not only saves you money, but helps to increase your search engine ranking. Consider a 5-year term!

Why it works: Search engines perceive domain names registered for 5 years or longer to be more legitimate than domain names registered for a shorter term, and therefore rank them more highly.

I was intrigued; on one level it makes sense. On another level, lots of good-sounding, completely-untrue SEO info gets passed around as gospel because people don't look at it critically.

So, I headed off to the forums at HighRankings and found this recent thread on the length of domain registration as it applies to search engine visibility.

Short answer: only Google (and Yahoo, etc.) know for sure, but it appears to have little to no effect on ranking from the little anecdotal evidence collected. If Google ever did put a lot of weight on that particular algorithm it seems insanely easy to abuse and is like to be the target of scam artists.

Just goes to show you that you can't necessarily trust businesses to provide accurate information when the outcome may benefit or hurt them financially. Nope, the only sure way to increase your search engine visibility is a business blog. Guaranteed.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Designer

A Web Marketing Tool with Great ROI

Today's issue of flyte log is entitled A Web Marketing Tool with Great ROI. It looks at a tool that I talked about a while back in this blog called Siphs.

Siphs allows your site visitors to easily share your content with friends via email or post it to popular social media sites such as Digg, Facebook or Twitter. It also provides reports on how people are sharing your content: which pages, how often, and using what methods.

If you'd like to extend the reach of your Web site or blog, check out Siphs. If you'd like to get flyte log delivered monthly into your email box and get great subscriber-only material like 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Web Site and The 11 Commandments of Writing Web Copy for the Non-Copywriter, sign up now!

Rich Brooks
Share and Share Alike

How to Respond When the Prospect Chooses Another Vendor

First off, let's give props to any prospect who takes the time to tell you that they have chosen someone else. (And double-props to anyone who gives you feedback on why they didn't choose you.)

Flyte's not the least expensive game in town (nor the most expensive), and often it just comes down to upfront dollars for a client. You may be in the same boat.

Many times a prospect has told us that they'd really like to work with us but it's just not in the budget so they're either going to stick with what they have or go with someone less expensive. Sometimes that message is delivered over the phone, sometimes in an email.

If this happens to you, respond immediately. If they left a voice message, call them back. If they sent you an email, hit reply. If you're on the phone with them, don't hang up.

Thank them for their time. Complement them on their choice. (No way you're ever going to recover this prospect if you insult their decision-making capabilities, no matter how boneheaded you think they're being.) If possible, offer them something free (advice, handouts, etc.) that might make their project turnout better.

Most important, leave the door open to future collaboration/work.

I often ask them to please keep us in mind if things don't work out with their first choice, or if they want some help with search engine optimization or Web marketing once the site has launched. I can't tell you the number of times we've ended up doing something with the prospect down the road with this approach.

Other times the prospect leaves with such a positive perception, that they recommend us to associates who end up doing business with us. More than once, a client tells me that so-and-so recommended them, but the name doesn't ring a bell. When I check my database I see that so-and-so didn't do business with us three years ago.

Wow. I guess we made quite an impression.

Rich Brooks
Rejected

Oh, The Things You Can Learn from TV

Earlier this week I put on the "tech expert" hat again for 207, Maine's evening news program. The topic was online coupons and where to find them. Perhaps a timely topic for the recession. (Oops! I said the "r" word again.)

I don't usually have anything to "plug", but the folks over at channel 6 were good enough to ask me about the upcoming sustainable business conference we're holding on May 16, 2008. There's still time to register!
 

You can watch the video here.

Rich Brooks
Coupon Cutter

What Do The Brits Think of Facebook?

Apparently not much, judging by this BBC expose and this video by British sketch troupe Idiots of Ants.

BTW, thanks to Andy for the BBC link.

Rich Brooks
Benny Hill was never this clever....