Recently, Brad and I were honored to be guest on a webinar hosted by our good friend and real estate trainer and social media expert Amy Chorew with The Tech Byte. The next day I received an email question from one of the participants asking a series of questions about selecting domain names for their real estate website. These questions are pretty typical of the questions we are asked from time to time and I thought, why not use the Dakno Real Estate Blog to provide some answers.

This Atlanta-based real estate agent writes; I am just beginning to build my web presence. I own several domain names and I wanted your opinion on which one to build off of. My company website is “MyName.net”. I just bought “MyNameRealEstate.com” because there is another person with my name who is a photographer. Plus, there is an attorney and I wanted people to associate my work with my name. Should I use MyNameRealEstate.com to be the hub you discussed yesterday? I like the catchy names of the other agents…Living on the Hudson but I work several counties so I thought my brand should be more general. Any suggestions are helpful. Thanks for giving your time to help. Take Care, Atlanta Area Agent

Here are My Comments and Recommendations

Regarding your question about domains, one important facet of domain selection many RE pros overlook is the one of an exit strategy. Say you embark on building a tremendous, lead generating website and you decide at some point to exit the business. If the domain name is your name, who is going to buy it? Point #2, are consumers more apt to search for agents by name or homes for sale in areas? I’m inclined to believe the latter. While sellers may Google your name when hiring a listing agent, buyers who make up the largest segment of site visitors search for homes for sale by area and by property type. That being said, always try to own your vanity URL (your name). It’s just smart to own it.

The Rule Breakers!

There are those celebrity real estate agents in areas who have built considerable name brand equity and should continue to utilize their name in their market. It doesn’t hurt to have area oriented domain names “pointing” to your vanity domain.

If you’re not one of those celebrity agents, you might want to consider a different strategy when deciding what domain name to select.

5 Golden Rules for Domain Name Selection

Try to adhere to these rules when choosing your domain name.

1. Keep it as short as possible. That way it’s more memorable and easier to market.
2. Avoid dashes, dots, numbers and other weird characters. The simpler the better! If you tell someone to go to your website address at www.atlantahomes4sale.com, you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time explaining it’s the number 4 and not “for”, “four”, or “fore”. Get my point? Then you’re forced to buy all the iterations!
3. Try to align your domain with common keywords consumers use to search for homes for sale by. It might mean you reduce your area focus and be a more defined area expert. Many agents dislike this recommendation for fear of losing a geographic market segment. Understanding the size of the market from a keyword perspective helps you determine the amount of opportunity in that area.
4. Go with .com. When possible, try to avoid using .net and always avoid using .org (non-profit designation).
5. Avoid using one domain for your blog and a totally different domain for your website. Why? Unless you are one of those unique “rule breakers” like a Missy Caulk or a Kevin Tomlinson who can elevate two different domains to the top of the search engines for your keywords, I’d say use the sub domain scenario for your blog (blog.YourURL.com). That way you can use two sites to elevate your domain to the top of the search engines instead of tow domains. By the way, when using the sub domain scenario, you don’t have to purchase the sub domain. You’re simply setting up a “sub folder” on the primary domain for the blog.

Be Flexible When Deciding on Domain Names

If I had to select a longer domain name in order to get the domain name I wanted, I’d probably break rule #1. There is also a growing trend occurring in the marketplace where consumers are searching for the keyword phrase “area homes for sale” over the legacy keyword search term “area real estate”. It makes perfect sense to attempt to match your domain name to the search phrase consumers use to search by.

Bonus Domain Tip

Sometimes all that is required to help you latch on to that desirable domain you want is to add a short word to the domain name. If Raleighrealestate.com isn’t available, simply add one of these words “all”, “your”, “my” or “the” to the beginning of the domain name. Other short words to consider adding to the end of that trophy domain name could be “info”, “online”, “search” or “news”. Another quick tip, if you see a deliciously good domain name, I say buy it if for no other reason than to keep it away from your competition.

Agree or Disagree? Leave Your Tip!

Be sure to leave your comments. What tips do you have to offer?

To your success,
Bobby Carroll
@rewebcoach