Analysis & Communication – A Key Ingredient in Designing A Great Website

Of all the areas of web design and development that I enjoy the most – our Web Design meetings really rank highly for the part they play in ensuring a great website result for the client.

The key to those meetings is analysis before hand (usually the sales process and preparation for the design meeting) and then great open communication with your client during the design meeting.

Surely Your Web Designer’s Skills Would be More Important?

Without a doubt you have to have a great web designer to produce great websites. No questions about that at all. But a great Web Designer is not only great by their graphic abilities – they are great in their ability to understand their client’s needs and requirements and to create a design that is results oriented.

There are many great web designers out there who can create the most eye catching web designs. But not all of those designs actually work for their clients. It the site looks good that will at least pass the first test of new visitor – the test of whether they like the website or not. But as soon as they start to look for the specific action items and areas of interest this may soon change from “Liking The Site” to “Leaving The Site”. As my dear mother in Australia used to say “Peter – Looks Aren’t Everything” – in my case and the case of a successful website she again would be right. (p.s. I do have a great personality!!!!)

Good Web Design Planning Starts with Analysis

We had two web design meetings planned for Monday (yesterday). In order to ensure myself and our Design Director Vicki Payne were ready for those meetings we spent around 1-2 hours preparing for each meeting. During the sales cycle we really focus on the business and marketing models of the clients, the desired results they want from the website, and their time line (and budget) in which they want their new website up and running. In the design meeting we really start to home in on the look!

Preparing for our Design Meeting

To prepare for design meeting my primary responsibility is to prepare an agenda for the meeting that ensures when we leave that meeting our Design Director has direction and clarity as to the design the client is seeking (the “look and feel” of the website). Note here that I do not state that our Design Director has the direction “SHE thinks will work for the client”. Our job is produce the look and feel that the client desires and to ensure that design is also the functional design the client needs to be successful. We are leads in this process but the process is on behalf of a client and the results are fully focused on our clients.

Wouldn’t The Designer Know Best when it comes to Web Designs?

At BeareWare we have one of the best web designers in the area. She has been produced over 100 great web designs over the last 3 years. I cannot speak highly enough of her. But I also know some other great graphic designers in this area that simply don’t produce good looking websites at all. They are generally the wrong look (or quite often have to much graphics) which leads to major functional issues. It is clearly not only the skill of the graphic designer that producers a great website. It is the analysis, direction, business and marketing models of the client that really help establish a great design.

I am sure many a client have ended up with what they thought was a great looking website that 6 months down the track was deemed as non functional. (or basically not working for them). If you have ever been involved in a web design project and you have been told “Don’t worry – our designer knows exactly what you need” – you probably need to REALLY WORRY! Without a strong analysis of your business how on earth can that designer really know what your business is about and what specific outcomes you are looking for with your website.

Analysis – Starts in The Sales Cycle

It is impossible for me to produce a proposal for a client without having the entire web project understood. The only way to understand a website development project is to have a full analysis of the business and marketing models of the client. There is no other way to do this but to ask questions and do research. Research on the client’s existing site and also similar sites in their industry. So when we have produced a proposal we have a complete timeline and pathway to designing our client’s new website. We understand the client’s business models and we understand the outcomes the client is looking for.

Design Meetings Focus On details

So when we commence our design meeting we are really focusing our design on the details with a primary focus on the look and feel of the website. We must leave this design meeting with clear direction. To help show the techniques we use in our design meetings here is our standard agenda we use to help us really focus in on the details (with some comments to explain each area)…

Website Design Meeting – Monday September 8, 2008

Client Attendees: Client Rep1, Client Rep2, Client Rep3.
BeareWare – Vicki Payne, Design & Development Director, Peter Beare

We always have myself (Sales and Project Lead) and our Design Director at a design meeting. We encourage our clients to include not only their marketing and IT folks but also any “power users” that are usually most grounded in client’s functional use of their website.

Introduction – Specific Aim of Meeting – Identifying Look & Feel of Website(s)

The meeting is specifically to establish direction for designing the look and feel of the website. Though many items may be discussed the bottom line success of this meeting is based on our design director being able to produce design samples one the meeting is complete.

Client’s Mission Statement – Primary Business & Marketing Models
(Slogans – Logos – Demographic Identification and Customer Review)

Here we are really looking at the client’s business & marketing models – and revisiting this with them which has been first discussed in our sales cycle. We ask the client to expand on their marketing models, slogans, logos, and also really identify specifically the demographic they are chasing (prospects) as well the demographic they are serving (clients). This is absolutely critical. You cannot make assumptions on demographics nor can you “cater” to everyone and be very successful. You must focus on the primary market that your business will come from.

Design Discussion – Website Look – Site Functionality – Web Site Areas
** Color, Images (Photos), Logos, Font Style, Menus (Module & Functions), Graphic Techniques, 3rd Party Software **

Here we look at the actual website itself and establish what specific areas, modules and functions will be a part of the website. We look at the actual designs that we (or the client) has identified that they like – and we thoroughly review those websites. Here we are looking for feed back from the client on what they like (or don’t like). We encourage our clients to expand on all areas that we are reviewing and discussing. We also identify features of the site that are important to the client. (this could be graphic design, functions or even 3rd party software). At this point we are fully fledged design team (BeareWare and the Client) and communication is an absolute the key to our success!

Here are some points that are covered in this design discussion:

• Review Website Areas – WLM outline magazine (website) areas.
• Website Look – (Starting samples attached) – Sample Website 1, Sample Website 2, Sample Website 3, Sample Website 4
• Discuss each site – any other examples?
• Additional Components & Modules – Online Shop, Calendar, Photo Album, Events Calendar, e-NEWS, Advertising?
• Other design considerations?

Additional Questions – Next Step(s)

At this point we have really established all the necessary information and samples for our design director to be able to produce design samples for our client. We do not actually start building the website until the client has signed off on the design those this process. Vicki actually designs a graphic image (3-5 .jpg format samples) that are the exact replica and size of a normal website.  This saves time and money in deciding the final design. To design the site (and their change the design look would be inefficient and costly).

Once the client has selected the final design we are ready to move forward with the actual web development. To a very large extent the success of the website has already been established and don’t be mistaken, it has been establish with analysis, communication, and of course a great web designer!

Have you ever visited a website that, the minute it opened, you said “Wow!” or “I like this site!”?  I actually do this every time I visit a good looking website.

Have you ever visited a website that, the minute it opened, you said “Wow!” or “I like this site!”?  I actually do this every time I visit a good looking website. My reaction is immediate and it sets the tone for my visit. I actually say it out loud every time – “What a great site”.  And don’t be mistaken – this reaction is the first qualifier in terms of the website achieving its missions and purposes…

But you’re a Geek – do “Normal” people react this way?

Yes, they do! Thye may not react verbally like I do – or they might not tell their design colleagues about the site like I do – but they do get the “Warm and Fuzzies” – which is exactly the first reaction you are seeking. Most general statistics indicate that you have between 0-30 seconds for a visit to look at your site and to start drilling into a particular area of your site (or leave).

In that very short period of time an opinion is formed and that opinion is final. The actual decision of whether you like the look of the site is actually a 3 second process. If I don’t like the look of a site – I may see if their content is strong and I have easy access to information or service I am looking for. I don’t the give the site very much time to get me to where I want to go!

How can a website know what each user wants?

The purpose of your website should clearly identify your target demographics. The key word here is target. Designing a website that caters to “everyone” is not necessarily a good design concept. You want to specifically focus on the people your business wants to do business with – potential customers and existing clients. You want to be specific.

Websites emulate your business (or they should) – so ask yourself what is the target demographic that your business is pursuing. You generally will set up your website to pursue that same target type.

So Let’s Talk About the Design

Our first role as a design company is to establish the purpose of a client’s website and then focus on the two key areas identified above (Establishing Prospects & Selling and Serving Existing Clients). The home page is very much about selling (and linking quickly and easily to important sales info and client tools).

Our primary focus is about the new visitor coming to the site. We want our new visitor to like our look (a la, “Hey, I like this website”…). When a client or repeat visitor comes back to the site, the navigation of the site is really the most important thing. Once a client or visitor starts using a specific area of your site, they are really focused on performance and how the site serves them. The selling focus of the home page has less impact and tends to reinforce brand.

Now let’s find some designs that we like!

Once we have established the mission of the site and have a good understanding of the client’s business model, we start looking for industry (or similar) sites that our client likes or has identified as effective. This is challenging, as sometimes you will spend quite a bit of time finding that look. But it is a tremendous method in terms of design starting point and reference. If a web designer simply creates design samples without some diligent research up front they can easily end up with “I Don’t Like it” from the client – or worse, the client accepts the design and later down the track realizes the design does not reflect their company and is not satisfactory.

When we designed a website for my brother (Tim Beare of Beare Tennis) – our Design Director Vicki Payne designed samples for the final site look. At this stage we had not started developing the website. We must finalize the design “look” before we commence the website development. In web design, cost is based on time and materials (systems) – so building a website to show a client before they have approved a final design is costly and VERY VERY inefficient.

Designer Notes Help Clarify Design

In our design with Beare Tennis Services, here were the design notes we had established before we commenced developing the design:

Beare Tennis Services wants to create an online website that would assist in their marketing efforts and help attract new pupils for both private and group lessons. A main content aim of the website was to also clarify information that is quite often asked in a phone call inquiry in reference to lessons. The design samples should include some great action shots of proprietor Tim Beare teaching at the Knoxfield Tennis Club.

Adding to the design should be the cute Beare logo (which was first designed for Beare Tennis Services in 1988). Then key information should include lesson formats, prices, direction, and FAQ combining to provide both marketing and sales with good detailed information to help the decision-making of a prospect lesson. Random tennis tips will help provide some good learning information while showcasing Tim’s expertise.

And Now For The Design Samples…

Now that we have established the purpose of the website, the outcomes that the client is looking for with their website, and the website designs that client (or BeareWare) has identified as good designs and industry related we are ready to design samples for a final design selection…

Vicki has designed 7 sample designs for Tim to review and pick a final design from. Here is the index that we used with Tim for review each design. Click on the designs to see the actual full design. Vicki’s samples are to scale with our standard website size so the client can see exactly what their site will look….

http://www.beareware.net/beare%20tennis/

In this particular case Tim decided to select design number three. In some cases a client may at this point pick features from several of the designs, in which case Vicki will then produce one more final design for final approval. It is impossible not to brag about our Vicki, our Design and Development Director, as she is so extremely talented and it really shows in this process. When you are creating sample designs you must understand the limitations and parameters of the actual Web Content Management System. You want to design a great looking site but it must function well.  Vicki is simply outstanding at this process. And the results are always very happy clients….

Once the design has been selected then our client’s Web Content Management System is installed, the graphic templates are designed and then the website is developed. The client is completely aware of the site look and from this point we really focus on the client’s web content. (Next week’s blog)

The end result of this process – A Great Looking Website!

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

Been thinking about Web Adverting? My company BeareWare has become very active in the online advertising market over the last 12 months.

Online Advertising – It Works….

It has been both exciting and eye opening. Like most things good solid product and marketing plans must be the backbone of a successful advertising campaign. But there is no doubt that online advertising is a medium that cannot be ignored…

So How Does Online Advertising Work?

Very good question – there is quite a few types of online advertising now available. Search engine advertising (GOOGLE, YAHOO, MSN). You would have undoubtedly seen Ads By Google (Google Adwords) on many websites you have visited. Over the last 12 months Google Ads have been found on major websites such as CNN.com and Weather.com which really shows that google advertising can place you on many good websites.vThis form of advertising is called Pay Per Click (PPC).

Generally google looks for websites that have a similar area of interest (that matches the advertising demographic). When a person sees a Google ad and then clicks on the ad the advertiser pays for that “Click Thru”. Generally the Click Thru goes to the advertiser’s website. Google ads have generally been text based but you are now starting to see image based ads which are actually charged to the advertiser as an impression (OR should be – versus a click thru as they provide a much higher level of branding). With Google Advertising your ad will appear on any website that matches the demographic (that google advertising system selects). This is both good and bad as you may end up on sites that are not a good match that may send very unqualified visitors to your site.

There is also specific website advertising (or affiliate advertising) where you can select a specific site (or multiple sites) that have a very specialized demographic. The form of advertising is called CPM (which stands for pay per 1000 impressions). Just to make sure you understand what an impression is – it is an advertisement being displayed on a web page you are visiting.  This form of advertising is specifically focused on the demographic of the website that is displaying the ads. This advertising in my opinion is the most likely model to work long term in the online advertising arena.  Quite often you have specific areas of the site that you can choose to be on – (Home Page or Secondary Pages). The key is that you are marketing to a specific demographic and you are looking for a specific advertising outcome…

You Should Have a Specific Advertising Outcome?

The beauty of online advertising is you get to link the ad to any specific page you want to (e.g. a larger more detailed advertisement) and you get to track your responses (click thru results) as well as a pre defined number of impressions visitor seeing the advertising running.

With a well designed graphic ad the advertiser also gets brand building by web visitors seeing your business name (or brand name). Just like any traditional form of advertising you want to set a budget (which would be set on impressions) and then any good advertising program will give you results of click thrus. The good thing about online advertising is you can make adjustments if you are not getting a desired result.

OK sounds good – when do you pay for online advertising?

That is another good question. Generally you are billed for advertising post the advertisements running. With google ads you secure your advertising with a credit card and with specialized sites they will generally have billing cycles (monthly).  Of course the organization selling the advertising will have their own standards (and credit guidelines). The key is that you establish and fully understand the start and finish of the process (which again is page impressions or click thrus) – not actually calendar time.

Should we switch our print (or radio advertising) for Online Ads?

The best thing about online advertising is that is generally in-expensive. For as little as $30 you can increase your advertising reach by advertising online. The most successful programs will generally be a combination of your traditional advertising combined with solid online advertising. Picking the right site to advertising is also a key. Companies that offer multiple forms of media such as Print and Web are becoming powerful combinations to advertise with.

No doubt online advertising is here to say. Consider making it a part of your next advertising campaign.

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

“Googleing” Down Under…

While the American summer has been fast coming to and end I have been Down Under in Australia celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

I am still pinching myself at the thought of two people sharing 50 years together raising 4 children and now 5 grand children. What an amazing feat (and a great reason to return home to Australia for a celebration and short visit).

So while here I have been home in Melbourne (in between some great Fish and Chips, Meat Pies, Aussie Beer and Australian Football) – I have been spending time serving our clients thru the internet and also my brother’s tennis coaching website which has been eye opening in terms of search engine behavior.

So What is Different?

Interestingly the first thing that surprised me was the routing of domain requests to perceived (or controlled) choices in Australia. First scenario was actually being routed from www.cnn.com to www.edition.cnn.com – which is a World Wide version of CNN. To get the to US based site (cnn.com) – you select the US News which actually ends up being www.edition.cnn.com/US. Wow – this was something I had NO IDEA was happening outside the USA. The reality is that www.cnn.com in the US really should be www.cnn.com.us (United States) – but as we have stated in previous blogs the US seems to have been the default country of the web at least for now…

The Web Is Not As It Seems!

I was really surprised by this as it really opened my eyes to companies that are focused on a global market. BeareWare currently has 2 clients that sell product world wide (thru their retail online shops) and then we have several business that sell and promote services in Australia. The basic premise that I discovered by my CNN results was that global companies design sites that really have geographic bounds and demographics. Of course CNN is a major media – but the fact I cannot go directly to www.cnn.com really got my attention…

Then To My Surprise I couldn’t Get To www.google.com

My next surprise which really relates directly to several BeareWare clients was that when I type www.google.com – I was routed to www.google.com.au – (Google Australia). What is Google Australia – generally the Google Search Engine that operates in Australia – or better stated that search engine that serves web users that live in Australia (and are detected to being in Australia thru their IP address).  What is interesting with Google Australia is you have a default choice of “Search Web” or “Pages From Australia”.  At this stage (and this statement is subject to change) I believe “Search Web” will give a global (Google.com) result while “Pages from Australia” will list websites that are “hosted” in Australia.

Evidently this appears to be a standard in other countries…

I quickly checked Google Canada and Google United Kingdom and they both offered “Search Web” and “Page from Canada (or UK)” pending which site you are on. The thing that puzzles me is the criteria for “Local Country Page”. As stated above to date I believe the pages list sites hosted within that country – but frankly I don’t get why that would be a relevant criteria for a search (hosting meaning where the physical website is located).

We host my brother Tim’s website – www.bearetennis.com with our host in Chicago yet his target demographic and location is in several suburbs in Melbourne. Of course his site is currently not found “Pages from Australia” which is obviously a concern as one might expect a local Aussie looking for a local tennis pro – would very well pick “Pages from Australia”.  Incidentally Tim’s website has a number one page ranking on “Web Search” on his keyword searches.

So how Does Yahoo and MSN Operate in Australia?

In Australia when you type www.yahoo.com – and you will be routed to yahoo.com.au  (actually known as yahoo7). It appears that yahoo7 is actually affiliated with a national television station (Channel 7). It appears that this would provide Yahoo with a news provider (and source) as the search engine focus on delivering news as part of its business model. There is a multiple search  (Web or Local like Google) but you only get the local pages option after you have made your Web search. A very pleasing fact for my brother Tim’s website is a number two listing position (1st page ranking) in both the Web or the Australian Search only.

And to round out the top three search engines – MSN is the only major search engine that does not route to an Australian domain name. (www.msn.com.au). So of course you get a world wide result on www.msn.com. If you chose to search on www.msn.com.au you also get a world wide result unless you search Australian pages only. Once again my brothers website gets a number two listing position (1st page ranking) – but when you search Australia Pages only (after your initial search) – his site no longer lists. This again leads me to believe Australian pages are actually based on hosting location.

SO Note Well – Selling Online outside of the US requires additional focus

When Targeting a World Wide audience “local pages” of a county should be considered in the website Search Engine Optimization (and SERP) plan. I am currently touching base with some computer guru’s here in Australia to verify that the local pages searches are absolutely based on hosting. Again I really hope that is not the case as websites could be hosted anywhere in the world, in particular with very inexpensive hosts in the United States. It really seems that host should not be relevant search parameter.

I must say I am glad I had this experience while visiting Australia – it really was an eye opener – and really helps build BeareWare’s knowledge in marketing products and services worldwide. Time for some more great Aussie Tucker!

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

Be sure to focus on your Landing Pages…

When you think about your website you may have the “misconception” that everyone who visits your website will generally enter thru the home page.

When you consider search links from specific pages (based on topic searches) and marketing landing pages it is possible that people may be coming to your website from a variety of what is known as “Landing Pages”.

But surely you really want them to come to your home page?

When we design a client’s website – we always focus on our key action items being easily accessed and prominent on the home page. I have no doubt the home page is usually most trafficked entry point BUT – lets say you are running a special or you have a specific area of you business (or many areas that may require some more custom information).  If you can get a visitor to land directly on this page and they like what the see – you can still get a result you want from your client. One of the biggest reasons for these landing pages is the behavior of web visitors. Generally people will come to your site and leave very quickly – so you want to get visitors to their area of interest – VERY QUICKLY!

So what type of landing pages are there?

I had mentioned the search engine (a user searches for a keyword or key phrase and the search engine matches a specific page on your website that has the key search information.) To elaborate on this – you may have a page on your website titled “Gladeville  Web Design” – and then you may also have the words appearing in the page several times – repeating Gladeville Web Design.

Search Engines Create Landing Page Links!

A person goes to google and types the keywords “Gladeville Web Design” – and a link to your webpage appears as a result. The link takes you straight to the specific Web Design page. This is a landing page (as the person landed on your website thru this link). Remember not all landing pages are planned – or controlled from your end. So having an incomplete website or poor content that you don’t consider will accessed by visitors will not serve you well when search engines select landing pages based on search criteria.

Landing Pages can be Advertising Campaigns (Internal & External)

Advertising campaigns within the website that will have your banner ads linking you directly to a specials page where you can elaborate on your advertisement and get a desired result (a call or inquiry e-mail).  This could be both internal advertising – or advertising on another website. This is an area where advertisers make a big mistake in creating a custom ad for their special or product – but link the click-thru to their home page (instead of an elaboration of the advertisement). Quite often the visitor cannot actually find any further information about the ad – and frustrated they leave the website. Advertising landing pages are a very IMPORTANT PART OF ADVERTISING…

Landing Pages that are custom Domain Name Routing

Another great use to get folks to key landing pages is domain routing. This is the process where you are actually using a domain name (that is routing to a specific page on your website). Let say we want to run an advertising campaign – that promotes selling Real Estate in the Gladeville area. We acquire the domain name www.gladevillerealestate.com – which will allow for the direct use of the domain name – both thru search engines or a marketing campaign. Of course you may have many areas within your site (for Real Estate) – but we run a specific advertisements promoting Gladeville Real Estate – and our domain name takes you straight there.

Recently when meeting with a group of clients I stated that the client should consider that there are multiple ways people will get to their website – and they will not always enter thru the home page. I could tell this was very eye opening to the clients. It really makes you think of how you can make every page on your website work hard for your. There is no doubt Landing Pages are a great way for web visitors to go to a specific web page (that may satisfy their specific intent). 

Keep your mind open when thinking about your website and the way the visitors land on your website. Think creative and flexible and your website will serve you well!  

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here 

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

Submitting Website To Search Engines

With Search Engine Optimization being such a hot topic today it is good to actually understand some basic steps in getting your website submitted to key search engines.

This by no means guarantees your website will immediately obtain any significant page ranking (position within the search engine) but it is definitely the first steps in the process.

Don’t Search Engines Automatically Find Your Website?

That an assumption a lot of people make. It is not always true and it also may take some valuable time for a search engine to find your website. Based on this we think the best thing to do is to submit your website(s) to the key search engines as soon as your website is launched. Do not assume a Search Engine will list your site. There are many reasons why a search engine may not find your site or list it – so the website owner (and their webmaster) should take responsibility in this area.

How Can you Tell if A Search Engine Lists Your Website?

If you go to Google.com or Yahoo.com or MSN.com (which have a combined 95% of the search engine markets) and type the name of your domain you will be able to establish immediately if the search engines lists your website. To be specific you would type – www.yourdomainname.com. If the search engine doesn’t list the site it will return a message such as:

Your search – www.domainname.com – did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

• Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
• Try different keywords.
• Try more general keywords.

So this message means our site is not listed – So No One Can Find it?

Correct – no one can find it through a search engine lookup. For example someone goes to Google and will type your company or organization name. If Google does not have your website domain name in its list – then it will not have any information about your website. The core denominator is the domain name – all information about your website is connected to your domain name. So bottom line is if you are not listed in a search engine – then you are really REALLY hurting your chances for clients and new prospects finding you.

Wouldn’t This Be Our Web Designer (or Webmasters) job to make sure we are listed?

You would definitely assume this to be case but the reality is that quite often a web designer or webmaster simply don’t take the time to do this – or will assume that the search engines will find the site themselves. It is highly recommended when you are having a new website designed to verify with the development team that your domain will be submitted to key search engines – (again those engines being Google, Yahoo, MSN & Windows Live).

To make sure though – you can submit these yourself although you may need some help from your webmaster in terms of validating the website (which is required by each search engine). You will have to register an account with each Search Engine to be able to submit and manage your domain names.

Regardless of your level of expertise you should be able to submit your domain name to search engines directly yourself. Here are the step by step instructions on submitting to the top 3 key search engines:

GOOGLE:

Start off by establishing an account. Go to www.google.com and select “Create An Account.” This will provide you with a permanent Google sign in (username and password). Once signed in your will land on your account main page. The area you will be working in is Webmaster Tools – but you will notice the following options:

AdSense 
Analytics 
Base 
iGoogle – Settings  Add content  
Maps – My Maps  
Notebook 
Webmaster Tools

For today’s blog we will focus on Webmaster Tools – but I am sure you can see the value (and power) of google with the other options available to you. When you select Webmaster Tools you will end up on the page called Dashboard. This is where you will submit your domain name. ALWAYS submit your domain name as www.yourdomainname.com – in particular with secure server certificate there is a difference between www.yourdomain.com – and yourdomain.com. Once submitted you will be required to actually verify the website. This is Google actually checking to verify that the site you have registered with their search engine is in fact a valid site.

Google gives you 2 ways to do this – easiest being simply placing a text file that Google creates for you into the root of your website directory. Once you have placed the validation file in your root – you can verify your site. Google will check to make sure it is there and you are now verified. From this point on Google will visit your site from time to time and actually start adding the keywords to your listing index. One submitted and validated Search Engine Rankings can now be obtained.

YAHOO:

Start off by establishing an account. (Warning you have to use a yahoo e-mail when doing this – No idea why!). The actual web page to use is Site Explorer – http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ – when you add your domain you will be prompted to sign into your account (or establish an account).

Currently with Yahoo you get to validate your account – which is the same basic method as Google – you upload a file that Yahoo has created and then validate the domain name. The only other option that Yahoo is offering right now is an opportunity to add feeds to your website – which is aimed at helping you increase traffic to your site – (by increasing the quality of and content of your site). This is quite a nice feature.

MSN & WINDOWS LIVE:

Start off by establishing an account as you did with Google and Yahoo. Here is the actual page you need to link to – the area is known as “Webmaster Center” – http://webmaster.live.com/. This area will actually serve both the MSN Search Engine and Windows Live (both owned by Microsoft).  As per Google and Yahoo you will add domain names to your account and a validation process is required. An XML file is created by Webmaster Live and you publish the file to your website root and then validate the site.

Webmaster Live has some nice additional tools that I am sure they are developing and launching as soon as they can to help in terms of grabbing “any” market share they can against Google. In each account you have a summary, profile, crawl issues, back links, outbound links, keywords and sitemap. These are quite handy tools that may be helpful in analyzing your website and your search results.

As mentioned above these 3 search engines currently have around 90-95% of the search engine market so I would not recommend submitting to any additional search engines unless they have some demographic match that you are aware of and are very specialized search engines. I believe most other search engines will pick up your site from Google so this will not limit you on those other sites. But submitting your domain name is time consuming and so keep that in mind.  If you are really pushed for time then Google currently has around 80-85% of the search engines market so if you have only time for one submission make sure it is Google.

Having a great website is the first step to being successful online. But having it well positioned in search engines will really increase your ability to attract new traffic thru search engines.

Be sure to spend the time to make sure your website is listed in the top 3 search engines. It will be well worth your while.

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here 

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

While sitting at Melbourne International Airport waiting for my flight back to the States I assumed a Wi-Fi hotspot would be have an open unsecured network available to so I could get online and get some work done while waiting for my departure.

And as happened throughout my visit to Australia – from a Wi-Fi access point of view I was once again disappointed.

Home & Business Services appear comparative

So before I scare you off to much the overall broadband and cable options for residents and small business in Australia seemed relative similar to that in the US. Most of my time visiting my family in Australia I had Wi-Fi access in each residents I was staying at (secured wireless networks) – and I have to say that was very enjoyable to use. But outside your residence or work environment the internet openness down under disappears quickly.

Getting Online At Mickie Dee’s

While staying at my parents holiday house in Rosebud (around 50 miles from Melbourne) – their house had slower access (ADSL). Having plenty of work to do and requiring high speed access to do it – I was informed by a family member that all McDonald’s Restaurants in Australia have Wi-Fi.. I was extremely happy with this discovery – a Mickie Dee’s was only a 10 minute walk from where I was staying and the McDonalds stores in Australia are second to none so I was happy to plan my afternoon around some good food and drink. (McCafe being a really big part of the stores success in Australia)…

So I arrive at McDonalds and order my “value” meal – and then find a comfortable place to sit, eat and surf. Before ordering I confirmed that the restaurant did in fact have Wi-Fi which was confirmed with a smile. I was feeling good – everything going to plan. So I thought…

I fired my laptop up and then immediately found the Telstra Unsecured Network (Telsra being the AT&T equivalent in the Australia). Immediately I landed on the Telstra Website which immediately made me realize I was going to need some form of additional access to get online.

OK – I have to pay to get online

So after quite a bit of searching and verifying that I was not a Teltra customer (which still had fees associated with the access) I found the option to simply purchase time to get online. For $29.00 dollars I could buy 2 hours. I have to admit this did not float my boat. But I wanted to at least get a bit of work done so I selected the 2 hours option. I entered my credit card info in – and then – I waited – AND – waited – AND waited.

The https call (secure call) to process my payment simply froze on my screen. It did not particularly please me to have my credit card numbers sitting on the screen as they were – (as people were walking by with the McHamburgers and McFries) but I knew that a refresh of the page may actually repeat the transaction. So I sat and waited. After approximately 10 minutes I decided to close the processing page and try again. So I go back to the payment screen and try again – and sure enough the same problem happened. After 10 minutes I knew I wasn’t getting online.

I had a hunch that the folks actually working at McDonalds would claim that this was a Telstra problem – (not a McDonald’s problem) – so I was prepared when I went to the counter to inquire as to what I could. Of course I was told immediately that this was a “Telstra” issue but I quickly identified to the girl that the sign out front stated “McDonalds” not “Telstra”. This logic eventually landed me with the manager. The real problem I had was the double processing of my credit card. Not getting online was a pain – but potentially being charged twice for not getting online was an outrage.

We only work here

Ultimately I did end up with the store manager and explained my situation and requested a note from her (on letter head) stating date and time and store number so I had some form of proof that I clearly did have a problem using the service. After much convincing the manager gave me a “napkin” receipt and was very happy to have me out of her hair. The separation between McDonald’s and the Wi-Fi system continued as a theme throughout the conversation. It was apparent a support number for this store could have really made a difference to both the customer and employee in this case. Maybe this will come in the future. As of this date I have not seen the charge come thru on my credit card so at this stage my napkin remains close at hand as my trusty receipt.

Please Starbucks Say it Ain’t So!

So after that experience I went back and worked as best I could on ADSL. Not great but at least I could e-mail people. The next day I was off the MCG (The Melbourne Cricket Ground) to see my beloved Kangaroos play an Australian Football game.) I got dropped off early to pick up some special tickets and had around an hour to kill so I decided to walk into the city. A lovely 10 minute walk along the Yarra River had me in down town Melbourne. I finally found (a very empty) Starbucks. Upon ordering my coffee I inquired about Wi-Fi. The initial answer was yes we have Wi-Fi – but upon further questioning I established that access was thru “Telstra”. Imagine Starbucks charging you get online!

Then as stated in the opening of this blog – my final Wi-Fi destination was Melbourne International Airport. Surely this would be an open unsecured network that I could use. And again the answer was NO. This really surprised me as the amount of passengers that travel thru Melbourne for business must be in the millions over the course of the year. So again I thought I would check the cost – $20.00 for 2 hours online.  Without sounding like a big bragging American (Bigger is better) – I have to say that this was really eye opening for me. Having access online (without paying constantly for it) is critical to my business operations.

It Costs You More To Stay Connected Down Under

So the reality is to stay connected in Australia you will be paying fees while in any form of transit. And when I say cost I mean cost. Let’s take the average business trip that lasts 1 week. Folks like myself would require around 3 hours access per day – and probably an hour or so in the evening. Without actually staying at hotels this time round in my trip to Australia I will assume the access in hotels is also the same (Thru Telstra). So lets take 5 days time $60.00 a day ($29.00 from Telstra for 2 hours) – and budda bang – budda bing – you have spent $300.00 in your week of business. If you are international visitor then you may be looking up to $420.00 per week – and that is with limited access.

Of course you can always use your mobile device (instead of Laptop) – and maybe there are some traveling plans that Telstra offers – but you cannot do that many things on a mobile device. It is primarily for communication – you cannot update websites (which many business people work from or thru today) or work on sales and presentation documents. Frankly this really makes a business trip much more expensive (and possibly less productive).

The Internet Should be Open To The Little Guy…

From the day the internet was invented (Thanks again to Mr. Al Gore) – small business has been able to make themselves more competitive on the internet than with any other medium. And it has come at a very small cost. When you charge access fees (as is the case in Australia and is not the case currently in the US) you really reduce the opportunities Australia has to be competitive in this arena (POINT BLANK).

I also must say that when you consider the small cost of providing Wi-Fi in a store (or location) – wouldn’t the first Australian chain – such as a coffee house or restaurant or hotel be absolutely packed to the rim if they offered free Wi-Fi. What a small cost to pay for a full house of business. It is good to understand this as lots of companies in the states will sell products and services to Australia in our merging global markets and in the States you just assumed the internet is the same playing field.

But being a proud Aussie (and one that does plan to develop a business presence in Australia in the future) keep in mind if form follows fashion with countries emulating business trends and behaviors from the US then maybe sometime in the future Australia may be a bit more internet friendly to the business traveler and the playing field will be once again even.

With Australia being such a great country to do business with so I sure hope so…

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

July 21, 2008

First Content Management Class – A Great Success

Coming from a background in managing PC based products I have seen how important education is to product users. As a windows developer in the 90’s I really learned how important is was for programmers to be connected to their users.

Many programmers tend to be removed from users (and are not always comfortable in the user environment – or simply struggle to actually relate to their user base).

As a product programmer I remember my boss walking into my office and asking me if I would go to a client’s site to train a client on using the system (that I had been a primary developer of). I actually jumped on the chance – and from that first ever training session I have always had a strong focus on the client from a systems point of view. It was actually the best thing I ever did as it made me a much stronger programmer and gave me a very clear picture as to who I was really serving.

But That Was PC products – Isn’t The Web Different?

Actually the internet is simply a different operating environment and in general your ability to use the systems (websites and internet applications) is critical to success and efficiency online. In particular the Web Content Management Systems (CMS) are probably the most used websites in the world today. But just like the amount of education that went into PC (Windows based Products) – today I believe that Web Content Management Classes are a vital requirement for business that has a CMS websites.

Back in my PC days I actually went from the systems programmer to Professional Services Manager that included a full training department under my wing. This was not something built overnight – after visiting new client sites for training for approximately a year or so we saw the need to create classes. Once we started holding classes we simply never looked back – the classes included our primary PC product, add-on produces and also a Report Writer Class. I left the company to start BeareWare in late 2000 and I am sure the training programs are probably huge now as the company has continued to grow and prosper.

History Repeats as I visit Client Site for CMS Training

Over the last 2 years as BeareWare has developing more and more websites part of that process has been visiting new clients site for a final review and training session before their website goes live. I  believe this is critical to a clients success and it is currently one of the huge black holes with companies that design websites.

The fact a content management system allows you to update your website in no means assures a web owner is actually capable or confident about doing this. Of course it is easy – (if your name is Waldo the Web Dude) – but I have no doubt that education in this area will absolutely increase the results for client and give them a great base to grow from. Adding to that is the reality that if inform a client upfront of our recommended training I think it helps them recognize that the long term success of their site requires both us and them and a lot of work. Like any other aspect of business – having a website and making it a part of your business requires hard work!

Of course as you know every website is unique in its design – but the amazing thing is that they are not necessarily unique in operation. A Content Management System is basically the same system and just like PC applications of the past they have lots of options and require training and education to use these systems efficiently.

Over the last 2 years of going to client’s sites and taking clients live I have really learned about our client’s abilities and also their challenges with learning how to use a CMS system. And watching the development and improvement of clients over the past 2 years (and their overall website success) – this has really reinforced to me the importance of education.

With all our client reviews and training we provide a custom CMS Users Manual. For quite some time I believed that each client training was really unique in nature (as clearly their website was) so I did not actually consider the thought of CMS classes. But as we did more and more websites and training sessions I really started to see how similar the operation of a CMS site and add on components.

So a Web Content Management Class It Is!

I announced our first CMS class in June of 2008. The class was set for early August. Part of the organizing of the class was giving clients options to attend – even clients that have previously had onsite training session. I created two classes – Introduction Class (2 hour morning class) and an Intermediate Class (2 hour afternoon class). To my delight both classes received good sign up. It was particularly pleasing to see that BeareWare’s clients are as positive about web education as we are.

We were very fortunate to have a great training facility as part of the class (Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce rocks!). Clients bought their laptops to the class and we had Wi-Fi available for each attendee to sign up. And from my opening welcome our clients were full of questions as we ran through our class agenda. The room had clients from various different industries but the questions were always easily relatable to everyone.

And The Class Was Interactive

The nice thing about our training setup (WiFi and client laptops) was that each client could update their websites specifically as we went thru training modules (Our class is agenda is completely based on updating your site so every module gave everyone the opportunity to take control of content areas. I quite often saw clients showing other clients specific items as we worked thru our program. That was also very pleasing.

And of course I could bring up any clients site to assist or demonstrate site updating (yes – CMS sites can have multiple uses that can be updating the same website at the same time).  Even covering different 3rd party products really had a great amount of attention. Surprising to us was the interest in 3rd party products and add-on components. Many clients saw products that were good fits for long term web planes. We actually found the class environment really helps promote new product to clients as well.

Discussing SEO and SERP Really Added Excitement

As well our very hands content updates our class really reached a buzz when we looked at Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Ranking Page. When any owner (or Web Content Manager) gets to talk about a tool such as a search engine that can deliver new customers to their door step (perpetually) you can imagine the interest.

Having our clients understand SEO is really pleasing again. I have heard horror stories of companies spending $1000’s of dollars for SEO services that they simply don’t understand. And as with most complicated areas that are not understood it is easy to how web owners can be really confused, deceived, and financially abused by SEO companies (who can magically place a companies website at the top of a search engine – and bring you thousands of new leads). Just like any aspect of life – if it sounds too good to be true it probably is – and if you really on things you don’t understand you are eventually bound to get burned.

I believe empowering clients with information is one of the greatest services a website design & development company can provide. So at the completion of our first class we really felt we had completed a very successful day. Our client’s enthusiasm was so pleasing. It is really great to be able to work with folks that are willing to head into new technologies with open minds. There is no doubt that web classes including CMS classes will really enhance our clients success. More classes are in the planning for our upcoming winter and spring of 2009.

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

Empower Yourself – Learn The Web Jargon…

Teaching a Web Content Management class recently I included a “jargon” take home test that was handed to our attendees at the end of the class. I have always been very sensitive to computer jargon since my college days where I studied computer science.

I actually have always been uncomfortable with using it – in particular when you know the jargon to be confusing to the person that is not an actual computer geek.

Isn’t Web Jargon just a continuation of Computer Jargon?

Definitely a byproduct started by the smartest guys in the room (the computer geek – not the former Enron Directors)… The computer industry is around 30-40 years in age and with technology changing rapidly jargon has always been a big part of its culture. But I must say with the web world (around 10 years old) appears to have taken jargon to a new dimension. And being in complete sync with the web – every new process that is established opens up the door for a new term of jargon. This new jargon will quite often appear in sales and marketing of online products which is really an issue from my point.

So Jargon is Used Deliberately in Online Selling?

I think it is – and it is definitely used to increase sales. Being the sales person responsible for selling web services for BeareWare I am very aware of the confusing aspects that the most computer literate folks have in some of the key areas of web design, web development, domain management, web hosting and web content management. But I have to admit this could not be exemplified more than buying a domain name which on some registrars is at the point of absurd in terms of what you are offered (or asked to buy) – as part of the domain registration process. Quite a lot of the jargon has simply been created to give validity to “questionable add-on” sales products and to cash in on the lack of knowledge of the person making the domain registration.

Do you Want Fries With That?

I was recently buying domains for a client on a registrar (for this article lets call the registrar Stop Momma). My client maintains a domain account with Stop Mommy and I logged in ready to acquire the new domain names we needed. I was buying 2 groups of domains so I typed in the names of each domain I wanted. All were available except one – which came up with our first piece of jargon – It was a “Premium Domain” that was being sold thru the registrar. So first question – what is a “Premium Domain” name. Interestingly enough each domain was costing $8.90 each but this “Premium Domain” name was selling for $3,195.00. (that’s right – over three thousand dollars).

In this case the phrase “Premium Domain” name is used by all registrars and also domain brokers (companies that broker the sale of domain names). Premium “implies” some significant value in the domain which may OR may not actually be the case. So it was a BIG NO to the Premium Domain. (I had passed the first “JARGON TEST”).

I have to say the screens were so totally confusing (at the very bottom of the screen) is the actual “proceed” to checkout. The main screen is full of options and suggestions (all with cost attached to them). One option asks would you like to make your registration “private”. A private registration is where you get to “hide” the actual owner of the domain name from public view.  For the life of me I do not know why you want to do this – and to be frank I don’t why ICAAN allows for this. The claim is that the spammers will be able to access your name and e-mail address and will bombard you consistently with spam. From BeareWare’s point of view it simply makes our job harder when a client calls needing help with their domain name (and of course they don’t know who the actual registrant is as their registering is a private registration.

Next at our Stop Momma Registrar we are offered the entire gamut of web services ranging from “Web Hosting” to “Custom Web Design”. Of course the whole purpose for my visit to Stop Momma was to register domain names (and only register domain names) – but you could imagine the small business person at this point in time – do we need private registration – do we need web hosting – (and of course there is reinforcing marketing behind every question – quite often laced with the some fear overtone if you don’t. select the choice).  Already you should be seeing the importance of arming yourself with Jargon knowledge – you will pay for it if you don’t…

So after I get thru the Web Services offers I finish up with a page listing every “similar” domain name on the market that may be available including other extensions such as .net., .org, biz, etc). The funny thing about this offer is the web page states “You have made a premium domain name purchase” – why you should now secure other domain name extensions. This is a classic – I was offered a “premium domain’ for over $3,000.00 in one of the initial sales screens – but now for just $8.90 I own a “premium domain” – and should registered every extension and any remotely similar domain to protect my investment.

I finally pay my account at Stop Momma and then end up on an another sales page (that has my payment receipt embedded in it). To honest I am thankful I am finished. Although this is just a small example of the jargon that is used in the web industry – I think the message is clear that may vendors on the web will sell with deliberate jargon to bolster sales – lets face isn’t their job as is any business to make money – so the best way to help empower yourself is to spend some time understanding the language…

Here are a few jargon items from BeareWare’s Online Webtips just to get you going:

Primary Website Statistic:
A websites primary statistical measurement is Unique Visitors (not Hits). The number of visitors dictates e-commerce and prospecting results.

Website Hits Terminology:
HITS are the number of graphics loading on any particular webpage. Hits have been used to inflate the perception of website activity. Website hits are irrelevant.

What is a Registrar?
A Registrar is a company that provides domain registration to the general public. They are authorized and governed by ICAAN in performing this role.

Who Governs Registrars?
Registrars are authorized and governed by ICAAN to register domains with the general public. Registrars making money on every domain they register.

What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Is the process of optimizing your position in a search engine based on key words and phrases.

Search Engine Positioning:
Search Engine positioning cannot be guaranteed by anyone. Positioning is based on a set of proprietary parameters set by the Search Engine.

What is Opensource?
Opensource is software developed under a set of principles & practices with source code available to users.

Technique on Website Research!
A great way to research a new website is to look at competitors and industry sites that you find appealing. Be sure to spend some time on each site.

What does URL mean?
URL is the website address of a website – http://www.beareware.com – is BeareWare’s URL

What is a Keyword Domain?
A keyword domain is a domain name that contains a keyword that describes your business, products or services.

What is a Title Tag?
Your title Tag is your websites top line (at the top of your browser). It is beneficial for SEO to have your keywords included in your title tag.

What is a BLOG?
A blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other media content.

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
Interview with a Webmaster – Full Blog – Click Here

Send us your comments and questions – Click Here

Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.

June 30, 2008

Significant Domain Announcement by ICANN…

I am sure many of you do not know who ICANN is. But for anyone that is responsible for your organization’s domain planning and marketing ICANN is someone you should learn about.

ICANN is the world wide governing body for domain name registrations and the associated guidelines. ICANN stands for Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Number. They have existed since the inception of the internet and are comprised of a board of directors, officers and operating staff. I am proud to say an Aussie has been President/CEO since 1993 (Dr. Paul Twomey). The board is comprised of people from around the world that have a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. ICANN’s main offices are located in Marina Del Ray, California and Brussels in Belgium.

And just this week ICANN made one of the most significant decisions on the future of domain names…

OK – how about a quick background on Domain Names…

Domain names are purchased from Registrars. Registrars are organizations that sell  domain names (under the authority and guidelines of ICAAN). Registrars are organizations such as GoDaddy, Aplus.NET, Network Solutions just to name a few. ICANN to date has allocated the following extensions that registrars can commercially sell (I have included a basic explanation as to the purpose of the domain extension – or in some cases the intention):

.com – Commercial organizations
.net – Intranets (Internal networks for organizations)
.org – Non profit organizations
.info – Really opened up alterative ways to get a domain (no specific intenion) 
.biz – Business organizations (no known difference from .com)
.mobi – Mobile websites (for mobile web devices)
.us – Organizations based in the United States
.bz – The country of Belize- opened up for any commercial use
.cc – Cocas Islands – opened up for any commercial use
.tv – Television based organizations

There are then other domain names that are held for private government or education
use – .gov or .edu – as I am sure you have seen before. Apparently there are
29 domain extensions that currently exist although I don’t know them all…

And then you have the country codes for domain extensions for countries outside the United States (which seems to have defaulted to the .com extension at least initially. Here are just a few examples:

.au – Australia
.gb – Great Britain
.uk – United Kingdom
.ca – Canada
.it – Italy

These country code extensions exist as an extension to .com (for example – .com.au (would be Australia). These domain extensions have been sold as a general bases to organizations within a particular country. From what I understand initially you could not register a domain name without your particular country code. I don’t believe this is now the case.

I would also note this was a loose interpretation from day one. Many organizations and folks (and squatters) in Australia, Canada or United Kingdom registered .coms – so the rules of having to purchase domains only with your own country’s extension was never a clear and fast rule. But based on the country codes and the logical bases of business around the world registrants are located all over the world and are assigned the rights to sell domain names in regional areas. (so therefore you cannot buy a domain name from another country thru a registrar commissioned to sell US based domains. (sorry to be so confusing – just telling you like it is!)

So that is where we where until the new announcement last week!

In a nutshell ICANN has approved the release of new class of domain extensions…

The big news out of Paris last week where ICANN was holding their annual meeting was the announcement of new domain extensions that are known as gTLD’s – Generic Top Level Domains domain extensions that could actually be a company name, an industry or a geographical place like a city. To explain this (and using the examples I have seen) – lets say that the domain extension – .nyc is released. This would be the logical extension name for New York City. Now when you think about the number of business located in New York City this would seem somewhat logical with the .nyc identifying they are located in New York City.

From what I understand – ICANN will accept applications for specific extension such as .nyc which I assume would give the owner basic registrar rights to sell (or license) the domain extension. Specially what they can do with that extension is not clear right now but I am will make the assumption the extension will then be sold just like any other registrar would sell them.

So lets say there may be 10,000 business that buy .nyc domains which will be probably based on a set of guidelines set by the owner of the .nyc domain. A good example would be that you must be a legally operating business (or organization) located in New York City to be able to purchase the extension. Just to make sure you are following – an example might be the New York Yankees – http://www.yankees.nyc.

Now lets have a look at another example that is industry based (versus geography)…
 
I have already read that .travel will be a very likely candidate as a domain extension. (The Travel Industry). In this particular case the domain extension is industry focused. (as apposed to .nyc which is geographically focused). Identifying which organization might be able to apply for this type of name is simply not clear right now. But once they obtain that name then the extension could be used in a variety of ways.

It may be that a large travel wholesalers acquires the domain name and then sells (or licenses) the extensions to their affiliate network – so you may end up with 10,000 .travel organizations. For example – http://www.australia.travel – which might be be an affiliate that specializes in Australian Travel. What the .travel extension assures you of is that the website will be industry focused – and as you would clearly know by know – .com could be anything. You can bet Real Estate will also be looking at this very closely – most likely .realestate will be a much sought after extension.

SO This is definately “GUESS WORK” at this stage…

I must say that with this announcement by ICANN it is really a guessing game who and what domain extensions will become available and really what applications will be accepted. Actually it appears to be very general in terms of FAQ’s posted on ICANN’s website in relation to the new launch. There is no specific date planned (sometime in 2009) – and basically you apply by application. There will be an application fee – but it is not clear how much the cost would be. And the rules and guidelines for the actual domain extensions are not listed anywhere.

You could assume the rules of other domain extensions would exist and that the owner of the domain extension would make their own rules (to maintain the integrity of the domain – and therefore maintain its value). Just to emphasize this point – .info extensions are now selling for $1.95 – (versus the standard $10.00 for .com’s) – based on the supply and demand of .info’s. In other words it is not seen as a very strong domain extension.

You can definitely bet that trade marks will be closely looked at in this process (more so than ever before). I am sure the only groups that can register .coke – will be Coca Cola.

The main clarification from ICANN is that these domain names will help create greater opportunity to their stakeholders (NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE SPECIFICALLY) – and also creating greater “clarity” and “opportunity” with domain name convention. I did notice that one of the ICANN board members is with GOOGLE – so that might give you some idea as to where some of the board’s direction and influence come from. I suspect GOOGLE would be clearly a “Stakeholder”.

So What Does This Mean to Search Engines?

Improving the Internet and in particular the ability for a search engine to get a web browser to “what they are actually looking for” is a high priority. From everything I have read – Web 3.0 will be the advent of much smarter search engines. Working with many clients (and my own company) on SEO – I am amazed at the amount of non relevant information that comes up on searches. So with that in mind – does this naming convention help in the search engine department?

Well my current answer is I hope so! We won’t really know until the domain names start to show up (and end up in search engines). It may be that this preludes search engines that are specifically industry or geographically focused. Of course don’t think there hasn’t been lots of search engines (including Yellow Pages) that are focused on industry categories and geography already. The fact is GOOGLE is what everyone uses to search the web. More likely these domains extensions may have a higher ranking in google when the topic is searched for – whether it be geography or industry based.

In other words someone wants to find a travel website to do some research on their upcoming trip and they search google for Australia + Travel. In today’s current search this brings up websites that contain the phase “Australia” and “Travel”. When you think about that that is a lot of ‘irrelevant websites” ranging from tourism websites to Johnny’s school project on Traveling to Australia. It may well be that a website such as www.australia.travel may have a high ranking based on its extension.

This works the same for geography. Lets say you are looking up landscape gardeners in Wilson County (TN). So you go to your favorite search engine (or you just plain old google it)… with the search words – Landscape Gardener + Wilson County + TN (as there are multiple Wilson Counties in the United States – 3 that I am aware of… makes you wonder which one might end up with .wilsoncounty as an extension) – but for this example lets say it is Wilson County, TN.

With google currently when you type in these search phrases you end up with your top ten searches including 2 Curriculum Vitae’s that mention Wilson County, a 2001 Gardening Conference website held in Wilson County, a Myspace Account from someone who lives in Wilson County, several search & business listing engines, and a few actual landscaping business.

Again it would make sense that if a .wilsoncounty extension exists that the business you are searching for with a .wilsoncounty extension  would have higher ranking (than someone’s resume). BUT – I will have to say the words you use in your search could still make it harder work for searcher (no matter how smart the search engine is). Of course if you think about this for more than a minute you may also wonder about the .gardener extension or .landscapegardner extension as an industry. It may very be that companies continue to use multiple domain name as they simply cannot control the searches key words…

Where do we go from here?

As I state constantly in my weekly blog education and learning is a key commitment to your success on the internet. For our BeareWare clients we will be looking closer at ICANN’s announcements (and more objective articles as they appear on the web) to make sure we can let our clients if and when an application may be relevant to file and what effect this may have on their business or industry in the future.

I have recognized over the last 12-24 months that geography is really important in relationship to websites (and SEO). Frankly who cares about a business located in Hong Kong when you are searching for a company in your home town. (which is more often the case than not).

The premise of being of the world wide web and accessible to people all over the planet are only important to people selling a product or service world wide. The rest are really focused on a demographic which includes a defined geography. So if ICANN does open up geography such as big cities or counties or states – and the search engines can use these extensions with assurity that they are geographically accurate – this may well be a good thing. I think the same applies for an extension within an industry.

So be sure to think about your own business, industry and geography and talk with a domain planning professional to help keep you up to date with this very interesting development…

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
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Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.