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Mastering your domain
By Tu-Uyen Tran, Herald Staff Writer Grand Forks Herald, July 29, 2000
He's sitting on one of the more valuable pieces of real estate in cyberspace, the Web domain www.Worktables.com. When he registered that name in 1998, Morrissey said he paid $70 for it. Since then, he's been offered $10,000 for the rights ö and he's not selling. Why not? Because the Web site is getting him customers from as far afield as Connecticut. More than half his sales this year, so far, was facilitated by the Internet. No, location isn't dead, it's just changed address. Location is important on the Web the same way it is in the real world: A business that can't be found is a business without customers. In cyberspace there are lots of ways not to be found. According to Network Solutions Inc., a Herndon, Va., company that registers domain names, there are more than 14 million Web domains on the Internet and 2,300 more every hour. In that vast field, one name is just a point of a needle in a haystack. A generic name like Worktables.com increases those odds immensely. Another way to even the odds is making top ranking in a directory such as Yahoo! or search engines like AltaVista. Name game Getting a domain name isn't difficult. Just go to one of a dozen or so domain registrars and apply for a name. The initial cost is $70, good for two years. Every year after that, the renewal cost is $35. A list of registrars as well as which names have been taken are at the U.S. Commerce Department's www.InterNIC.net site. The trick isn't in the registration, it's in the names you choose. The folks at Crookston-based Red River Trade Corridor, an economic development group, offer several naming tips:
The joy of metatags Of course, there's more to getting found than a domain name. Remember, there's 14 million of them and not everybody will get one as posh as Worktables.com. What sifts the chaff from the wheat here are the Web directories and search engines. Chances are, many of Morrissey's customers didn't find him by typing worktables.com randomly into their browser. If they have typed "worktables" or "worktable" into Yahoo! Scribe Rite Steel would've been the only name to pop up. Yahoo! Is what's called a directory, created by human editors who sort through the numerous sites submitted by Web surfers. Search engines use software to seek out relevant Web sites and tend not be as picky, or as accurate, as directories. Both require you to submit your company's Web site, a process that can take several weeks. In general, search engines pick through words and phrases in a Web site. They look for text on the home page, on the title bar (text that appears on the top of the browser) or keywords called "metatags" embedded in the page's coding. When a Web surfer types in what they're looking for, the search engine spits out a list of Web sites that best matches the surfer's criteria. The objective for every online business is to be at the top of that list when a customer looks for them. Making it to the top is matter of "self-recognition," according to Bruce Brorson, University of Minnesota-Crookston professor and a technology consultant at Red River Trade Council. He suggest asking yourself who your customers are and what you do. Red River's Web site, for example, uses the key phrases "manufacturers," "e-business strategy" and "e-commerce technology." Mark Schill is an information systems manager at Market Gateway, a marketing Web site, and with consulting firm CEO Praxis, both in Grand Forks. His advice: specific and short key phrases tend to be more effective. "Fewer keywords means those words have more power," Schill said. Fooling around But don't think of messing around with the search engines, just because there's no human editor at work. "Tomfoolery is not advised," said Schill. Tricks such as putting in keywords that don't pertain to the page (such as the ever popular "sex") will result in your Web site being dropped, he said. Some engines will also drop a Web site that isn't updated often enough, according to Red River Trade Council consultants. They suggest using special software that submits Web sites to search engines. The software, they said, knows the rules that govern each search engine, making submissions more effective. Schill sees many such software as a "shotgun approach," preferring manual submissions. Trial and error is best, he said. Either way, it's a good idea to focus your efforts on the most popular search engines and directories. The Web site www.searchenginewatch.com has several rankings for search engines. Popular Web sites such as Yahoo! May get visited by more than 60 percent Web surfers, while ones such as Direct Hit might get just 6.3 percent. That can make a big difference between getting found and being lost.
Scribe-Rite started out making rigid, adjustable-height tables for Polaris Industries Inc.'s factory in Roseau, MN, in 1995. With the help of its Web site, sales now go to 14 states. Morrisey's big problem these days is dealing with the growth. Emails are coming in from China, France, Saudi Arabia and numerous other countries. The trouble is, Morrisey hasn't figured out how to ship overseas yet ö the smallest table weighs 200 pounds. He gives much of the credit for his success to the Web site, but it still baffles him. "This stuff is obviously over my head," he said. |
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In
this age of the Internet, a company could be located in
the farthest corner of the smallest town in Minnesota
and still be on the doorstep of all the world's Web
surfers. But that doesn't mean you'll be hearing the end
of that old mantra "location, location, location"
anytime soon. Just ask Tom Morrissey, owner of
Scribe-Rite Steel Inc. in Gatzke, Minn.