Just read an article about how local domain name registrar AusRegistry has taken its first global expansion steps and has signed a deal to provide services in the Middle East.
Now, I think that it’s great that an Australian domain name authority is expanding to other countries. This is a great thing for Australia and reinforces our high level of technical competency in a field that is monopolised by the US.
The Middle East has been the fastest growing country for internet usage over the past 8 years (with a whopping 1,176.8 % uptake… with Africa being the only other country that has come close with an uptake of 1,031.2 %).
It will be very interesting to see how AusRegistry, and the domain industry in general evolves over the coming years. You can read the full article here.
Just had a client ask me to register a new domain name for them and it was roughly 40 characters long.
Now it can be a good thing to try and incorporate some keywords that you want to rank for in the search engines into your domain name. The search engines favour domains that include a keyword or two because it indicates a little more relevance and when other sites link to you, it’s a lot more likely you’ll get keywords mentioned because many websites will use your URL as the anchor text.
But there is definitely a point when you can try and cram too much stuff into a name so that it becomes ridiculous.
Having a website should be designed to make things as easy as possible for your clients, making it easier for you to sell your products. To provide a resource that’s available 24/7 to answer all your clients frequently asked questions so they don’t have to call or email you. To reinforce your brand, reputation and authority.
Having a domain name that is too long doesn’t help achieve any of those things and you’ll often find that:
- It makes it more difficult for people to spell (and the longer the name, the greater the chance that people will misspell it)
- It makes it harder for people to remember
- Sometimes if a name is too long, it will deter people from wanting to contact you simply because it takes too long to type
- It could raise red flags from the search engines and savvy users who are aware that placing a keyword in your domain can be a good thing… but when the domain is very long and appears to include multiple keywords, it can make your site appear spammy
At the end of the day, your site should be an aid for your business, not a hindrance and if your choice of domain name is too difficult, you’ll be seriously limiting your potential success online.
Australia sees surge in domain names with the number of .au registrations predicted to hit the one million mark this month.
Since 2002 the number of commercial .au names has risen by over 750,000 and Adrian Kinderis, managing director of AusRegistry says
“The growth of .au is nothing short of astounding, .au has sustained an impressive 25 per cent growth each year for the past 5 years”
So what are you waiting for - get your piece of the Australian domain market - call us on 1300 664 643 to secure your domain!
The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) selected Peter Dengate Thrush, 52, over telecommunications expert Roberto Gaetano, of Italy, to head the nine-year-old agency tasked with handling domain names and issues related to allowing internet computers to find websites and route email.
Read more here
The IT section of The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that MELBOURNE IT is expecting strong growth for the rest of 2007 after the domain name registry business more than doubled first half net profit
Melbourne IT are a great company and I have been a reseller of theirs in the past, so I have no problems with them, although at the prices they charge it’s no wonder they’re doing so well!
