Location, location, location: Your web address is critical to your brand

Slide 1: Location, location, location Your web address is critical to your brand

Slide 2: What is a web address? • It isn’t, actually, a location: • Not even in a virtual sense • It is a pointer to a location: • More like a Windows shortcut or Mac alias • It can point at nothing! • But it is of course only any good when it points to a functioning web space: • Your web host’s web server

Slide 3: You cannot own a web address but you can lease one Registries internic.org [.com, .net, .org and others] nominet.org.uk [.co.uk, .org.uk and others] Registrants You and me! Registrars Internet Service Providers (ISP) Specialists like 123-reg.co.uk Web hosting service providers

Slide 4: Top and second level domains An indicator of your business scope Commercial entities yourbusiness.com yourbusiness.co.uk yourbusiness.uk.com yourbusiness.gb.com yourbusiness.ltd.uk yourbusiness.plc.uk yourbusiness.eu Network infrastructure yourbusiness.net yourbusiness.net.uk providers yourbusiness.uk.net yourbusiness.gb.net Non-commercial entities yourbusiness.org yourbusiness.org.uk Educational entities yourbusiness.edu yourbusiness.sch.uk Others yourbusiness.biz yourbusiness.me.uk yourbusiness.info yourbusiness.mobi

Slide 5: What’s in a web address (URL) 37 characters: countless permutations abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz- 0123456789 but they’re not all good!…

Slide 6: Home sweet home or not… Experts Exchange was a knowledge base where programmers could exchange advice and views at… www.expertsexchange.com Looking for a pen? You could have looked no further than Pen Island at… www.penisland.net Screenshots from www.archive.org

Slide 7: Home sweet home or not… PowerGen generated all sorts of interest in Italy at… www.powergenitalia.com Australian horticulturists, David and Sarah Caldwell, hadn’t quite thought things through at… www.molestationnursery.com Screenshots from www.archive.org

Slide 8: Web domainstorming Try out word combinations and have other similar ones suggested, and then check for their availability (albeit with American top level domains) at… www.domainsbot.com Check all the main UK domains (and the main global ones) at… www.123-reg.co.uk

Slide 9: I’m free WHOIS says “I’m not!”

Slide 10: Check your competition And your ‘neighbours’

Slide 11: Location, location, location Some guidelines • Keep your web address as short as you can • But not at the expense of clarity • eg: TheSolentElectronicHome.co.uk or SolentElectronicHome.co.uk or tseh.co.uk • Consider misspellings • Research your neighbourhood • Consider secondary addresses • YourBusiness.co.uk and .com and ? • Make sure your registrar is flexible

Slide 12: This presentation available at www.slideshare.net/tag/impact-071031