Real estate agents can get very identified with their personal web sites, and with good reason. While you won't be up at 2AM changing its diapers, you will be bringing a unique form of marketing into life; one that anyone in the world can see, at anytime, day or night. Even at 2AM.

Thankfully, the facts of life for web sites are simpler than for babies: The right name can help your web site grow, whereas the wrong name has the potential to stunt its growth.

Marketing, marketing, marketing!

Choosing a name for your web site is a marketing issue. Forget about technical stuff. Forget about search engines. Forget about what the other agents named their web sites. Instead, think marketing: How will a typical customer or prospect respond to your web site name? How does it fit in with your overall marketing strategy? Will it draw people to your site? Or will it get in the way?

Notice that I did not say, "Ask people if they like the name." You'll get all kinds of reasoned, helpful responses, but most of them you should probably ignore. This is not a popularity contest. You should like your web site name, but make marketing effectiveness, not popularity, your primary consideration. Measure marketing effectiveness by traffic, leads, and sales. The name should help you make money. If it does that -- I guarantee that you will like it.

Avoid generic Names

While everyone was leaping mindlessly over cliffs at the height of the dot-com hysteria, paying outrageous sums for generic domain names like RealEstate.com, where are these sites now?

Maybe having a domain name like NewYorkHomes.com is nice. But when someone goes to find your site, couldn't they just as well type in NYHomes.com, NewYorkCityHomes.com, or NYCHomes.com? Not to mention NewYorkRealEstate.com, ManhattanRealEstate.com, or ManhattanHomes.com? And there are dozens more variations.

Generic names get lost easily on the web, and also in people's minds. Go shopping for generic domains, and you end up battling with domain "squatters" who want silly sums of money for names they've paid for but don't use. At Great Domains, as I write this, AspenHomesForSale.com will set you back $16,000. But you could register the following names for $35 or less: HomesForSaleAspen.com, HomesForSaleInAspen.com, Aspen-Houses.com, SoldInAspen.com, AspenHomeSeller.com, etc. If we did a CMA on the internet "neighborhood" in Aspen, do you think that AspenHomesForSale.com would have a comparative valuation of $16k?

When Generic Names Are Good

If you can get YourCityHomes.com or YourCityRealEstate.com -- do it -- just don't make it the primary name for your web site. Get another domain name that is not generic, and make it the cornerstone of your online marketing.

I know, I just said avoid generic names. But these are the most common forms of generic names, and some people will simply type this in without even knowing whether or not there is a web site attached to the name. You'll get some "free" traffic just by having a name like this. It's sort of like doing a search, except that you type the keywords into the most obvious web site name, and see what happens to be there.

People like this will type in DallasHomes.com and DallasRealEstate.com, which makes the agents who own those domains very happy. But the majority of your prospects won't type in HomesInDallas.com, Dallas-Homes.com, Dallas-Real-Estate.com, or any of the dozens or hundreds of other variations that you or I can come up. So don't bother with those.

How much traffic will you enjoy, simply by having one of the most common generic web site names? It will vary, but I am suspicious of how valuable this type of traffic is in the first place. What if it is predominantly domain squatters and real estate agents? If the domain costs $35 a year or less, you can't lose. But if you have to start negotiating with squatters, I'm not so sure it's worth your time or money.

Make your domain name easy to remember

So forget generic domains. You want a name for your web site that is hard to forget. This is the most important thing you should consider. People have to remember your site name, plain and simple. They might hear or see it only once. So you had better craft a name that sticks in their mind. When a homeowner is finally ready to act -- be it a day, a week, or even a year later -- you want them to be able to remember the name of your Web site.

One example should prove my point: BigAppleDreams.com vs. Manhattan-NYCrealestate.com. Which name do you remember -- even now?

I don't think it is a coincidence that the most famous web site is named Yahoo.com, and not WebSiteDirectory.com. Yahoo! is simply one of the greatest business names ever. I heard it once and never forgot it. I bet you didn't either.

Published: March 22, 2001

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Lawrence Schoeffler is Vice President of Dominion Homes Web Services and founder of NUMBER1EXPERT. Dominion Homes Web Services includes Advanced Access, Agent Advantage by Homes.com, and Best Image Marketing, and is a division of Dominion Enterprises. Advanced Access is the industry leader in agent websites. More agents invest in an Advanced Access website than any other. Agent Advantage is the official agent website service of Homes.com, one of the most popular real estate portals in America. NUMBER1EXPERT by Best Image offers America's Top Performing Web Sites, with traffic and leads unequalled in the industry, sold exclusively to Top Selling Agents. Email Lawrence at .