Did you know that your web site can have as many names as you want? You could register a dozen different domains, and have every one of them lead to your web site. More agents than you would expect do this. Some literally grab dozens of names.

Luckily, you need only one primary domain name for your web site. One name that you put on ALL your marketing materials, in every print ad, in every listing, on all your sign riders -- everywhere. One name that you tell everyone. Beyond that, how many more do you need?

If your web site name has an ambiguous word in it, like for/4, you should get all versions. Cover all your bases. Don't let someone type in PaulaForPittsburgh.com, and not get your site, Paula4Pittsburg.com. Get both.

Get your name, too. No matter what your marketing strategy is, your name will work with it. Even if you never use this domain, it is nice to know you have it just in case. There might only be a handful of people in the world with with your name, but sooner or later, you KNOW that one of you will register it. Better it be you.

Yes, most last names have probably already been snapped up. But full names are another matter. While Johnson.com is most assuredly long gone, JessicaJohnson.com very well might not be... Until, of course, one of those other Jessica Johnsons registers YOUR name.

If you can get the most generic forms of real estate domain names for your area, YourCityRealEstate.com and YourCityHomes.com, do it. They have some intrinsic value, because you might get some traffic from them. But don't worry about any other variations of generic names, such as YourCity-Real-Estate.com, RealEstateYourCity.com, YourCity-Homes.com, HomesYourCity.com, etc. It's not worth it. You won't get any traffic just for the name, and you'll end up with a non-distinct, generic name.

Should you acquire a bunch of domain names to keep other competitors from grabbing them? I don't think so. You'll quickly find that the cost adds up real fast, because there are countless variations of domain names: AlbequerqueHomes.com, HomesAlbequerque.com, Albequerque-Homes.com, Homes-Albequerque.com, HomesInAlbequerque.com, AlbequerqueNMHomes.com, AlbequerqueNewMexicoHomes.com... You could never get them all. It just goes on and on. It's not worth it. Those are all generic and less than memorable names anyhow. Only AlbequerqueHomes.com and AlbequerqueRealEstate.com have any intrinsic value.

You can also get additional names to help you track your marketing investments. When you try out a new place to advertise your listings, for example, use a different domain name. Then you can see EXACTLY how much response this investment yields, via your traffic reports. You could just use a unique web page within your existing domain for the same purpose, but an entirely new domain has the added benefit of being unrecognizable. At least until they get to your site.

To keep annoying squatters off your back, you might want to grab the .NET "top level" domain variation of your web site name. People are familiar with .NET domains. The general public is not familiar with the others, like .WS and .TV. Nor are they familiar with the new top level domains, soon to be released, including .INFO, .PRO, and .BIZ. It is still questionable to me whether these will ever be more than poor second cousins to the head of the family: .COM. While .NET is an acknowledged clear second choice to .COM, it is still pretty well known, and has the perception of being mainstream. The others create the opposite impression.

Don't worry about getting another web site name just for search engines. Some people get names stuffed with key words, separated by dashes, just for this purpose. You end up with an awkward at best domain name, like Little-Rock-Arkansas-Real-Estate-Homes-For-Sale-And -The-Kitchen-Sink-Too.com. Names like this are just awful for marketing purposes. As far as search engines go, why bother? All things being equal, putting some key words into a web site name will NOT put you at the top of any search engine. And search engines are now smart enough to know that it is the same site, with two different names. They'll just ignore every name but one.

Remember: Choose one good name that is easy to remember, and works with your marketing. Then stick with it. Don't have a half dozen web site names floating around on your marketing communications. Don't change names so often that people can't keep up. Be consistent. Make the right choice from the beginning. Then teach the public your web address, so that whenever they need real estate information, they remember it. If you so choose, get the other web site names for specific reasons, such as the ones I outlined above, and simply make sure they point to your web site. Other than that, tell everyone your primary web site name, and use the others only by design.

Published: April 19, 2001

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