# Website Name, Strategy Question



## ironhead (Dec 28, 2005)

A couple questions I have and would like to hear others thoughts.

1. Website Name 
Would it be to any advantage in the search engines or for other people to find your site by making a website name such as "zebragifts.com" compared to a name such as "stripedworld.com"? 
My thought is that people are more likely to type zebra gifts in their search engine then they would striped world so this would bring more potential traffic. Am I right by assuming this?

2. 
Would it be better to have a couple websites that are targeted at only one product, say one site for dogs, one site for pigs, and one site for zebras then it would having only one website that aimed at all three products?
My thought is that three sites are better than one and you could still have a link in each site you make to the other sites. 

Would love to hear what you all think.
Thanks, Todd


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

I'm a little confused. What are you selling?


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## ironhead (Dec 28, 2005)

lawaughn said:


> I'm a little confused. What are you selling?


Selling nothing yet, that's the problem lol 
I was basically just thinking of setting up a couple different T-shirt sites dedicated to one particular item to see if it got more traffic that way. Example, A monkey T-shirt site that only sold T-shirts with different monkey on them.
The animal references are just used as an example, There probably not even what I'll try selling.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

ironhead said:


> 1. Website Name
> Would it be to any advantage in the search engines or for other people to find your site by making a website name such as "zebragifts.com" compared to a name such as "stripedworld.com"?


If there is an advantage, it is very very slight. Not enough to register a totally separate site name for if you already have one picked out.

Unless a person is typing in zebragifts.com into their browser address bar window, you won't get much benefit from the keyword in the domain. Some, but not much.



> My thought is that people are more likely to type zebra gifts in their search engine then they would striped world so this would bring more potential traffic. Am I right by assuming this?


You are right in assuming that more people would search for zebra gifts than striped world, but you are wrong in assuming that having domain that says zebragifts.com will help you significantly and effect your search engine results.

You can rank well for zebra gifts by following some standard search engine optmization practices (see this page at Google for lots of helpful info - here are some more basic SEO steps you can do to help your site out). You also have to account for the "time" factor when trying to rank well for certain keywords. 





> Would it be better to have a couple websites that are targeted at only one product, say one site for dogs, one site for pigs, and one site for zebras then it would having only one website that aimed at all three products?


Depends on the type of t-shirt site you want to become. Sites like choiceshirts and t-shirtking are known for being sort of "one stop" destinations for t-shirts. Customers can return there knowing they can find a wide variety of t-shirt designs.

Since the examples you gave were all related (all types of animals), then it doesn't seem like it would be useful to make 3 different sites that have related t-shirts. I would lump them all under one "animal t-shirt" themed website and create categories for zebras, dogs, and pigs. That way customers know they can visit your site for all types of ANIMAL t-shirts (and not have to visit 3 different sites to satisfy their animal tshirt buying needs).

It would be easy to make the site both search engine and people friendly with a site structure like 
example.com (home page explaining all types of animal stuff you sell and some featured products)

*example.com/zebratshirts*
category page containing pictures of all types of zebra t-shirt images and links to the individual product page where they can click the all important add-to-cart button. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.

*example.com/zebratshirts/happyzebra.html*
individual product page that shows a large image of the happy zebra design. Page contains compelling marketing text for the t-shirt design, the add to cart button and any info that would help the customer's buying decision. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.

*example.com/dogtshirts*
category page containing pictures of all types of dog t-shirt images and links to the individual product page where they can click the all important add-to-cart button. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.

*example.com/dogtshirts/happydog.html*
individual product page that shows a large image of the happy dog design. Page contains compelling marketing text for the t-shirt design, the add to cart button and any info that would help the customer's buying decision. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.

*example.com/pigtshirts*
category page containing pictures of all types of pig t-shirt images and links to the individual product page where they can click the all important add-to-cart button. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.

*example.com/pigtshirts/happypig.html*
individual product page that shows a large image of the happy pig design. Page contains compelling marketing text for the t-shirt design, the add to cart button and any info that would help the customer's buying decision. Page should follow the basic SEO guidelines linked to above.



> My thought is that three sites are better than one and you could still have a link in each site you make to the other sites.


I think one easy to navigate, well themed, site is better than 3 separate sites that would require a person to leave the site to find and continue shopping for related information.

With one site with different categories, you show customers that they have a wide selection of designs to choose from. This is something that I've noticed customers care about when they visit a t-shirt shopping site.

One great site with lots of related designs is better than 3 sparce sites that should be combined into one.

That's just my opinion though


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## ironhead (Dec 28, 2005)

Wow, That's a lot of great info Rodney.
I didn't really want to start multiple sites because I knew it would just mean taking up too much time. I'll probably just keep plugging away at the one I have, trying to make it better.

Thanks alot, as always
Todd


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

Rodney you rock.


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