Domain Names A great domain name will complement your traffic building efforts. Register a domain name that’s easy to remember. Stay away from long hard to spell domain names. Also, avoid domain names with hyphens and numbers. Ask yourself, “Will people remember my domain name?” Test the domain name with your friends, family, and existing customers. Ask them about their opinion. You might love the domain name, while others would struggle with spelling or remembering it. If you must have the hard to spell domain name, buy the misspelled version too. Domain names are cheap to register. It’s worth buying domains that might be mistyped or misspelled versions of your primary domain. For a small investment, you can correct your customers spelling errors. Make your domain name easy to read. Which of the following is easier to read? www.triumphontheweb.com or www.TriumphOnTheWeb.com Capitalizing the first letter of each word helps your reader. The easier it is to read the easier it is to remember. Don’t buy the .net version of a domain if the .com version is no longer available. Having the .net version only is going to result in loss of revenue for your business to the business that owns the .com version of the domain. Directories Submit your site to directories. There are several major directories such as “The Open Directory Project” you should consider, but don’t ignore the smaller niche directories either. A listing in a directory will result in a link to your site. More importantly, the link is from a relevant directory category. Another advantage of links from directories is that they are one-way links pointing to your site, which is considered more valuable than reciprocal links. Hosting A reliable web hosting company has to be part of your traffic building strategy. There is nothing more frustrating than clicking on a search result that leads to a website that is offline. Selecting an inadequate hosting company could result in loss of traffic. You work hard to drive traffic to your site. Don’t let a substandard hosting company undo your efforts. Some directories offer free listings while others only offer paid listings. Paid listings usually result in faster listings while free listings can take months or longer. In addition to the financial commitment to getting your site listed in directories, there is a significant time commitment. Directory listings can be easily outsourced on websites such as elance.com. Another alternative is to hire a student.