Domain Extensions Battlefield
March 29, 2006
Hosts do everything to attract new customers. From ‘Free domain name promotions’ and ’$1 Domain names’ to ‘Free Domain Name for Lifetime’, all those are just a small part of marketing techniques hosting companies use to get new customers. Of course there’s nothing free so you always paid one way or another.
But besides the web hosting services there is a domain market where the battle is even more cruel. The Wall Street Journal today published an article about domain dispute over .NU domain extension.
.NU indicates “Niue”, a tiny South Pacific island near Tonga. Dot-nu is the national internet suffix of this country but it has become very popular in Sweden because “.nu” means “now” in swedish.
A internet entrepreneur Bill Semich, from Massachusetts got .Nu licence in the late 90’s and started exploring it. He thought .nu would be a cheaper alternative to expensive at this time dot-com domains. The american market has not took in the idea of dot-nu domains, however good news came from Sweden where about 110,000 domains has been sold from Mr. Semich’s company called “NU Domain Ltd.”.
Once the domain name business of the american businessman has become profitable the Niue island authorities has opened dispute against the ownership over the domain name. Getting money from exploring exploiting the NU domain is important for the island and its 1200 inhabitants. The local government says that it can raise money from dot-nu selling.
Whos’s Right and Whos’ Wrong
The big questions is should the governments have to receive the right to control their country’s top level domain (TLD) or it is better a private companies to maintain domain under certain regulations?
Mr. Semich who invested more that $100.000 in its dot-nu business has brought the internet to Niue. He made the people from the small island the world’s first nation with free internet access to all citizens by building an wireless network in Niue. He say his company pays voluntary a part of its profit to the local government.
The expression of his interest was at first welcomed by the Niue’s authorities. Now the managing director of the local Telecom says that taking control over the domain name is “a huge issue of national development for us” and insist the Niue must take the ownership over dot-nu from the businessman.
This is typical bureaucratic reaction you can see worldwide. Governments didn’t pay attention on internet and online communications in the 80’s and in the beginning of 90′ and even put obstacles to new internet companies. There are still countries like Cuba, where the possession of computer and the use of internet connection is prohibited.
Now governments realize the importance and the power of the internet and most of them are trying to control it. The niue government claimed in 2003 that Mr. Semich company must be licenced and the telecom minister shut down the internet service that hos company provided to the citizens. The minister Toke Talagi even sent request to ICCAN to transfer the ownership and management of the dot-nu to the island’s government.
The things would went wrong for the US entrepreneur but local people began to miss the internet service. So restoring the internet service has become a big political issue and a part of the election campaign in Niue in late 2003. A few days before election day, the interim prime minister allowed the “NU Domain Ltd.” to reopen the islands wireless network.
People got their free wi-fi. Now the authorities are negotiating with the american businessman to increase the benefits the Niue receives from the domain name.
The story is available on WSJ’s web site. The article’s name is “Catchy Web Name Sparks a Battle“.
Meta Tags. Do They Help Your Website To Get Better Search Results?
March 29, 2006
The answer is “No”, but finishing this way I’ll the author of the most meaningless article ever written. So I keep writing.
I have a client that needed to get good rank in Google on “Business Hosting”, “Website Hosting, “Web Hosting” and “Hosting Provider”. Changing the Meta Tags for their web site and buiilding a good link portfolio helped me to get good results. The web host has achieved to get ranked on the first page in google on search results “Business Hosting” and have been ranked bbetween top 60 on “Website Hosting” and “Web Hosting”.
I failed to put them among Top 100 search results on “Hosting Provider” but we’ve been very close and they got rankem among frist 120 listings.
Of course this campaign has been a part of the ‘link trading era’ that ended when Google changed the algorith. Now everione shal be very patient if they need to get igh rank on any keywords and must not try to spam the search engines.
Many people involved to web business will tell you that Meta Tags are not so important and you can even miss them. It is true that you can fine well ranked web sites that do not use metas. At the same time I recomend you to use them. It is important to know that Meta Tags can affect your website rank on both “positive” and “negative” way. You will learn something about Meta tags creation below that would help you to avoid mistakes.
Be adviced that I’m not so called “SEO Guru” so I’ll target your attention to all the articles and web site I find useful on this matter.
The (TITLE)
You have to put your Metas before those two brackets - (HEAD) and (HEAD). “Head” marks this part of your web site that is placed on the top of your web page HTML code (unless if yo uuse any scripts and special coding).
The firs line of Meta tags is the “Title” - (TITLE)(/TITLE). You have 2 different ways to fill it. The first one is to describe your website, service area and to place important words related to your business there. The second one is to put your business name and to explain what surfers wil lfind on your web site. Let’s say you run your own web design studio, your brand’s name is WDS and you offer graphic design, html and flash animation. Title of you meta tags would be
(TITLE)Web Design, HTML, Graphic Design and Flash Animation(/TITLE)
or
(TITLE)WDC - Web Design Studio, HTML, Graphic Design, Flash(/TITLE)
You can create your title by using different style and combinations. It depends of what do you find important. I can suggest you only not to put the popular keywords in your title and to try to compete to ranked web sites. They are there not because they put “Web Design” in front of their Meta tag title but because they are popular web design resources - providers, media or other web sites related to the web design indusry.So nobody can make better decision than you. You know your business objectives and you know what you are going to do with your business. So place it between those brackets up there.
Are the Meta Tag Important for Google, Yahoo, MSN and othe Search Engines?
Yes! I know that many people who understand the website optimization better than I do would say they are not. Google says it doesn’t count Meta Tags when its algorithm creates search results. But at the same time Meta Tags are still very imporatn for Google. I’ve managed some websites and campaigns that have been ranked on the first pages because meta tags, domain name and the site content have been recognized as useful from Google… They are useful but I can make a bet those sites would never get their rankings if the Meta Tags were wrong. So it is important what your metas say. Even if the Search Engines don’t care, people who search do.
Content and Keywords
My suggestion for “Content” tag is to put text that best describes your business and services. Don’t say your company or web site are “the best”. Just explain your business and service. If we talk about “our design studio” mentioned above it would be
(META name=”description” content=”WDC - Web Desgin, HTML and Flash Animation. Take a our portfolio and contact us if you need a stylish website.”)
The “Keywords” tag generally includes all the words that are realted to your business, services, location and etc.
(META name=”keywords” content=”web design,design,html,flash,new york,small business”)
You can include a number of keywords that describe your business.
These 3 meta Tag lines are enough. Since this is a blog but not a SE service website or SE Tutorial, I’m not gonna write more on SE optimization. Here ar some sites where you can find useful information.
http://www.philb.com/metatag.htm,
http://searchenginewatch.com/examples/article.php/2168041,
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2165061,
http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/meta-tags-uncovered.html#google
