Keyword Domains Have A Major Impact on Business

Christy Grimste has three interesting domains. literarylinens.com, dallasbankruptcysettlements.com, and educatorsoverseas.com.  She manages dallasbankruptcysettlements.com for her father who is a bankruptcy lawyer in Dallas and literarylinens.com for her sister who owns Literary Linens, a company which sells embroidered linen napkins. She is the director/manager of Educators Overseas, a company which places U.S. teachers in international schools overseas.

Mike:  How has owning these domains impacted your business?

Christy:  These domains, with the key words they include, have had a major impact on business. Actually I have you to thank for part of that! Dallasbankruptcysettlements.com used to just be bankruptcysettlements.com which did draw some quality traffic because of the key words in the name. But it wasn’t until I read your article on geographical domain names that I got smart and added dallas to the front. For all the sites, having the business’s key words in the domain name has definitely made SEO easier. And, since Literary Linens and Educators Overseas are also the business names, it makes the website memorable and easy for customers.

Mike:  Can you share the volume of traffic that your sites receive?

Christy:  Around 5000 unique visitors per month for educatorsoverseas. The other two domain names are newer so the traffic is still less than 1000. But the traffic we do get is quality, since the businesses are all niche, and many turn into customers.

Mike:  What online marketing strategies do you follow?

Christy:  Mainly SEO, including listings in industry directories, quality back links, and periodic press releases. Sometimes for niche projects we do google ads, but that gets expensive pretty quick. We are also starting to do some small advertising on blogs, but SEO remains the most important.

Mike:  Did you purchase either name from someone else that owned it?

Christy:  We didn’t buy any of the domain names. In fact, in the case of Literary Linens and Educators Overseas the domain names actually came before the business names. We settled on the respective business names based on what domain names were available that contained our key words.

Mike:  Any advice for start ups, small business, or business of any size for that matter on choosing the right domain name?

Christy:  If you do business in a particular location, then geographical is definitely the way to go. Otherwise, make sure at least one of your key words is contained in your domain name. Even the longer names are ok as long as it describes what you do and where you are (if that’s important). Short no-word, non-descriptive names have a harder time, especially if internet traffic is your biggest source of customers – you need an SEO-friendly domain name. Also, if the name you want isn’t available try it in the plural or singular. For bankruptcysettlements.com I first approached the owner of bankruptcysettlement.com about selling and he wanted $2000. So I just added an “s” on the end and got the domain name straight out.

Mike:  Do you think you would be willing to sell your domains at any point?  Have you ever received any unsolicited offers?

Christy:  Other than a laughably low offer of $100 for literarylinens.com I haven’t received any real unsolicited offers. Since the domain names of literarylinens.com and educatorsoverseas.com are also the business names they will likely have to stay with the business. But I guess anything is possible if the price was right.