Ten great tips for choosing a domain name

One of the most important parts of creating a website is choosing a good domain name. A lot of the time, the success of the website can rest heavily on the domain name, as - if it is relevant and keyword-rich - your URL will serve to drive traffic to the site and form the foundation of subsequent marketing campaigns.

Here are 10 top tips you should follow when choosing a domain name:

• Make the domain memorable - the more it stands out, the greater the chance of people remembering it and returning to the site.


• Include keywords in your domain - for example, if you sell used family cars, you could have a domain such as "usedfamilycars.com".


• Make the domain as unique as possible - your URL will blend in and potentially get lost in the crowd if you choose something like "greatcars.com" among alternatives such as "goodcars.com" or "nicecars.com".


• The shorter the domain, the better - this ensures that your domain is easier to remember and users are less likely to make mistakes.


• Make the domain easy to spell - this also minimises the amount of possible errors that could be made by the user.


• Try and match your company, service or product name to the domain - for example instead of "www.agreatcar.com" have "www.astonmartin.com".


• If you can’t register the exact same name as your company, product or service make sure that it is easy for existing customers to remember, and isn’t vastly different from your company name.


• Avoid using hyphens - users are more likely to forget them or enter them incorrectly.


• Avoid using numbers, unless they are present in the name of the company or product. Users may type the domain incorrectly - for example, they may type "threewizards.com" instead of "3wizards.com".


• Try to get Top Level Domains (TLDs) if possible, such as ".com", ".co.uk", ".co", ".net" or ".org" instead of smaller, less well-known domains.


• Register as many TLDs as you can - if you buy "brilliantcars.com" try and get the ".net", ".co.uk" and as many others that are suitable as possible. This means that you can stop competitors having similar domains, with the possibility of losing customers to them.


• Get a country-specific domain if it is relevant - for example, if your product is only sold in Canada, use the ".ca" domain.

The Future of Typography and the Web

Last week it was announced that Adobe was partnering with Typekit to bring some of Adobe's best and most famous fonts to the forefront of the web. There are many advantages to using a service such as Typekit on the web and it not only lets websites look more textured - through the use of a wider arrangement of fonts - but it is also one of the easiest font replacement technologies currently available.

For those unfamiliar with Typekit or font replacement, the advantage is this: services such as Typekit make it possible to use fonts that otherwise might not be available. Previously, there was no way to know if a user had a particular font installed.

For example, a website designer chose to use the font Museo Slab (pictured below) for a heading, rather than Helvetica. The Museo Slab font may not be installed on a user's computer and, as a result, the viewer would see another, more-basic font. The beauty of a service like Typekit, is that these “special” fonts are stored on a server, and then displayed to any viewer when a site loads. This means users are going to see the site as it was designed.



So what does this mean for the future of typography on the web? Well, quite simply, it means user experiences can only get richer. By having a wider array of typography available to use, website design companies can create visually pleasing websites without sacrificing search engine optimisation. For example, where designers may have had to use images for titles or headings before (in order to produce the most-aesthetically pleasing visuals), static text can now be used.

It's interesting to see where this feature takes web design trends in regards to typography on the web. Still, we must remember that technology changes all the time – and just because we have the ability to use hundreds of fonts, doesn't necessarily mean that we should (at least not all on the same website or page). As Brian Hoff of The Design Cubicle stated, "With beautiful type comes great responsibility."

What do you think the future holds for typography on the web? Are there any particular features that you would like to see?

theEweekly Wrap - Schmidt, Facebook Places and Yahoo

Schmidt on the social

Google boss Eric Schmidt shared a warning with social media users this week, arguing that individuals were not aware of how much personal information they were placing online. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt said that people should be more wary about the details they were posting to social websites such as Twitter and Facebook. "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time... I mean we really have to think about these things as a society," he commented. The interview with Eric Schmidt also hinted at Google's continuing efforts to build a successful social media channel. Commenting in the piece, Wall Street Journal reporter Holman W. Jenkins JR, wrote: "Not that Google is a doubter of the value of social media. Mr. Schmidt awards Facebook his highest accolade, calling it a "company of consequence." And though "there is a lot of hot air, a lot of venture money" in the sector right now, he predicts that one or two more "companies of consequence" will be born among the horde of new players just coming to life now."

You are here

Location-based social networks moved into the spotlight this week as both Facebook and Foursquare hit the headlines. Facebook stole the limelight on Wednesday evening after the social media site announced Facebook Places, a new feature (currently only available in the US) which allows users to 'tag' themselves into venues via Facebook mobile. Naturally, the move was closely watched by Foursquare, arguably the leading geo-tagging company currently on the market, although its CEO Dennis Crowley took a zen-like view of the competition, stating: "Facebook is building this stuff because they have to, not because they want to. Facebook is about sharing experiences that you’ve had. Foursquare is more about the present tense and the future tense." Indeed, Foursquare's rising status got a boost this week after it was revealed that global fashion brand GAP and UK-retailer Next had launched offers on the service. Currently, Dominos, Starbucks and theEword are just some of the businesses using the channel to promote their wares.

The Last Yahoo

SEO companies began to see the effects of the Yahoo-Microsoft alliance this week as the two companies took the final steps towards Bing-powered results in Yahoo SERPs. On Monday, Yahoo released the news that the company was initiating Bing search technology into its listings, revealing that US and Canadian users would start to see listings - produced via the Microsoft platform - from the end of the week. The announcement sees the final steps of a deal which was signed in 2009, allowing Yahoo to show organic and paid results from the Microsoft engine. Writing on the official Yahoo blog, Shashi Seth, senior vice president of Yahoo Search Products, said: "Later this week, we will begin transitioning the back-end technology for Yahoo! Search in the US and Canada (English) over to the Microsoft platform, and will post an update when the organic search transition is complete for both Web and mobile searches. Keep an eye out for the “Powered by Bing” indicator at the bottom of our search results page, which will indicate that you are viewing listings from Microsoft."

Essential Elements to Any Website: The Round Up

You should now know what elements are needed for the basis of any website. Here are some real world examples of how these elements have been put into practice.

Headers

Launchlist



Launchlist is a handy new website which helps web designers and developers track their progress via a checklist. Launchlist’s header lets the user know all the vital site information. They also have a beautifully designed logo.

Carbonmade





Carbonmade is a popular portfolio-creation website which has a brilliant logo and navigation. It utilises illustration and icon design heavily, lending itself to the relaxed tone of the site. It also draws in the user with an illustration and a Call to Action (CTA) button.

Ecoki iPhone Reader





Ecoki is an online community based around an eco lifestyle and green living. There is some amazing imagery on the site which has a huge impact in drawing in the user.

Content

Dribbble





Dribbble is an online community where creatives can share teasers of their work. On the homepage previews are displayed in a grid format complete with view count and comments. Dribbble also allow the chance to filter the content according to your wishes, giving users the choice of how to display the content before them.

Camera +





Camera + is a photography app for the iPhone which offers the ability to take photos, edit and store them in a lightbox. The website jumps right in with a great title and includes a video explaining more about the app; much more likely to convince users to buy it. Camera + also incorporates a slider, allowing users to explore all the features of the application.

Jeroen Homan





Jeroen Homan is a web designer from the Netherlands. His website clearly states his occupation, as well as providing simple navigation to entire users through the site. The website uses a grid layout to provide structure, making it easier to browse the portfolio.

Sidebars

The Design Cubicle



The Design Cubicle is a web design and logo design blog by Brian Hoff. The sidebar doesn't take focus from the content of the blog, although it is designed to be incredible easy for users to browse previous posts.

Design Shack



Design Shack is a design blog ran by Joshua Jackson, which features three sidebars in total. One is to the left of the content, and two (merged into one section) are on the right. The left sidebar includes the logo, links to essential places and advertising. The right sidebar includes links to other design blogs that are a part of the Design Shack community. This gives users a chance to find other content that may be of interest to them.

Web Designer Depot





Web Designer Depot is a web design and development blog. This website has a stunning design, utilising the sidebar in a unique way; it includes an easy-to-find search box, and links to popular or latest posts. Whilst advertising is present in the sidebar, it doesn’t detract much from the sidebar itself.

Footers

Ecoki



Following the trend of 2010, Ecoki have quite a large footer which includes a lot of information, featuring links to relevant posts or pages. They’ve then also included links to friends and recommendations, giving the users an added sense of community.

Manndible Café



Manndible Cafe is an eatery based in the USA. They use a similar style in their footer as they have elsewhere on the website. Because of the contrast between the two backgrounds, the eye is drawn to the footer. The site also use quite a personable and friendly style through the typography and imagery.

Kulturbanause



Kulturbanause is the website of a German web-designer Jonas Hellwig. Although this footer only utilises the space for quick info, it looks beautiful due to the extensive imagery used throughout.

What are your favourite websites that display these elements well?

theEweekly Wrap - Android, Google and Twitter

Android uprising

Apple's iPhone woes continued this week after statistics revealed that Android-based phones pocketed 17.2 per cent of global sales in the second quarter of this year. The news will be discomforting for Apple for a few reasons, but most notably because Android recorded an incredible 15.4 per cent jump from the same figures last year. Apple's iPhone OS meanwhile notched up a 14 per cent share of the market (up one per cent from last year). "It will be interesting to see how long Apple fans remain in denial about the power of an open versus closed platform strategy," wrote Henry Blodget in the Business Insider. Meanwhile, things weren't all that rosy for Android and Google as software manufacturer Oracle sued the firm for patent and copyright infringement over the use of Java in the Android OS.

Google image woe

While the redesign of Google image search has received a warm reception from many, SEO blog Search Engine Roundtable highlighted a previously unknown issue. The site covered a message submitted to the Google Web Search Help from staff at a New Zealand school, complaining that the new design had substantially increased their data usage. According to the school's administrator, the new-look Google image SERPs had resulted in a 130 per cent increase in bandwidth usage, rising the school's data consumption from 17GB to 39GB in one week. The message read: "We have had to shut down our whole network until we can resolve this issue. We are concerned that other schools who do not manage their own networks will have no idea this is happening."

Around the world

It's been a busy week for Twitter and everyone's favourite social network site has rarely been out of the news over the past five days. Aside from announcing a new 'tweet this' button for third-party websites, possibly the biggest news for the site came on Thursday with the news that Twitter usage has grown across the globe. Indeed, a report for comScore found usage of Twitter.com had increased globally by 109 per cent, compared to the previous year. Usage in Latin America had grown by 305 per cent, while the Asia Pacific region recorded a 243 per cent rise in users. It's worth pointing out that the survey only registered visitors to the Twitter homepage and did not count mobile usage statistics.

Essential Elements to Any Website: Part 2

Last week you saw how important it was to include a header and a content area in your website. This week, I'll be explaining a little more about the importance of sidebars and footers in web design.

Sidebar
A sidebar is more of an optional extra than an essential element, in all fairness. Though they are most popularly used as part of blog designs, sidebars can be used reasonably on all modern web pages. In blogs, having a sidebar makes navigation a much easier task. You can also include extra widgets, such as a search box, Twitter or Facebook feed and so much more. In a blog, it's also common to display the most popular posts or any extra links that might not be in your header navigation.

Footer
The footer is generally seen as a less important section of a page. However, don't let this fool you. Your footer is something that you can use to your advantage - all the information that somehow doesn't fit into your page will almost always work its way into this magical spot. If, for example, you don't have a sidebar, some elements that you would have included there could be present in your footer. You have a whole host of options, including a search box, mini contact form, links to other pages, any social media links and any accreditations.

One thing that is often overlooked, but which is one of the most important elements of a site, is to set out a detailed copyright statement. Although all original work created is automatically copyrighted to you, the copyright information in your footer clearly states this helping, however marginally, to protect your work further from those that would try to claim it as their own.

So there you have it - what I deem to be essential to any website. This list isn't foolproof by any means - there may be things you want to add in or take away. Next week I'll be presenting a round-up to end the series, including examples and best practices for each element.

In the meantime, what do you see as your essential elements to any website?

theEweekly Wrap - Social media, Google Wave, Google AdWords

On the social clock

Employers in the UK will be taking a long look at their staff's internet history after a survey revealed the extent of social media use in the work place. According to research conducted by MyJobGroup.co.uk, an estimated 55 per cent of the UK's working population access social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the office. The investigation found that six per cent of employees spent more than an hour each day checking their tweets or Facebook messages while at their desk; a stat that is thought to be costing the UK economy up to £14 billion each year. Still, before employers start locking down every social network in sight, it's worth pointing out that the research only questioned 1,000 individuals. Furthermore, out of those surveyed, 10 per cent said social media helped them be more productive. Meanwhile, Mashable's Jennifer Van Grove took a dim view of the research, stating on the site: "We’re pretty confident that those eating up company time on social networking sites were likely finding other ways to waste away an hour or more a day before the advent of Twitter and Facebook."

Waved Off

Google announced it would be pulling official support from its social application Google Wave this week, revealing the software had failed to attract a sufficient audience. The service, which boasted, amongst other things, live document collaboration between users, suffered a low uptake in interest, despite its much-hyped launch in 2009. Speaking about the decision to remove official support from the application, Urs Holsle, senior vice president of operations and Google fellow, said: "Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects." The news of Google Wave's closure comes despite a raucous reception upon launch. At the time, MC Siegler at TechCrunch wrote: "Wave offers a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale."

Trade name

PPC adverts can now include trademarked keywords according to a new Google announcement. An article on the Google AdWords Blog announced that UK, Canadian and Irish advertisers can soon start bidding on trademarked keywords. Dan Stokeley, product manager for Google AdWords wrote: "Our aim is to provide as much useful information to users as possible so that they can make better informed decisions. We believe that these changes to the ad text policy in Canada, UK and Ireland and our keyword policy change across Europe fits perfectly with this aim." The policy, which was introduced in the United States in 2009, allows advertisers to use third-party trademarks even if that trademark is not owned. "We believe that this change has helped both our users and advertisers by improving the usefulness of text ads on Google.com and across partner sites in the US," Stokeley added.

Essential Elements to Any Website: Part 1

There are many things said to make the best website. However, there are some that should be included in every site to provide a good sense of structure, and to make it easier for users to navigate and use the site. This is not to say that you should never break away from this structure – it's just a matter of knowing where and when is the best place to break the rules.

• Header
• Logo
• Navigation

• Content
• About page
• Contact page

• Sidebar (optional)
• Search bar
• Contact Form
• Popular Posts
• Twitter/Facebook Feed

• Footer

Let's take a look at some of these individually, and in a bit more detail.

Header
The header is likely to be the first thing that a user will see when they visit your site. Therefore, it is particularly important that you get across the key information about your business as quickly as possible.

With most logos being placed on the top left corner of a website, it's key that you have a good logo that communicates your brand clearly. It will be one of the first things users see, and therefore one of the things they're more likely to remember. Navigation is also important as it needs to be as intuitive as possible, so that your users can travel around your site with ease.

Content
It goes without saying that 'Content is king'. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but if you don't have any decent copy in there you're in trouble. Your website design acts as a buffer – if it is good it will set a standard, and it should display what your company is about before any words even appear. Your words are where the magic starts to happen – the content causes the pages to gel, with a distinct feel for each that clearly sets out what it's meant to do.

Whether your site is e-commerce based or a portfolio, an about page is a vital piece of the puzzle you'll be putting together. It is here that people can learn more about you or your company, and see the person or people behind it all. You might be surprised, but the about page will be one of your most visited pages.

The contact page is also crucial. It's here that your users will get in touch – whether you include an email address, phone number or a contact form. You need some way for people to be able to contact you, whether for further information or to request a quote.

So the header and content are two vital parts of any website and should have the appropriate importance placed on them. Next week I'll look more closely at two other features, the sidebar and footer, and explain why particular attention should also be paid to those.

What other elements would you say are essential to any website?