When you set up a new website, you are making a very large investment in a very important part of your new web experience. What am I talking about? Your domain name:  .com, .net, .org — name for your site.

I can’t stress to you how important it is that you set up your domain name properly from the get-go. It is crucial that it is set up in a way that you will ultimately have access to your domain name no matter what happens.

Here’s  the usual scenario:

Very important, very busy business owner is too busy to find out about how to purchase one of these domain name things so they delegate it to “Someone Else” within the company. “Someone Else” purchases the domain name for them. But what does “Someone Else” use for contact information? THEIR personal email — not the email that goes directly to the business owner.

By and by “Someone Else” leaves the company for one reason or another. Hopefully it was an amicable split — because guess who is the only one now who has access to YOUR domain name? Yep: “Someone Else.”

And “Someone Else” doesn’t work for you any more! Bummer.

Here is another scenario:

You took the time to purchase your domain name yourself and used your own email. Yay! You did this part right. But then, down the line, you switch ISP’s and your email changes. You forget that your domain name is registered under your OLD email which you no longer have access to. Bummer again! Remember, if you switch emails, update your domain name before you make the switch so you can verify the change through your old email — that’s where the verification email will go.

The really big downside to both of these situations is this:

You are not getting renewal information if your domain name can’t find you! ICANN doesn’t care who owns a domain name. So if yours expires and someone else purchases it you will be out of luck. Think of all that money you spent in developing your website and marketing your website and having brochures, and business cards printed with your domain name that now belongs to someone else! And if you tattooed your domain name across your forehead Oh boy! Now your tattoo.com points to someone else’s site. Most likely a site belonging to scab who now wants to sell Viagra using your old domain name. And short of offering that scab a bunch of cash for your old domain name (and believe me, it won’t be cheap) you have lost that domain name forever.

Be careful. Protect your investment.

Why indeed? Let me tell you why — because blogs are like internet gold, that’s why. What? What am I talking about “internet gold”? What could I possibly mean? Well, hang tight. I’m going to tell you.

Blogs are the secret to getting to the top of the search engine rankings. And that, as we have discussed before, is the way to a successful website.

But how do they work, these blogs? And why is a blog so important to ranking?

Think of it this way. A blog is a frequently updated, naturally search-engine friendly addition to your website. Blogs are text-rich, link-rich and have very little extraneous HTML. It’s like candy for search engines. They love it.

Check this out. If I write a blog post about Rapid City — anything about Rapid City, South Dakota and start blogging away about this or that thing that is happening in Rapid City and how happy we are in Rapid City and how Rapid City is the best city to live in ever — how many times have I written about Rapid City? How many times have I spelled out R-a-p-i-d C-i-t-y? And how many chances have I given a search engine to find me using the search terms Rapid City? What if I did a blog post a month or a week or twice a week and talk a little about Rapid City? All of those posts get indexed in my blog forever. How many times have I mentioned Rapid City then? It’s like compounding interest for my blog. Pretty soon I have my place cemented at the top of Google’s searches for Rapid City. Lucky me. Smart me.

Wait a minute, you say. If I have a blog what am I going to talk about? What could I possibly have to say that would be interesting? Really, it doesn’t matter. What have I written about so far in this blog? You know about marketing your site, how to resize images, SEO optimization, Friday Fun links to Matt Harding and how to configure your kid’s laptop. Sure all those posts have useful information for you (except maybe Matt Harding) But that isn’t really the point of the blog. Does the content have to be useful, entertaining, engaging? Well, it helps. I am sure people are coming to this site to find out a few things about the specific information I offer. But all that is a bonus for my readers.

The truth is, content wise, it really doesn’t matter– as long as I keep blogging I can talk about underwater basket weaving for all Google cares. I’ll end up being ranked #1 for underwater basket weaving in Rapid City — I mean, come on, how cool is that?

Seriously, what is going to happen is that when they search for a web developer in Rapid City, I am going to be right up there at the top. And that, my friends, is really internet gold.

Updated to add: You’re gonna love this — go to www.google.com and type in underwater basket weaving Rapid City.

Do me a favor? Go to www.google.com. Type in: South Dakota Web Design. Then hit “search.”

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Don’t be shy. I promise I’ll still be here when you get back.

All done? If I’ve done everything correctly, you’ll notice that LisaDesigns.com came up in the top 5 searches. Most likely, LisaDesigns.com is coming up #1. In the FREE listings. Not the ones you have to pay for.

How the heck did that happen?

Well, honestly? I’d like to say I am an internet SEO marketing genius. But, I think you know if that was true I would be a gazillionaire. I would have a horse ranch on 1000 acres that backs up to Custer State Park. With a huge log house, an indoor gym and a swimming pool. And a carbon fiber triathlon bike. Obviously I am not a gazillionaire. But I digress . . .

In reality it is a combination of a multitude of factors:

#1: I’ve owned this domain name lisadesigns.com for over 10 years. Google really likes that.

#2: The focus of my site, with repeated words that emphasize that focus throughout the site, has stayed constant for 10 years. I don’t mean that the actual content is the same. My focus is the same. I’m a web designer, my site is about web design. It’s been that way for over 10 years. Google likes that too.

#3: Lots of different sites link to me. They link to me referencing web design. That makes Google happy.

#4: This one is very interesting. When I first started in this business, I manually submitted my site to yahoo.com. Back in those days Yahoo had to approve each and every site that was submitted before they would index it. I submitted to a geographical region: South Dakota. I didn’t submit my address because I worked from home, I had young children at home, and I was a paranoid new mommy. I didn’t want every crazy on the internet to know where I lived. Because I submitted without an address, Yahoo actually called me up! On the phone! To tell me they wanted an address to verify that I lived in South Dakota. I gave the Yahoo guy, who was very nice by the way (hi Yahoo guy), my sob story about not wanting my address on the ‘net. He agreed to index me without my address listed. In fact, he was such a nice Yahoo guy that he listed me as #1 in the “South Dakota Web Design” search. I stayed that way for a long time. When Google came around they listed me as #1 because Yahoo did. Yay for Yahoo! Yay for Google!

#5: I have a blog. Several blogs in fact. I update them regularly and they all carry a link back to this site. This, I believe, is the wave of the future. Blogs with constantly updating content. Google really, really likes that.

So you see, it doesn’t take genius to index in Google or any other search engine for that matter. It does, however, take time and take patience and a willingness to pay attention to your website on a regular basis. Google likes content that is updated regularly. The more often you can repeat your search terms within that content in a relevant way — google does not like bogus content — the better your rankings will be.

If you don’t want to be patient and wait for the magic to happen, there is always pay-per-click marketing. But that’s a subject for another blog post.

In the meantime, I’ll be working on that gazillionaire thing.

“Running a website without marketing is like winking in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”

Sound true? I get questions like this all the time – “how will people find my website?”

Of course there is internet search engine marketing, and I will address that particular venue in a future post, but first let’s concentrate on traditional advertising.

A new website is going to take quite a bit of time to be indexed by search engines. While you are waiting for that to happen, and truthfully throughout the life of your website, you will greatly enhance your visibility by using traditional advertising markets to push your site. By this I mean the obvious: make sure every single piece of collateral material that goes out of your office is branded with your web address– your URL. Your www.yourwebsite.com address. Slap that baby everywhere. In fact, if I could talk you into it, I would counsel you to tattoo that URL right to your forehead! Traditional advertising is really that important.

Take a look at what you might be overlooking. What does your “on hold” message say? Your after hours voice mail? Your email signature? Is it directing potential visitors to your site? That’s passive marketing. Passive meaning it doesn’t cost you anything and you don’t have to physically be there to make it happen. Use it to your advantage.

Fax cover sheets, vehicles, billboards, license plate frames, Yellow Page ads — you name it!

All marketing communication materials should emphasize your URL and entice readers to visit your site. Envelopes? Business cards? Invoices? Print that URL in BOLD TYPE where it is easily seen. Is your place of business located in a high traffic area? Invest in a banner. Voila! Instant billboard to direct traffic to your site.

Anything that can handle your URL should have your URL. It’s as simple as that.

Oh, and that tattoo comment I made earlier? I actually know someone who invested in temporary tattoos emblazoned with her website URL. She handed them out in goody bags at a marketing function. Pretty smart if you ask me. Her web traffic stats almost doubled. Imagine that.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to leave them below. I look forward to hearing your feedback.