Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization’
Caption:
A 100% free WordPress theme in grey and orange
Theme Details:
This is a 3 column fixed width theme with sidebars on each side.
You can use widgets.
Theme is coded with clean XHTML.
For a larger image of this free WordPress theme, click on the image above:
Choosing a New Domain Name Part 2
It’s so important to check the domain name first because the great name you thought of will likely already be taken.
For example, if I wanted to create a site called freewordpressthemes, I couldn’t do it because somebody else is using that name already.
There’s something else you need to do as well, and that is to use an ordinary search engine like Google or, my favourite, Ixquick, and type the name that you’re hoping to use into the search engine and see what comes up.
The reason for this is that you may find many sites which don’t have a domain name as such but do use the words in their titles.
This particularly applies to people who have sites on wordpress.com, for example, which will give you a wordpress domain name but it might be like the one you want to use.
And this applies to Blogger and Flikr and other sites where people can come up with titles and user names that don’t have to be registered.
The only requirement is that they’re not being used by anyone else on that particular site.
It’s my experience that once you’ve done this you may feel a little bit depressed.
You’ll think that, depending on the niche that you’re interested in, that all the good names have already gone.
There’s one more point when you’re searching and that is to think of SEO – Search Engine Optimization.
It will be a real help to you if you can think of a domain name which will identify your niche so that when people search, it’s your site that comes on the first page.
As an example, typing “Bulgarian Stock photos” into the new Bing Search Engine gives this result:
Which means that for the key phrase bulgarian stockphotos my site is first out of 471,000
A search for these terms gives a similar result.
stock photos of bulgaria
stockphotos of bulgaria
bulgarian stockphotos
That’s not too bad.
Caption:
Free WordPress Theme 5.
Theme Details:
This is a three column fixed width theme with column on the left and right.
You can use widgets.
Theme is coded with clean XHTML
For a larger image of this free WordPress theme, click here
Choosing a Domain Name – initial thoughts
I imagine that if you’re interested in free themes it’s because you’re interested in starting a self-hosted blog or because you’ve already started.
If you’ve already started you’ve probably already chosen your domain name and in a way it’s too late.
Good luck with your choice.
Still, you might be planning other blogs or you might not have started.
It’s really a good idea to think of some things before you start and, in my view, a domain name needs careful thought.
Why? Well it’s simple really.
Your domain name is your brand, your identity – it’s your presence on the web.
If you want people to read your blog, they’ll have to find you.
They’ll normally use a Search Engine.
There are other ways of getting your name known but Search Engines are pretty important.
This means you’ll have to find out, with the millions of new blogs produced every day, how people are going to find out about yours.
If you look at the name of this site – freethemesplus – you’ll see now why there is a plus in it.
The plus is because although this site is about free themes I think that there are some other related things that are worth thinking about which could be part of the plus.
So it could be plus:
Choosing, using and buying Domain names
Plus:
Choosing a reliable Web Host
Plus:
Making your site Search Engine Friendly what is known as SEO or Search Engine Optimization
Plus:
How to change the colour or design of your theme or how to design your theme yourself.
Now I’m not an expert on any of these matters but I have been a site owner and a blogger for some years so I feel I’ve got a few tips to pass on.
So what about Domain Names?
I think if you look around the web you’ll see that there are really two approaches.
One is to use a Domain Name based on your own name or personal identity.
The other is to choose a name which you think gives a good idea what your blog is about, what makes it unique or different and hopefully, is just catchy.
Let’s look at some of these points in some coming posts.
