Search Engine Optimization can even affect Town Names

There is a very interesting story in the Times Online from February 25 about the town of Eu in Normandy, France.  It is a resort town that has seen its hotel bookings drop in recent years as more and more tourists make their plans online.  The town name is impossible to find in the Search Engines, most results bring up European Union or other short terms.  So they are considering adding more syllables to the name to make sure it can be found.

This seems extreme but businesses should make this consideration when naming a business or certainly when picking a domain name.  If you can get important keywords into your domain it will help you rank for those keywords.  It doesn’t guarantee rankings but it can be an important piece of the puzzle.

As an an internet marketing company based on Hilton Head Island we see this a lot.  There are a lot of very competitive terms  for Hilton Head Island and sometimes the short term vacation terms completely dominate the long term or local keyword searched.  For instance Hilton Head Rental will bring terms that relate exclusively to short term rentals as opposed to long term rentals for those of us who live here.  We are forced to type in apartments, or long term rentals.  So when picking a company name or a domain name make sure you examine the landscape and attempt to incorporate your major keyword if it makes sense.

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