What's in a Name? Shakespeare famously asked that question, saying that "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet" - but regardless of the accuracy of that quote, it doesn't necessarily hold true in Search Engine Optimization.
You want to optimize your site so that search engines can find your data easily. That's the sum and reason behind your work.
A name, used consistently, will brand your site and also tell the search engines what your site is about.
Most consider that once you put a name on something, you just have to mention that name over and over to "brand" it. But this is the smallest part of what you really should do. Search Engines will define your name by what you post about. Similar to how people get an impression of a brand by how many ways they see advertising about that brand - or news stories.
Search Engines use something called "latent semantic indexing" to figure out it you are talking about Tiger Woods or a Bengal tiger in the woods. They do this by comparing the commonly used words on your page with their synonyms. If you have words about Golf, clubs, courses, shoes, putting, strokes - then you are talking about the famous golfer. If you are talking about forests, hunting, pelts, prey, high-powered rifles, India, Bengal, Siberian - then you are talking about the woodland tiger.
The various pages you put on your site define that domain name, but also by the content you place in them. If you have a domain name like "tigerhunts.com", and you review expeditions or related gear, then your site content should be about that particular subject area. The better you stick to narrow concepts, the more the search engines will see you as an authority on the subject and raise you in their rankings.
In short, you are what you post about.
Now, if you are like me, too interested in several subjects, then a very effective method for branding yourself is to "silo" that content into vertical piles of data. Just like those silo's out in farm country - long and tall, but narrow. (Same idea for silos which hold missiles, but these are buried deep underground.) You don't spread out and talk about all sorts of things, but instead, keep everything related in it's own (tall) pile. Several silos - several subjects.
Another explanation is to consider a file folder for each subject. Every post goes into a file folder with related material. The file folders are labeled: Tigers, Hunting, Rifles, Bait, Countries, Provisions. All data about the breeds and species of tigers goes in the first one. Articles, posts, and pages about how to hunt tigers goes in the second, and so on.
Now, overall, you are still talking about Tiger Hunts. But you can go into incredible detail on reviewing each of the various rifles and then put some posts on tiger breeds and others on the best bait to lure tigers with - all while categorizing your content and still staying relative to the overall brand you are creating.
The great part about this strategy is that you can then start ranking for Tiger Hunting Rifles, as well as Tiger Hunting Bait, and Breeds of Hunting Tigers, etc. Of course, you cross link each article (appropriately) with similar articles, which adds to your credibility and authority. Each article then defines that link and the article it links to.
How you create these silo's or folders is by putting your posts or pages into subdirectories on your site - such as: http://tigerhunts.com/rifles/ and http://tigerhunts.com/bait/, etc.
On a regular blog, you'd assign everything to appropriate categories - all the articles with that category would talk about that particular subject. You only assign one category per article. But your articles can cross link to other pages and posts, which is where they get more authority from the search engines as well.
Of course, you can go the route of naming your site something like "Yahoo" or "Google" or "Waoaijurh", but that's a much longer route. Most of us aren't walking encyclopedias of bookmarks and linking data. These companies took years to define themselves and many other search engine companies with diverse names don't exist today.
Using your own personal name is another option. But this is going to again take a far greater number of definitive posts and pages so that the search engine can actually assign some understanding to "Joe Doakes."
So you want to pick something you could talk about forever and then build your site around that. This is simply the most efficient way to go about it. If you are doing affiliate sales, then find products which align to your interests. Rifles, for instance. Books on Hunting would be another.
This article is too short to go into other related concepts, but it does tell you how you can just organize and discipline your content posting methods to simply enable the Search Engines to define you exactly the way you want.
And it is a short view of how to brand yourself, or your product, or simply take over an existing brand by posting your content. The search engine experts have said for years the Content is King - and now you know how to help the search engines find and promote your brand-named content.
Good luck!
Dr. Robert C. Worstell produces prolific output while living and operating a working farm in Missouri. Having published over 4 dozen books, numerous articles, whitepapers, presentations and videos, his current book about Sedona release techniques is entitled "Freedom Is - (period.)" And another book on spiritual training is on the way. Meanwhile, he's busy running the farm and improving the quality of his grassfed beef cattle and general farming operations.
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Contributor's Note
While I've been designing web pages and sites since the late '90's, it's still a constantly evolving scene. That site (Online Sunshine Plan) is my effort to wade through the thick yammer that surrounds Internet Marketing so that you can figure out how to simply build your online brand simply, efficiently, and profitably. Lots of timeworn advice there if you want it.
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