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| Which Name should I choose? |
| Joshklewis.com |
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26% |
[ 6 ] |
| IntenseAdventure.com |
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17% |
[ 4 ] |
| Joshlewis.us |
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17% |
[ 4 ] |
| Something Different |
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39% |
[ 9 ] |
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| Total Votes : 23 |
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markh752
Snoozing on a rock!
Joined: 03 Dec 2011
Posts: 866 | TRs | Pics
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markh752
Snoozing on a rock!
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 Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:56 pm |
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IMO, Intense Adventure "sounds" like you want me to pay you to take me on an adventure. In other words, it "sounds" like you are an "adventure travel agency". I like Alpine Josh, the name "sounds" like you are a person that likes the outdoors and wants to share your experiences. Just my $.02.
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Josh Journey
a.k.a Josh Lewis
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Posts: 4836 | TRs | Pics
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After some more internal debating I decided to finally go with "Joshlewis.us". Alpine Josh was pretty fun, but I eventually realized that it did not rank well with search engines. It did however have the advantage of being a unique name. Thanks everyone for the input here. Even joshklewis and intenseadventure are taken right now, hence why they aren't even options. My current domain was taken by someone else for a while, but they gave it up.
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NacMacFeegle
Member
Joined: 16 Jan 2014
Posts: 2653 | TRs | Pics
Location: United States |
I doubt my website name is very search engine friendly, how many people are going to search for Illuminations From the Attic when they're looking for stories about hiking? However, I love the name too much to give it up, perhaps I should start a more search engine friendly website to run simultaneously alongside my current site, but I balk at the effort required to set it up lol!
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graffiti
Member
Joined: 17 Oct 2011
Posts: 287 | TRs | Pics
Location: Olympia, WA |
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graffiti
Member
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Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:53 am |
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| Josh Lewis wrote: | | Alpine Josh was pretty fun, but I eventually realized that it did not rank well with search engines. It did however have the advantage of being a unique name. |
It's not the domain that helps or hurts your rankings. That's old fashioned thinking. Google eliminated any advantage for EMD's (Exact Match Domains) a while back.
Best to stick to something people can remember and forget about trying to gain ranking with your domain. There are so many other things to concentrate on if you want to rank. Having a site that is useful to users is number one. Tricks to get the search engines attention will get you tossed. 
Read these carefully and follow them and you'll do as good as you can.
Google webmaster guidelines
Info on the EMD loophole.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
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Josh Journey
a.k.a Josh Lewis
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Posts: 4836 | TRs | Pics
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| graffiti wrote: | | It's not the domain that helps or hurts your rankings. That's old fashioned thinking. |
If one is purely focused on the domain itself, you would be correct. However this is about wanting to rank with both the domain and the HTML title. AlpineJosh did not rank very well when searching "Josh Lewis" but of course did well when searching "AlpineJosh". When I swapped the name I ranked up an entire page quickly. The url does appear to have some influence in ranking, however as we both know that other factors play a much bigger role.
In one of your links it says:
| Quote: | | It was designed to prevent sites from ranking well if they seem to be benefiting from their domain name only |
This is correct, I'm following the guidelines just fine. I've even investigated a lot of videos from Google Webmasters and such to make sure I'm playing the game as properly as possible.
| graffiti wrote: | | Having a site that is useful to users is number one. Tricks to get the search engines attention will get you tossed. |
I think I'm doing fine on that front. I admit that I haven't been putting as much content up these days which I plan on getting back into it. It's not a trick when the content you produce is completely relevant to the subject you are talking about.
The site is easy to navigate with a responsive design to work with most devices. The photo gallery uses lightbox to make it easier to view. I suppose content mapping will be helpful in the future as well as hierarchical structure so that pages can be traced back to specific locations.
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graffiti
Member
Joined: 17 Oct 2011
Posts: 287 | TRs | Pics
Location: Olympia, WA |
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graffiti
Member
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Sat Mar 14, 2015 3:43 pm |
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It sounds like you have a pretty good grip on things. Content (fresh content especially) is king so they say.
I just thought I'd bring a few things up. I'm in the web biz (and do a lot of "SEO") and I constantly see people obsessing over search engine rankings when in reality, if they obsess over their users needs half as much, the rankings will follow.
Yeah, having a decent domain name doesn't hurt but it's the rest of the site that makes it.
Good luck out there!
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
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Josh Journey
a.k.a Josh Lewis
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Posts: 4836 | TRs | Pics
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| graffiti wrote: | | Yeah, having a decent domain name doesn't hurt but it's the rest of the site that makes it.
Good luck out there! |
True point. If I'm going to live with something for the rest of my life, I want it as close to perfect as I can possibly get. Good domains go fast these days which is what made it important for me to make it a priority to get a handful of good ones so that future opportunities don't slip away. Granted if I'm debating between two, I don't typically get both like many do but instead I battle it out to save money and let who ever get it. If I snag it and then drop it, it ends up in domain snagger's hands. In addition to this, swapping domains is bad for SEO because you have to regain site authority which is why it's best to start out well.
Thanks for the best wishes.
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AlpineRose
Member
Joined: 08 May 2012
Posts: 1953 | TRs | Pics
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I like Alpinejosh. It links where you love spending your time with your name.
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007
Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics
Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Sat Mar 14, 2015 4:42 pm |
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It's good that you're spending some time on a good domain name, but what was wrong with piggybacking on alpineascent.com? That is a great url except for the confusion with alpineascents.com, which would actually be an SEO benefit for you when people misspell that one.
Any way, as others say, people won't find your site through the url as much as through search and that's dependent on page rank, which depends on content others want to link to. If you're really after exposure and followers than create a kick-ass facebook page as sad as that sounds, because that's where the people are.
You say this is your personal site and if you plan to promote your photography (which is a strong suit for you) then check into registering your best photos. Without registration the best you can expect is that an unlicensed commercial use of a photo will stop using it when you catch them. If you've registered it you could potentially get some monetary compensation. But in general, landscape photography is a really tough way to earn money these days.
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graffiti
Member
Joined: 17 Oct 2011
Posts: 287 | TRs | Pics
Location: Olympia, WA |
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graffiti
Member
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Sat Mar 14, 2015 5:02 pm |
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| puzzlr wrote: | | Any way, as others say, people won't find your site through the url as much as through search and that's dependent on page rank |
Unfortunately, pagerank is another old fashioned way of thinking (or becoming one).
John Mueller (Google) has said in the Google webmaster forums that pagerank won't be updated any more.
The advice I give my users is, stop thinking about the algorithms and build for the user. The rewards may take a little longer than gaming the system might take but you'll have a stronger, more stable foundation.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
And the meek shall inherit the Earth...um...if that's ok with you.
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Josh Journey
a.k.a Josh Lewis
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Posts: 4836 | TRs | Pics
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| puzzlr wrote: | | It's good that you're spending some time on a good domain name, but what was wrong with piggybacking on alpineascent.com? |
Because that would be like if Tom/MClever piggybacked on nwhikers. They have every right to do so by the way. However in my case I want the main menus and such to work for me on a personal level. Alpine Ascent is 100% for the community (should be opened for registration later this month) and is not intended for my personal gain. My personal site doesn't really help me financially either considering that I don't use it to sell photos, display ads, ect. It's also a great medium in which people are able to contact me through directly without publicly sharing my email address (this is mostly for spam reasons). Also showcasing my own photos is a little easier for my personal site for the user experience. Although I do admit that Alpine Ascent's multi image uploader is superior to my personal site.
| puzzlr wrote: | | You say this is your personal site and if you plan to promote your photography (which is a strong suit for you) then check into registering your best photos. |
I plan on creating a separate site for this. It was very tempting to sell my own photos on my own site, however I did not want it to come off as a self promoting site for profit gain. So instead I'm planning on selling my photos on a separate site I registered called peakpicture.com . It's not up at the moment considering that I'm putting my current focus on my website business. Eventually way down the road I plan on having that be my main source of income (web business).
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boot up
Old Not Bold Hiker
Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 4745 | TRs | Pics
Location: Bend Oregon |
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boot up
Old Not Bold Hiker
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Sun Mar 15, 2015 7:33 pm |
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I am glad you jettisoned Alpine Josh.
It sounds like some 90 year old guy in lederhosen running around in the mountains befriending Heidi.
That just would have driven in some really kinky traffic.
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