Should your company names have your City or State name included

Question

Hi, i am creating my website and I am wondering if I should had at the end of my website Domain and also at the end of my company name my city name like buyfastAustin or buyfastTexas... I am not sure what is best and what will appeal more to sellers...any ideas?

Sandra Willford · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs you blew my cover. Yes I am in the biz. I run a small but mighty Marketing, Design, & Dev shop in Ohio, as well as a company that develops IDX/CRM websites for Realtors and Brokers. Although my portfolio draws across a few other industries, I seem to be pretty hyper-focused in Real Estate lately. I was introduced to bigger pockets by one of my current clients, so I figured why not join as a pro and offer some valuable insight for folks here

Ya know the funny thing is that as much of all that stuff you listed are things I am engaged in everyday, if you looked up my facebook page, you would see it's "under-development". Same thing with my Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, and you name it. For me it's not so much that I hate the platforms, it's more the old "builders house never gets built, and mechanics car never gets fixed".

Account Closed were you aware that the top level domains .estate and .property are now available through Google Domains?

But back to the original post, I will stand by my statement that none of this domain name and company name stuff really matters, what matters is content. Please take your time with it. Make sure your content has good keyword density, is readable, and to the point and your site will do just fine. Like it was mentioned above if this is your main site keep your contact info up front and center. I very often put the phone number right in the main menu. I also hate "contact us" pages. Put your address, phone, email etc right on the home page as well as a contact form.

Last but not least, get your business and website listed in Google Pages/Maps, Bing Maps, and maybe even Apple Maps! Most people are looking up businesses now days on a device and not their computers. In google search results, map results come before organic site results. This is as important as having a business card now days.

Sandra Willford · Answer

The key thing that comes to mind to me regarding having the locality in the brand name is how does it work visually. If locality made a difference in brand recognition you would see it in every company in your locality. I think what is more important is:

1. Does your company name represent what you do?

2. Is it easy to remember?

3. Does your logo and mark represent what you do, and is it simple and easy to recognise.

4. Is the resulting logo and mark easily adaptable across multiple mediums (print/digital/social etc..)?

As far as your domain is concerned, it's important that your domain is extremely easy for the user to remember. Having a location in the domain can be effective. Google does consider your domain relevance as a scoring factor. What you don't want is something like realestateinvestingaustin.com. That would be a good example of something too long and hard for the user to remember.

The important thing to remember is that your company or brand name and your domain are only a small part of your website's success or failure. Content is king and you really could have anything as a domain and company name if your content is spot on. People will find you based on your message, and not your name!

Corina Eufinger · Answer

Company name: You may find having the city or name in the business can be polarizing. What happens if someone doesn't live in Austin, are you still going to work with them? Someone may think you might not if have Austin in the name. If you are looking to expand outside of Austin like Dallas, it may be a hindrance.

website domain: I use wi on the end of mind but only because the other domain was taken without it. Its always easiest if your company name is exactly the same as your .com or vice versa.

Account Closed · Answer

@Corina Eufinger makes a great point about the polarizing effects your name could have.

The positive side of that is that if I'm looking to invest in Austin and I see buyfastAustin I know that you're a dedicated player in the market rather than just a large broker looking to move anything they can. The decision to use your location in your company name is going to be a personal one depending on your goals.

As for the website, it's very helpful to have your company be the URL. If for some reason the .com is taken or the price is to high you can easily look for an alternative. Personally I'm a fan of .re for real estate sites.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Sandra Willford sounds like your in the bizz.. and this may not be germane to this thread but as a person out in the business community.

for me.. I personally will not do business with a company that does not put the owners front and center with a bio... I want to google them first or run them through my lexus nexus to make sure they are on the up and up and are good people.

these capture websites and companies with no principals listed no address no nothing.. well I just pass those up out of hand..

Now to be fair.. I personally have no website ( as I don't need it because I am not looking to do business with the public) I don't do linkdin ( too confusing for me) I hate facebook for business I only want to see my grand kids and friends.. I want it totally social.. so when other RE folks pop on It upsets me and many times I make negative comments about their business LOL.. And I don't have twitter would not know how to use it.. but this hash tag thing.. its all in like code or something.. kind of like ordering burgers from In and Out burger.. there is the menu then there is the secret menu.

So for me very straight forward business like and who are the people behind the company.. that goes for anyone trying to sell me inventory ( and I buy a lot probably 250 plus props a year) etc etc.

so that's feedback from someone of my age group and economic and business experience.

I would think the minority and elderly sellers are worse than I am.. LOL

Jeff Filali · Answer

It totally depends on your goals. If your goal is to only work the Austin area, then go for it and be the king of your market. If you think you may expand, then you may think of different name. I personally wanted to be set up to grow the business nationwide or even internationally, so I used an approach with a very easy to remember real estate name with the company name actually being the website (4Lease4Sale.com) that works anywhere in the world, is very easy to remember and people know by the name what we do. But then I also have alternate domains and DBA's targeting local markets (OklahomaCashHomeBuyer, TexCashHomeBuyer, 918CashHomeBuyer, 405...316...USA...etc. And within each of those sites, there's individual landing pages based on local markets i.e. /Dallas, /FtWorth, /Houston, etc. And make sure all your pages are set up correct to maximize SEO.

One suggestion is keep your company site separate from your motivated seller buying site. My company site is geared more towards other investors and selling or leasing our properties, there's one page on there in case a motivated seller happens upon the site, but its more geared towards selling. The other motivated seller sites we use are full of information geared towards buying from motivated sellers.

Should your company names have your City or State name included

Should your company names have your City or State name included

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