15 replies to this topic

[Mercy]

Hi,

I need some advice. I have started a a new site, a forum. It started out named "Ask the Experts" and I had gathered many experts in my field to answer questions and give advice. The site is not "open to the public" yet.

In developing the forum many of the experts wanted to also build a community. So to make it more comfortable for the "non-experts" to post replies, I renamed the forum to "The Chess Exchange".

Right now the forum is sitting at www.chess-forum.com. I also purchased www.chessexchange.com. I need to immediately decide which domain to use for my forum.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Mercy

[nickc]

Hi,

I need some advice. I have started a a new site, a forum. It started out named "Ask the Experts" and I had gathered many experts in my field to answer questions and give advice. The site is not "open to the public" yet.

In developing the forum many of the experts wanted to also build a community. So to make it more comfortable for the "non-experts" to post replies, I renamed the forum to "The Chess Exchange".

Right now the forum is sitting at www.chess-forum.com. I also purchased www.chessexchange.com. I need to immediately decide which domain to use for my forum.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Mercy

It depends on what keywords you are going to use to optimize in the Search Engines. But if you've got both, why not use both.

Nick

[Mel]

HI Mercy and welcome to the forum:

Well the name of your site may affect your "branding" but insofar as the search engines are concerned they will read both words in chess-forum but will only read one word in chessexchange.

But neither is going to help you much with your branding or ranking insofar as the search engines go. You will still need to build the page with good content adhering to SEO best practices.

[Haystack]

Welcome to the forum, Mercy.

Personally, I'd lean toward the non-hyphenated domain. It can be a real pain telling people a domain name over the phone with a dash. I think we can safely assume a chess audience is probably fairly web savvy so this may apply less in your case, but chessexchange.com is both easy to say and hard to misspell - two important factors in picking a domain.

Hope this helps.

[Jill]

Welcome, Mercy!

Choose a name for your forum that is easy to remember, don't worry about the search engines when choosing a name. And then choose the domain that works best with the name of the forum.

It's easy enough to optimize a site for your specific keyword phrases without having to worry about what the domain name is. You need your domain to be one that is easy and memorable for people, not search engines.

Good luck!



Jill

[Mercy]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the advice! If I can I will change to chessexchange.com.

I am not worried about the search engines (can you believe that!). I am a long time follower of the "Jill Whalen School of SEO". To me, making the site the best it can be and then a few waves of Jill's magic wand, and ta-da! you have top rankings. Branding and becoming the expert in my field will ultimately be the key to my success, that is what I must work hardest on.

Thanks all!

Mercy

[Alan Perkins]

I would not advocate going with they hyphenated version of a domain name, i.e. chess-forum.com, unless you also had the unhyphenated version, i.e. chessforum.com.

The other way around (chessforum.com but not chess-forum.com) you can get away with, but it's still not ideal.

chessexchange.com is OK, but it contains the phrase "sex change". You may want to consider that, along with the fact that ideally you would also have chess-exchange.com

Once you own both domains, redirect one to the other.

Maybe the best solution would be to buy chess-exchange.com and redirect chessexchange.com to chess-exchange.com to make it clear where the words should be split...

[Mercy]

Hi,

Oh Dear!

I have already done the deed.

Maybe I will get a lot of traffic from people who need medical operations in Sweden.

I am not so worried about the SEs, if that is where you think the problem will lie. Hopefully, my community will get a good laugh out of it (if they ever see it that way). I am not sure what to do but to press on.

Mercy

[Alan Perkins]

Not a problem at all. I just thought I ought to point it out.

I would also definitely buy chess-exchange.com if I was you.

If you are going to brand yourself as "The Chess Exchange", also consider these two:

the-chess-exchange.com
thechessexchange.com

[dlingner]

My two cents...

Exchange is kind of an old word... kinda 80's I like forum better... implies more quality discussion.

Plus the "sex exchange" thing does kind of stick out... and it is sort of hard to say.

Try saying chess exchange three times real fast.

chess exchange, chess exchange, chess exchange


Do you really want to say that all day long?


dave

P.S I just noticed that this is a very old thread. I'm sure they are well on their way now with the Chessexchange...

Edited by dlingner, 01 March 2004 - 10:10 PM.

[my2cents]

HI Mercy and welcome to the forum:

but insofar as the search engines are concerned they will read both words in chess-forum but will only read one word in chessexchange.

Are you sure about that?

I did a search on google and the results's cache (If I remember correctly) highlighted the portion of the name that had my term.

For example: I look for cookie and google's cache returns sites - one of the sites has cookiemonster.php with cookie highlighted.

Just checking - thanks.

[oneofthe3lions]

sorry, just funny.

[dragonlady7]

>the results's cache (If I remember correctly) highlighted the portion of the name that had my term.

Yeah, that's a newish Google thing. Hyphenated domains are less important now-- Google seems to be finding words within runtogether longer ones in filenames and URLs.

Too bad about Che's sex change, but I hadn't noticed it until mcanerin pointed it out either. You'll probably be fine except for the occasional off-color joke.

[Mercy]

Hi,

What a shock to see this post still being added to!

May as well give you an update on all those sex changes.

The forum started almost exactly six months ago. I now have almost 700 members and momentum is building. I have been blessed to have many super smart members who have been answering the posts faster then I can get to them. My work is minimal. My moderators are fabulous and are gaining reputations across the wourld as the experts in chess.

Bottom line:

Has it increased sales? YES!!

Has it helped make a brand of my site? YES!!

Has it positioned me as an expert? YES!!

Has it benefited my visitors? YES!!

Is it a success? Guess

[Jill]

Sounds like you found the secrets to forum success!

This forum was pretty new when you originally posted. As you can see, we've also grown quite a bit!

Jill