| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Why are translation business/domain names so boring? Thread poster: XXXphxxx (X)
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XXXphxxx (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:23
Portuguese to English
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As a generalisation, the majority will contain one of the following words: ‘translation’, ‘languages’, ‘global’, ‘bridge’, ‘text’, ‘euro’ or ‘world’. Does this actually contribute to the success of the business?
I’ve been working on my website for a while now; it’s something I do between jobs so it’s taken a few months to put the content together and I’m now faced with the difficult decision of which domain name to choose. Since I share a name wi... See more As a generalisation, the majority will contain one of the following words: ‘translation’, ‘languages’, ‘global’, ‘bridge’, ‘text’, ‘euro’ or ‘world’. Does this actually contribute to the success of the business?
I’ve been working on my website for a while now; it’s something I do between jobs so it’s taken a few months to put the content together and I’m now faced with the difficult decision of which domain name to choose. Since I share a name with someone considerably better known than myself, anything vaguely resembling my real name is simply not available (a problem I’ve always had with e-mail addresses as well), which leads me to think that perhaps I should go completely off the wall and pick anything I fancy, unrelated to my name or profession. Fact is, surely my hits are going to come from links/references posted elsewhere, as well as my web content, rather than my domain name, or am I missing a trick?
[Edited at 2012-05-01 10:51 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Waleed Mohamed
United Arab Emirates
Local time: 15:23
English to Arabic
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| Domain names and SEO | May 1, 2012 |
It has been commonly believed that domain names containing keywords related to a specific business will be good for getting high search engine ranking if that is coupled with good website content.
I am not sure whether the search engines are still taking this into account or not.
But as a a rule of thumb, content is the king.
| | | | Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 13:23
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| Try to be different | May 1, 2012 |
Hi Lisa,
The names of some of the agencies I work for are so undistinguished that I still have to look them up after more than five years of collaboration. Names and websites of the tradlang, langbridge and globaltrans kind won't help you.
When I created my own website I found that eloquo.nl and eloquo.com were still available, and I took it from there.
My advice would be to look for a short website name that is easy to spell in your languages and make up a... See more Hi Lisa,
The names of some of the agencies I work for are so undistinguished that I still have to look them up after more than five years of collaboration. Names and websites of the tradlang, langbridge and globaltrans kind won't help you.
When I created my own website I found that eloquo.nl and eloquo.com were still available, and I took it from there.
My advice would be to look for a short website name that is easy to spell in your languages and make up a name afterwards.
E.g.
You discover that http://www.wianaa.com/ still is available and call your business WIANAA Language Services. If anybody asks tell them it stands for What's In A Name After All.
Cheers,
Gerard ▲ Collapse
| | | | Carole Paquis
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:23
Member (2007)
English to French
| Well, I did have an idea... | May 1, 2012 |
I have always thought that a language service provider setting up shop in the Black Country (where I live) should call it LangAmWe.
Just like Toys R Us but Black Country way.
For those who do not know the local dialect, in the Black Country (North West of Birmingham, UK), the verb 'to be' goes : I am, You am, We am, etc.
Hence "LangAmWe"
Carole PAQUIS
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Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 13:23
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
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| XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:23
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | How about going right out-there? | May 1, 2012 |
In the spirit of 'Apple', 'Orange', 'Fat Face', 'Innocent' ... ?
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 04:23
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | No, it does not. | May 1, 2012 |
It's about as impressive and unique as a "business" stock photo of a bunch of people in suits with one black man and one Asian woman.
Lisa Simpson, MCIL wrote:
As a generalisation, the majority will contain one of the following words: ‘translation’, ‘languages’, ‘global’, ‘bridge’, ‘text’, ‘euro’ or ‘world’. Does this actually contribute to the success of the business?
Nope. Don't do it. Clients will hate you. Vendors will hate you. They will go through their address list or file folder, wondering: "Who on earth is that??".
The world and the WWW are already over-saturated with all those "ling-", "lang-", "long-", "global", "even-more-global", "world", "trans-", "bipolar", "multi-", "multilingglobaltransbipolarinternationalworldwide"-company names.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 13:23
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Some options are still available | May 1, 2012 |
Lisa Simpson, MCIL wrote:
I’m now faced with the difficult decision of which domain name to choose. Since I share a name with someone considerably better known than myself...
Well, lisasimpson.eu is available. What is even more available, is "simpsonlisa" in its various forms (com, net, info etc).
My first domain name was english-afrikaans.com (sadly the guy who registered forgot to renew it, and it was hijacked within seconds). The domain name got me very high in search engine rankings, but part of the search engine success was due to the content of the web site and not the domain name. When I got my new domain name (again with lots of useful content on it), the old domain name dropped out of search engine listings and my new domain name was back at the top (or near it) within just a few weeks. So what do you think of my current domain name... "boring"?
[Edited at 2012-05-01 11:12 GMT]
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Diana Coada (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:23
Portuguese to English
+ ...
I would pick a word that means something to me or represents something about me and use it. I also love funny and creative names like ''Qwerty Word'', ''Wor(l)ds Apart'', ''Talking Heads'', etc.
Take your time, it will come to you!
[Edited at 2012-05-01 11:01 GMT]
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:23
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Could be courting disaster | May 1, 2012 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Well, lisasimpson.eu is available. What is even more available, is "simpsonlisa" in its various forms (com, net, info etc).
I fear that it may invite a torrent of spam from Simpsons nuts.
So what do you think of my current domain name... "boring"?
Not boring, but what does it mean?
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 13:23
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| SEO vs creativity | May 1, 2012 |
They just want their domain names SEO-friendly, as well as their content.
If you are looking for an engaging piece of writing, then get a good literary content. Or something else that wasn't aimed at Internet promotion/marketing.
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 19:23
Chinese to English
| Branding your website or yourself? | May 1, 2012 |
You might think a bit about whether the domain name you choose is going to acquire a life of its own. If it's just going to be an easy-to-type address, then you can pick whatever short combination of letters or numbers works. In China they do this a lot - because a lot of people aren't that familiar with roman letters at all, so Amazon here is z.cn, and any number of websites just have number addresses (163.com etc.).
But if you want your new name to be part of a whole new brand/ide... See more You might think a bit about whether the domain name you choose is going to acquire a life of its own. If it's just going to be an easy-to-type address, then you can pick whatever short combination of letters or numbers works. In China they do this a lot - because a lot of people aren't that familiar with roman letters at all, so Amazon here is z.cn, and any number of websites just have number addresses (163.com etc.).
But if you want your new name to be part of a whole new brand/identity for yourself/your business, then you should probably spend a bit longer thinking about it. 100porcento.com is just a squatter site, you could try and buy that. ▲ Collapse
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| Some ideas... | May 1, 2012 |
[quote]Lisa Simpson, MCIL wrote:
I fear that it may invite a torrent of spam from Simpsons nuts. [quote]
Well, you could use SIMPLI . com. It would be easy to tell people that it's "simply" with an "I" at the end (of course, from SImpson, LIsa). This is easy for people to remember, and pass it on.
When I was devising my e-mail "name", I considered that while "Lamensdorf" (actually a Polish surname since at least 1750) is readily pronounced in countries whose languages I don't speak, it is messy in Brazil. A classmate of mine in college used to call me "Lamendovitchsky" because - as he said - it was too difficult to pronounce it correctly . So I adopted "johel" (from JOse HEnrique Lamensdorf), since "johela" would be supposedly feminine. I explain it as "Joel" with an "H" in the middle. The downside is that too many people address me on e-mails as Mr. Johel. So be ready for Ms. Simpli, if you use it
BTW, http://www.simplang.com leads to a one-liner of gibberish, while http://www.simplang.co.uk is available. While both .com and .co.uk for "simptrans" are available, I wouldn't use them, as they tend to link to transportation, not languages/translation. Anyway, these will keep you out of The Simpsons' freaks searches.
| | | | | seems very relevant for SEO | May 2, 2012 |
Hello Lisa,
I got the names "arttranslator.com" and "kunstuebersetzer.de" and this, as in Samuel's case, seems very relevant for SEO. I haven't updated the English version for years, because I've concentrated on the German-speaking market (and I haven't updated the German version for months, because I never get around to it), but the last time that I checked, I was on the first page at Google for "English + subject + translator/ translation/ etc." and often under the top five.
... See more Hello Lisa,
I got the names "arttranslator.com" and "kunstuebersetzer.de" and this, as in Samuel's case, seems very relevant for SEO. I haven't updated the English version for years, because I've concentrated on the German-speaking market (and I haven't updated the German version for months, because I never get around to it), but the last time that I checked, I was on the first page at Google for "English + subject + translator/ translation/ etc." and often under the top five.
I think the city is often also important in terms of search queries, and I'll work on that the next time that I update my site. On the other hand, if someone is searching you by name, they will find you here or at LinkedIn or at the various business-network or directory sites dominant in other languages. There would be no need to use your name for your domain name even if it weren't Lisa Simpson.
For your SEO (including your domain name), I think that languages, subject matter, and location are the most commonly searched terms. If you are strongly specialized and lucky, you may be able to get something really productive. If not, it may be more appropriate to simply ignore SEO as irrelevant in your case and to concentrate on people who end up at your site in other ways. Despite my ranking, I think that I have gotten a fairly limited amount of work through Internet searches; although, I also need to update the English version (it is very possible that Germans use English keywords to search for English translators).
My advice, in any case: keep it short, relevant (not: your name), memorable but simple (not: www.gr8_transl8ions-4u), and without internal punctuation.
Sincerely,
Michael
P.S. to Samuel: sadly and suspiciously - I would guess the domain would have been worth a good deal of money. ▲ Collapse
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:23
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks to all | May 2, 2012 |
Huge thanks to all of you for your very helpful suggestions. I think the main thing I've taken away is to keep it short and sweet and I think I've got it, now to book the name.
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