Real Names - Is it worth it?

I never use it...

I say it's a waste of money...

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My name is Nitsuj. I bet you're thinking WTF...

Thanks.

I tried registering my full-time job's company name and they wouldn't accept it. They said it was too general and they knew of other companies that had similar names.

I understand they don't want realnames to be come like the land-grab domain names has been but it's also very tough in you have a common name.

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ArtsNFlies.com
Original art, hand tied flies, unique books and gifts, free sweepstakes and MORE!
NEW! - Tying materials & tools, and flyfishing accessories (lines, waders, etc.)!!
Come see what everyone is talking about!

Here is a fairly recent report I put together which deals wit this issue (among others). Hope it is of help.

» Background:

Promoting to the Search Engines can be the single most effective and cheapest part of online marketing campaign.
However effective SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is rarely achieved because the actual size of the task and the knowledge/experience required to achieve it is often overlooked resulting in a poorly planned attempt by under trained staff. This can be disastrous in the long term because it is increasingly hard to turn round one of these campaigns.

» How the Search Engines Work:

As with many things on the internet, there are no fixed rules or steps that are linked with submitting and optimising a site on the Search Engines. All the engines are owned by individual businesses. They are all competing against each other and therefore adopt very different methods when accepting and ranking pages.

Variations in these ranking algorithms include whether or not they use Meta Tags, and if so to what tags they accept and how much weight these are given. They also use keyword density in the content of the page, popularity of the website and many other factors.

What all this means is that optimising a page for a certain engine (for example Excite) may result in very poor rankings in the other major Search Engines. They key is therefore to master the similarities between all of them.

To compound this already confusing situation these algorithms change constantly and without warning - meaning that your ranking can slip from one moment to the next. The Search Engines do not release the details of their ranking criteria either so the only way to find this information out is through testing with multiple submissions and evaluating the results…

» The Big Picture:

The time when the concept of a website from which you could book holidays was a novel idea is well and truly gone. In fact this area is one of the fastest growing and most competitive (a search for ‘Travel’ on AltaVista brings near to 14 million results!) on the internet - making the task of ranking highly in the major search very challenging indeed.

Unlike some forms of online marketing (such as purchasing banner space or newsletter advertising) SEO is a slow and repetitive task. The initial preparations can take several months.

They include:
- Evaluating the opposition and deciding on a list of relevant keywords and keyword phrases that will be employed by prospective clients/visitors.
- Preparing a list of these keywords. Some in Meta Tags (nb: this is a method that some engines use – to different degrees – in their ranking algorithms) and the rest as carefully optimised content.
- Once this is done for several pages important pages on the site it is time to submit to the major engines. (nb: even this is not as simple as it first seems as many engines use the same parent database so a search to determine what engines use which parent index is required)
- Once this is done the waiting game begins as all the engines take different time periods to index your website (from several days to months).

At this point I would like to bring to your attention the fact that as well as the Search Engines there are also websites called Directories (such as Yahoo) these do not use algorithms as such as they are moderated by humans and can therefore be very fickle and unpredictable.

- When you are finally indexed in some SE’s the optimisation process starts. This involves a whole new et of skills and tricks which are used to try and elevate your ranking above that of the competition.
- However after every attempt at elevating your ranking a resubmission to the engine is required and this can take weeks to see the results…

» Short Term Solutions:

Because this process has been initiated at a fairly late stage, short terms solutions must be used to establish a presence in the SE’s and Directories.

This is possible in many cases but it involves essentially ‘buying’ rankings/listings. (While as the whole beauty of the SEO process is that it is free.)

Research into this field coupled with past experience has lead to my pinpointing the following options. Many have been chosen as they also carry long term benefits.

+ Purchasing a Ranking on AltaVista.
(the 7th most popular portal on the Internet)

AltaVista are one of several major portals (others include Google and MSN) that are affiliated with Real-Names (www.realnames.com). The latter is a company that enables you to buy certain keywords.

The following points go into detail about the pro’s and con’s of this service.

The Idea behind the Real Names concept:
Real Names says that it will make it easier for people to find what they are looking for by making it possible to simply type into the address bar (or a partner SE) the query you are after.

The idea is that if someone is looking for a Ford Puma car, instead of looking for a Ford Puma page in a search engine or finding the right section though www.ford.com they simply type ‘Ford Puma’ in the address bar and the relevant page comes up.

The Pros:
- Real Names is good if the public knows your company name (assuming you have registered it with Real Names) as you will come up top of the list in the SE’s.
- If you can buy a generic term (not always possible) you are then guaranteed to come top of the list for every query involving your generic term.

The Cons:
- The fact that companies can now register generic names means that the value of multiple RN words matches like ‘Tom’s Travel Site’ are worthless if the generic term ‘Travel’ is registered.
- This is because, while previously ‘Tom’s Travel Site’ would come up as a RN option when someone typed in ‘Travel’ – this is no longer the case And no one will do a direct search for ‘Tom’s Travel Site’ as it is not a known company…
- Keywords can already be taken in some cases though Real Names checks if you own the copyright to name before issuing them so any related to thefirstresort.com will/should be available.
- A one year licence is $100 but strong brands get charged extra.

My Opinion:
The Real Names program has shown itself to be of use in only some instances.
- If people search for you by company name.
- If you own a generic term.

For more in-depth information on this service (including how to sign up) contact John Stones [ [email protected] ].

The Real Names system will be good until we can get some good rankings in AltaVista. At that point I would drop it.

+ Purchasing a Review and likely Listing on Yahoo.
(the most popular portal on the Internet)

The following points go into detail about the pro’s and con’s of this service.

The Idea behind the Yahoo concept:
Yahoo has always been the hardest portal to get listed in – this situation has worsened as the portal has grown in popularity and put the editors under more pressure to review and accept/reject submissions. It has now come to the point where most submitted sites do not even get reviewed they simply get forgotten.

This is why they introduced the Business Express service which, for $199, will guarantee that your site gets reviewed by an editor. This service DOES NOT guarantee that you will be listed in the directory. This is, as always, still up to the editor.

This said it is in the interest – financially – of Yahoo to list the sites that pay, otherwise no one will be willing to pay eventually. This theory has proved correct in the last few months as many sites that have paid for a review (assuming the site was within the guidelines described by Yahoo).

The Pros:
- Using the Business Express service essentially guarantees thefirstresort.com a listing within 7 days.
- This listing will be permanent unlike the Real Names and GoTo programs.

The Cons:
- The same problems that plague the normal submission method (ie: possible change or category or title text) still apply to the Express service.

My Opinion:
Because of th

i don't think it's worth it

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I wouldnt say that its not worth it as long as you can get a more general keyword like JP said. Otherwise, as none of us are household names yet i dont think it will be as much use to us.

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Thomas Minton
The JavaScript Place
Get paid $20 - $160 an hour for viewing adverts

Milton - That was the problem I was having with them. They wouldn't register the company name because they said it was too general and they pointed out the url's of some other companies with the same name. If I wanted to add an "inc." or "LTD" at the end they'd take it but who's going to type that in?!

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ArtsNFlies.com
Original art, hand tied flies, unique books and gifts, free sweepstakes and MORE!
NEW! - Tying materials & tools, and flyfishing accessories (lines, waders, etc.)!!
Come see what everyone is talking about!

One thing I found interesting with goto.com (a site that you bid an amount to be ranked based on the highest bidder)...

I figured the keyword that was going to demand a VERY high price was "sex", and the top ranking site (from a search for the word "sex") pays goto $0.35 per click.

Then I tried "hosting". Top rankings: Verio at $6.30 per click!!! next is Bizland.com at $6.21 per click!

All I gotta say is whooooo.