THE .CM DEAL: A SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING DREAM OR NIGHTMARE?
One of the basic strategies of search engine marketing is in registering a domain name for the client’s website that is relevant to the client’s business. In order for the website to draw in valuable Internet traffic – the goal of every search engine marketing campaign – the domain name to be chosen must be something that is easily recognisable and easily remembered.
Human users, however, are not perfect. Sometimes, no matter how easily recognisable and easily remembered a domain name is, a human user who is typing it on his or her browser address may slip and type in a different domain name. Such typographical errors, whilst seemingly simple and innocent enough, can cost a website owner huge amounts of money. Such errors in typing domain names can leech away traffic from the website.
A case in point that made hot news in the latter half of 2007 is the deal that Agoga.com made with the government of Cameroon. The owner of Agoga.com, a “domainer” named Kevin Ham, figured out that a common typographical error that Internet users make when typing in a domain name on their browser’s address box is “.cm” instead of “.com.” Mr. Ham realised that he could make millions out of such an innocuous mistake – at least on the part of the Internet user.
And indeed he did, after inking a deal with the government of Cameroon to reroute all traffic to unregistered domains with the “.cm” top level domain (TLD) to Agoga.com. Reports now say that Agoga.com generates $10 million dollars a month from the unique traffic drawn to its website.
The deal is a search engine marketing dream of a search engine marketing nightmare, depending on who is looking at it. It is a search engine marketing dream for Mr. Ham because with one simple gambit, he was able to earn a lot of cash from the mistake of others.
On the other hand, it is a search engine marketing nightmare for those website owners who are losing traffic because of Mr. Ham’s game. That is why so many website owners are looking at possible legal action against Agoga.com, as well as revising their own search engine marketing campaigns.
Irritating as it may be, the ploy used by Agoga.com is nothing short of brilliant. In such cases, and in anticipation of them, what a good search engine marketing practitioner should do is to protect the domain name of his or her client.
One of the first moves that should be done in this matter is to identify possible typographical errors that can be committed in typing the domain name on the browser address box. And then, those domain names that can result from such typing errors should be registered as well and implemented with a redirection program to the main website.
In search engine marketing, it is important to generate traffic to the client’s website because in traffic lies the profits. It is also the responsibility of the practitioner of search engine marketing to protect this traffic from ploys that can leech it away.
Related posts:
- THE CITYSEARCH TEAMUP: A SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING WIN FOR AOL No man is an island in the world of search...
- Search Engine Optimisation Marketing Strategies SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is often used as a...
- WHY MICROSOFT NEEDS YAHOO: A SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING TAKE Online advertising matters a lot in search engine marketing. Many...
- Website Marketing with Domain Names - Part 2 Redirecting Customers on Websites We spoke a little in our...
- Search Engine Optimisation Keywords in Internet Marketing Copywriting and Marketing Copywriting is one of the leading Internet...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
