Web Design, Internet Marketing, E-commerce, SEO Blog | Las Vegas, NV

Can I have more than one domain name for my website?

Most of my customers don’t realize that you CAN have multiple domain names pointing to one primary domain name. For example: If you own www.yourdomain.com as your primary website that houses all of your content, you could also own www.yourdomain-lasvegas.com as another domain name that points back to your main website. So, owning several domain names is never a bad thing. The most important thing to keep in mind though, is how you redirect the user to the primary domain. That is the key to search engine friendliness.

Domain Alias or a 301 Redirect?

In your hosting control panel, there is a place for you to set up a domain alias. NEVER USE A DOMAIN ALIAS. This is considered spamming the search engines because the domain name DUPLICATES the content on your primary domain and in turn, masks the domain name under the secondary domain. This is a very bad thing to do and you will get dropped in rankings very quickly by Google, Yahoo and other search engines. They feel you are trying to trick the engine when you use a domain alias. Why? Because what they see when they crawl an aliased domain is a website domain that has exactly the same content as the primary domain. So, if you have say…10 domain names all aliased to one domain name…the search engine sees 11 websites all with the same content. Hence, they think you are spamming them with duplicate content to trick the engine into giving you higher rankings.

So…what to do when you have multiple domain names?

Use a 301 Redirect. A 301 redirect tells the search engines that you have moved this domain permanently to a new domain name that you will specify. 301 redirects are search engine friendly redirects. Never use a 302 Redirect. 302 redirects are temporary redirects and are normally used by spammers.

So how do I set up a 301 redirect?

Considering, the domain name you are redirecting has never been hosted on any web server, buy a cheap hosting plan at netmouser.net domains and hosting (or any other hosting provider of your choice) for the domain you want to redirect. Then, you will need to upload a file called a .htaccess into the root of the html folder. This file will ‘direct’ the search engine crawler that you have permanently moved the domain name to a specific domain name.

How to create and setup a .htaccess file:

1. Check your current website ftp to make sure you don’t already have a .htaccess file already. (If you do not know how to do this, check your ftp program for instructions. I know in WS_FTP Pro, you can type -la into your file mask textbox and this will display if a .htaccess file exists.) If file exists, open it and go to #3 below. If not, go to #2 below.

2. Open Notepad or other text editor.

3. Copy and Paste this line into the Notepad file: (change the yourdomain.com to the your primary domain.)

redirect 301 / http://www.yourdomain.com/

4. Now save the file a .htaccess - make sure Notepad doesn’t add a .txt extension at the end.

5. Upload the .htaccess file to your website html root folder.

Now, anytime that domain is typed in by a website visitor it will permanently forward to your primary website. This is now considered a search engine friendly redirect.

Chances are if you are in the market to purchase a website, you’ve been baffled by all the different ranges in pricing.  With so many web designers out there, you probably found yourself asking “What’s the difference?”

When choosing a web design company, you should first do a little background to help yourself understand the differences and the terminology you may encounter.  This little bit of digging will help to save you a lot of headaches in the beginning and possibly money in the long run.

Custom Web Design or Web Templates?  Which Should I Choose?

At netMouser.com, we specialize in custom designed websites.  We feel that every company is unique and your website should show the unique quality of your business.  A custom design allows you to have a one of a kind presence that no other company has.  Because the graphics are created custom for you, the price may seem slightly higher than other quotes you receive.

However, web templates, which may be priced lower at first, are templates that designers pay for and then “customize” to meet your needs.  Please pay special attention to the word ‘customize’ versus custom web design.

Web templates can sometimes be restrictive since they may actually limit your content space or have restrictive layouts.  Also, you have to keep in consideration that web templates are bought and not ‘created’ to make your business unique, so other companies may purchase the same layout.

That being said, it really is the personal choice of the customer as to what type of website you choose.  Web templates are quicker, and normally least expensive, but custom web designs are unique and specific to your branding.  Surprisingly, custom web designs can be very affordable.  Our netMouser.com starter 5 page custom web design package is only $995 and is a professional entry into your online business.  This price is sometimes lower than website templates after you pay the design firm to ‘customize’ a template for you.  So, long story short, if you are in the market for a website…find out a few things when calling around to web design firms.

1.  Is this a custom design or a web template?  Sometimes the low price is attractive, but when you find out it’s a template, you may actually pay a higher price for the customization than our 5 page package custom web design package.

2.  If a template, how much does it cost to exclusively purchase the design?  Again, you may find the price is higher than our custom web design package.  I’ve seen some web templates priced at $3,000 for exclusivity!

If this seems overwhelming at first, don’t panic.  Most people don’t understand the differences and may be hesitant when choosing a design firm.   The main thing you need to decide is whether you would be happy with a web template or if you prefer to have a unique custom web design.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.  We always welcome your call.

Hello and welcome to the first posting on netMouser’s Las Vegas internet marketing and web development blog. I’ve been meaning to start this blog for a long time, but somehow I always managed to get too busy and put it off. Well, no more! With the new year, comes new year resolutions, and I am happy to say that this blog is one of my resolutions I intend to keep!

First off, let me tell you why I wanted to start my new blog and what this blog will be about. In a nutshell, this blog is about web design related questions, web development techniques, industry news, internet marketing, seo / search engine optimization, e-commerce, online shopping, statistical information, email marketing and a whole lot more! It seems like a pretty large undertaking, but all in all, it’s really about a few simple principles.

INFORMATION! I want to help our customers (and new visitors to our website) understand more about the internet and all it has to offer. Everyday I get questions from my customers who want to know something about internet marketing, web site design, e-commerce and other internet related information. This blog will be a great way to address those questions on a daily basis!

LAS VEGAS LOCAL COVERAGE! Since we are local to Las Vegas, it is my intent to also introduce you to new local marketing strategies that can benefit your business. This great community in Las Vegas is growing at a fast pace and I want to help weed out some of the best ways to take advantage of local advertising on the web.

COMMUNICATION! I want all of our customers and new visitors form all over the world to feel free to communicate, ask questions and dig into the internet the way I do. Don’t be afraid…if you have a question…ASK! That is the only way you and others like you can learn and understand. Use this blog as a tool and fuel your website to higher profits.

Now that you can imagine all that this blog will have to offer, please feel free to email me your questions or call me. I will be happy to add a certain topic or question to our blog so that our entire netmouser community can benefit, grow and learn all there is learn from this ever changing, most exciting world wide web.