Meet Pete. Roofer Extraordinaire. His shingle skills and tile-laying largess turn ordinary roofs into rare works of art. But if no one knows about Pete, how will his business thrive? GoDaddy, of course. With a domain name and website from GoDaddy, customers find Pete online. Share your talents with the world. It’s go time. Build your own website today.
I wish GoDaddy’s latest “Pete Roofer” commercial was indeed as true and easy as it comes off to be. If anything, this commercial is a great marketing ploy for the person with an idea to launch their new business today.
But for the small business owner that has been around the block a few times, you know it’ll take more than just a domain and website from GoDaddy to run and operate a profitable, successful business.
I’ve watched the “Pete Roofer” commercial a number times, and there are a few things to point out.
First things first, GoDaddy’s commercial is nothing more than to get the unassuming small business owner to commit to buying a domain, web and email hosting plan, and to use their intuitive website builder software.
And there’s nothing wrong with that from GoDaddy’s standpoint and in general.
Now I have nothing against GoDaddy (I myself have domains and hosting with them) or any other provider of such services.
But I do point out that it will take more than just services to operate a profitable, success business online.
One of the largest factors alone is what domain you choose to operate your small business on. Think real estate for a moment, and think about the importance of operating a brick and mortar shop.
One of many factors that determines a brick and mortar shop’s success is what? Exactly, location, location, location.
Well, the same thing can be said for a business promoting itself online. I’m sure you’re wondering what and how location, location, location transfers to the online world, right?
Although Pete may be a great roofer, Pete is going to have greater success with a domain name that drives substantially more traffic than PetesRoofs.com.
And not just any old domain will do the trick. Pete needs either an exact match domain or a premium domain name to build a website and share his talents with the world, wink.
For example, let’s say that Pete lives and operates his business in Augusta, Georgia. Instead of using PetesRoofs.com as his online business location, what if he used AugustaRoofing.com?
I can tell you that the same website on different names will drastically have night and day difference in SEO performance. And this is only scratching the surface of SEO.
I use the example to illustrate that our decision in selecting a domain name, amongst a host of many more decisions, determines how much of a marketing budget we will have or not have, good and bad.
Using PetesRoofs.com, Pete, as well as ourselves when we believe like GoDaddy wants us to believe, might as well vanish as he did in the commercial.
He nor we should ever think that setting up a domain and website is all we have to do to have world eating from the palm of our hand.
Sure, it’s a commercial, but the reality of every small business owner is trying to figure out how to better and best place their website at the highest visibility above the competition in search rankings.
And in my humble opinion, the one thing that can give you the one-off advance is owning the right location, meaning domain.
Think about what your business does and where your customers live.
I know most of you are probably thinking that this type of thinking only works for small businesses with a local market presence and focus.
Fortunately, the same thought process can work for regional, national and even global businesses.
Much like our example with Pete using PetesRoofs.com instead of AugustaRoofing.com, Pete could choose to buy and use GeorgiaRoofing.com for a regional presence.
For a national or global presence, he could choose to buy and use HomeRoofing.com, ResidentialRoofing.com, CommercialRoofing.com.
Now of course, all of these domains have to be available either hand registration, or for sale or lease by the owner.
And I do understand that not many .com domains are available, and that new gtlds or domain name extensions are hitting the market everyday.
And let me express that I do thoroughly understand that small business, and any business online, is more than just domain and website.
There has to be a sound strategy and business model in place as well as sound marketing and advertising strategies.
But my point is to get you to truly think about the importance of where you launch your online business. Truly think about the costs of a brick and mortar shop.
You as a small business owner are willing to take out a lease for a brick and mortar shop that will only bring you limited foot traffic and customers during a set number of hours a day. This costs you an extreme amount of money annually.
Why not take the same amount of money, or less, and invest in a domain name brings your business infinite amounts traffic and customers 24/7/365?
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
