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[artfuldodger]

...of ways a Geo Domain can benefit a business. This section needs a little somethin, somethin. Let's see how many benefits we can come up with. I'll start it off and update the list as people contribute.

1) By generating local, targeted traffic (Geo Domains can be very intuitive. For example, if someone is looking for a hotel in Miami, they may type MiamiHotels.com directly into their browser address bar and end up at that site. Chances are extremely high that a visitor that direct navigates to MiamiHotels.com is looking for a hotel in Miami and thus this traffic is very targeted and much easier to convert for any hotels advertising on MiamiHotels.com) 

2) Local trust factor (the visitors that come to the site are seeking the item/service that is available in that geographic area - for instance, someone moving to Baltimore and looking for a house might search on Google for "Baltimore Real Estate", if one of the websites in the search results is BaltimoreRealEstate.com, then that is a very intuitive and authoritative name, it describes exactly what they are looking for and when listed next to other sites without geo names -- just made up for this example, I have not checked these out-- DreadPirateRobertsRealEstate.com, FlashCashRealty.com, etc. it is more likely that the person using the search engine will trust the geo domain more because it describes what they want in the geographic area where they want it.)

3) Cost effective, much better than traditional and print advertising By having a geodomain you effectively have a billboard or store front that runs online 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. How much would it cost for a business to rent a billboard locally or remain open for business all day long? Today, consumers now seek information online to enhance their purchasing decisions. By having a geodomain, you now have an affordable means of targeting that local consumer online who is looking for that specific product in your specific area.

4) Easy To Brand - in most circumstances you can just plaster the domain name all over the side of a bus or two for a short period of time and that's it, you're done. Maybe a few print, radio, tv ads. Nobody who ever noticed the name will forget it. An example is something like "chicagolawyers.com". I think that this only holds true for the .coms, not the .net,.ca,.info,etc.

5) Future Search Engine Rankings - this is just my opinion but I've always been right so far. A geo-generic domain like "tusconlawyers.com" is as memorable as it gets for a law firm or law firm directory in Tuscon. There will be type-in traffic, easy to brand, etc - qualities which make the domain name worth more than other domain names and eventually the name will be bought by someone who will spend money/effort on it or the domain owner will prosper in part due to the domain and will invest more money improving it. Either situation results in a good site that Google and the other search engines will be proud to display to searchers for the geo-generic term, in this case "tuscon lawyers". My conclusion is that geo-generic domains will increasingly and unceasingly be ranked highly, based if only on that their domain name is the same as the search query.

6) Future Co-operation Opportunities - much as the purely "geo" domains like "detroit.com", "seattle.com, etc have/are banded together to establish a community of geo websites that co-operate and support each other so there is opportunity for the "geo-generic" owners to do the same. If "vancouverlawyers.com", "vancouvercomputers.com", "vancouvernews.com", "vancouverfashion.com", etc band together there would be potential for all sorts of cost reduction via sharing arrangements, there would be commissions, referral fees, etc as well as the complete branding that would automatically follow from the residents of an area just to know that they can type in "vancouverwhatever.com" and find a trusted network of locally co-operative businesses online. Presumably a business would profit from this association and would therefore gain a competitive advantage that their competitors would be unable ever to duplicate.

[J-B]

Local trust factor

Cost effective, much better than print advertising

Larger audience online

Detailed tracking of traffic.

Easily update your advertising camaign for holidays and events.

[cybermonkey]

...Owning a geo+keyword related to your business adds credebility and shows that "you mean business".

....According to studies, geo targeted names tend to be more memorable which is important for marketing.

...Owning a geo-targeted name will help to prevent competition and confusion.

...Huge advantage over local competitors.

[artfuldodger]

Ok, maybe this list will need a little more explanation for the entries so people unfamiliar with geo domains or just learning about geo domains can understand the benefits more easily. Some entries seem self explanatory while others can be a little less clear. Try to describe the benefit in enough detail so someone outside the industry or just learning about the industry will more easily understand it.

J-B & Cyber, I'm a little unclear on the following entries so far, can you elaborate a little bit on these:

Huge advantage over local competitors. (how?)

Owning a geo-targeted name will help to prevent competition and confusion. (how and why?)

Cost effective, much better than print advertising (why?)

Larger audience online (do you mean versus not having a website at all?)

Detailed tracking of traffic. (is this a specific benefit to geo domains or just websites in general?)

Easily update your advertising camaign for holidays and events. (I'm unclear on this one)

According to studies, geo targeted names tend to be more memorable which is important for marketing (Do you have a link to any of these studies, I'm with you on this one but would be nice to have a link to back it up before I add it to the list)

My hope would be we could develop this list so that anyone trying to develop geo domains can use it when talking with advertisers/local companies. The list would give the advertiser/local company plenty of easy to comprehend reasons why they should do business with our geo sites.

[J-B]

Cost effective, much better than traditional and print advertising

By having a geodomain you effectively have a billboard or store front that runs online 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. How much would it cost for a business to rent a billboard locally or remain open for business all day long? Today, consumers now seek information online to enhance their purchasing decisions. By having a geodomain, you now have an affordable means of targeting that local consumer online who is looking for that specific product in your specific area.

[gregb]

My comments apply to the "geo-generic" domain name.

Easy To Brand - in most circumstances you can just plaster the domain name all over the side of a bus or two for a short period of time and that's it, you're done. Maybe a few print, radio, tv ads. Nobody who ever noticed the name will forget it. An example is something like "chicagolawyers.com". I think that this only holds true for the .coms, not the .net,.ca,.info,etc.

Future Search Engine Rankings - this is just my opinion but I've always been right so far. A geo-generic domain like "tusconlawyers.com" is as memorable as it gets for a law firm or law firm directory in Tuscon. There will be type-in traffic, easy to brand, etc - qualities which make the domain name worth more than other domain names and eventually the name will be bought by someone who will spend money/effort on it or the domain owner will prosper in part due to the domain and will invest more money improving it. Either situation results in a good site that Google and the other search engines will be proud to display to searchers for the geo-generic term, in this case "tuscon lawyers". My conclusion is that geo-generic domains will increasingly and unceasingly be ranked highly, based if only on that their domain name is the same as the search query.

Future Co-operation Opportunities - much as the purely "geo" domains like "detroit.com", "seattle.com, etc have/are banded together to establish a community of geo websites that co-operate and support each other so there is opportunity for the "geo-generic" owners to do the same. If "vancouverlawyers.com", "vancouvercomputers.com", "vancouvernews.com", "vancouverfashion.com", etc band together there would be potential for all sorts of cost reduction via sharing arrangements, there would be commissions, referral fees, etc as well as the complete branding that would automatically follow from the residents of an area just to know that they can type in "vancouverwhatever.com" and find a trusted network of locally co-operative businesses online. Presumably a business would profit from this association and would therefore gain a competitive advantage that their competitors would be unable ever to duplicate.

[long_island]

Huge advantage over local competitors. (how?)

Becuase owning a geo domain or even a keyword geo domain will bring you traffic that your competitor won't and can not replicate regardless of their marketing strategy.. For example, only one can own [keyword]domains.com or whatever it may be. Therefore only one will benefit.

[Michael Castello]

Huge advantage over local competitors. (how?)

Becuase owning a geo domain or even a keyword geo domain will bring you traffic that your competitor won't and can not replicate regardless of their marketing strategy.. For example, only one can own [keyword]domains.com or whatever it may be. Therefore only one will benefit.

The locals are a captive audience to your geo.com name if it is the exact name. i.e. LongBeach.com