Understanding web development and writing code is only one piece to the web puzzle! Codecademy is a great tool to further understanding of how certain web languages work and how we can use the language to create our vision on our web pages. The latest Codecademy lesson on jQuery was probably the easiest lesson to date and it really furthered my understanding of the library and how to operate it. Following the Codecademy lesson, I took to GoDaddy to choose a domain name that would shape the future of my family’s business!

My folks are self-employed and they run a house cleaning business in Northern Virginia. As a small business marketing consultant, I had been putting off creating their website until I took this class. My folks have yet to file as an LLC or any other business structure so there is no official name, this gave me flexibility in choosing a domain name. I did some keyword research using Google Keyword Research Tool to see some search volume numbers. This helped me determine that I needed to include the term “cleaning” in my domain name choice. This keyword will assist my SEO efforts to compete against Molly Maid and their ilk.

A well-functioning site that has a great user interface and is structured properly is important for online visibility along with your domain name. Having a keyword that is highly searched upon within your domain name helps a good amount on the search engine results pages (SERP). A bad user interface and broken links can lead to poor page ranks from Google, which in turn would lead to bad placement on the SERP. Which leads to less visibility and ultimately less revenue coming from the online space. A well thought out domain name in this sense is essential to your online visibility. This is not to say a unique name or a play on words will lead to bad results on the SERPs because there are other ways to optimize your web page for your keywords. However, in an industry that is already crowded, you can and should take every chance made available to you to increase your online visibility.

Also, don’t forget to claim your Facebook page, Twitter handle, Linkedin, Google+ and others! You’ll be sure to need them sooner or later to own the entire SERP for your branded key terms.

Pop Quiz: When I wrote “Search Engine Results Page (SERP)” above, what would be the JavaScript equivalent of attributing meaning to an acronym?