Someone recently asked whether it would help his business if they purchased a new domain with the .com or another type of extension for his website.

The issue is not whether his website is on a .com or .net domain or gaining any benefits.

The real issue is the business name (DBA) and website domain URL do not match. The website URL is missing a plural “s” that is in the DBA.

An example is the following situation. The business name is SEO Professionals but the url is www.seoprofessional.net.

This presents a couple user experience disconnects and problems for the business. This got me thinking about how the user will interact and the best way to handle the experience.

<2>Problem 1: Confusion For Clients
Every time you hand a business card, the business name and logo is typically much larger than the website URL. If the potential client only remembers one thing, its the name of your business. In this case, SEO Professionals.

Should they automatically assume your URL is your business name and type in www.seoprofessionals.com in a browser, then you potentially send them to a non-existent page or worse, a competitors’ website.

Now you don’t want to give business away by marketing for another business, do you?

Problem 2: Search Engine Dilemma

Say the same client loses your forgets the URL but remembers the business name. They launches his or her favorite search engine and types in “SEO professionals”.

There is a likelihood www.seoprofessional.net will not rank high enough. Most tests have shown domain matching URL is powerful indicator for search engine results.

Again, this is a case where if the user reads only the Page Title and ignores the URL variations a potential client may be lost.

Optimizing The Website

Its important that the website will need to be optimized for search engines and potential clients.

The meta information that search engines display in results pages will need the correct page titles and descriptions. So even if the URL and business name do not match, a searcher will find exactly what they are looking for visually.

The homepage or any landing page will need to have every possible indicator that the right destination has been reached. A clear legible logo or recognizable symbolmark.

By writing optimized page title headlines and descriptions, chances are search engines will pick up on the title over the URL and so will searchers (potential clients) too.

This is just scratching the surface of optimization for websites but the lesson here is that its a good idea that your business name and website URL’s match.

I love reading Smashing Magazine as it is extremely helpful for an aspiring graphic designer slash web developer.  When they were advertising the release of their book Smashing Book, I pre-ordered right away.  I had great hopes and they sure delivered a book chock full of ideas, concepts and smashing content.

The Good

As always from the writers, content is key.  This book touches upon most topics that are relevant for any designer focused on the web as its medium.  The topics range from taking full advantage of CSS for layouts to typography options as well as color theory.  It covers on the fundamentals of user interface design and usability concerns that may not be something we may care as much as typical graphic artists.

Besides the graphical topics it covers, the book also covers the operations and business aspects that one may neglect.  From learning pieces of good coding for optimizing SEO to optimizing performance on websites.  There is also references to utilizing the free analytical tools to track metrics and conversion rates.  Finally, it teaches you to be aware of marketing and branding.

Another highlight subject is the insight Q&A from the authors.  This definitely provided ample rations of food for thinking.  It ends with a story of the Smashing Magazine.

Its a good amount of tips and insights that you may not gain from another book.  In addition, there are the references for you to further develop and learn on the topics the books chapters touches on.

The Bad

I can’t really fault any of the content in the book.  After all, its written by some of the leading minds in this industry.  However, I would have expected the book itself to be much better constructed.

The book is smaller than what I’d like.  I mean, the content is colorful full of graphics, screen shots and examples, it just begs to be done in a proper format like a coffee  table book.

The binding of the book, as others have reviewed, is horribly constructed as you have to be extremely careful when reading or else the pages may come apart.  Add to the problem is that the page layouts are tight where padding is minimal for the amount of content crammed in.  It makes reading the content much more difficult without opening the book up.

There is definitely some errata as well in terms of spelling and reference.  Particularly of note, in the chapter on usability, they reference a website that is clearly of the Korean language but state it as Chinese.  Small error but being international; they need to recognize this.  Korean and Chinese writing is completely different.

Finally, this book took way too long to arrive.  I pre-ordered in August and hoped it would have arrived in October.  It did get to me until December, in time for Christmas.  But had I known, I could have probably picked up all the content in the book from other resources already.

Looking Forward to the Next Installment

I am fairly critical but I do look forward to the next installment from Smashing Magazine.  I hope Smashing Book Vol. 2 will be even better; from content to presentation to construction.  It’s been three months since I’ve received the book and just about the same amount of time since I’ve read through.  I guess, like their shipment problems, it just took me awhile to get to actually putting up my thoughts on book.

***I hear the book binding issue has been resolved, unfortunately, my book has not been fixed.  Perhaps they can send me a electronic .pdf version so I can actually use this wonderful book as a reference manual.***