Hi Tavis
We don't really have this problem at Reid Kerr as we're named after someone who doesn't seem to be at all famous!
As far as geography goes, our website is found mainly by "reid kerr college" (35%) or "reid kerr" (22%), and phrases containing "paisley" or "scotland" only account for about 4% of hits.
FWIW, if I was sat at a browser and asked to guess the URL for "The Adam Smith College, Fife" I'd expect it to be adamsmith.ac.uk, and tasc.ac.uk would never ever occur to me.
As far as search engines go, I can only think of 3 colleges in Scotland with the word "college" in their domain name (Glenrothes, Borders and Central), and they don't seem to do any better in searches than anywhere else, so I'm not sure if it makes that much of a difference really. I may well be wrong about this though as search engine placement is still a complete mystery to me!
Cheers
Michael
Michael Aherne
Web Developer
Reid Kerr College
Renfrew Road
Paisley
PA3 4DR
Tel: 0141 581 2311
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www.reidkerr.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Information Sharing List for Scottish Web Folk
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Tavis Reddick
Sent: 02 February 2005 12:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Domain names for a college called after a person
Hi Scottish Web Folk
The resultant college emerging from Fife and Glenrothes colleges' ashes will likely be called "The Adam Smith College, Fife".
Does anyone have an opinion on what would be a suitable domain, considering:
1 First choice of management, tasc.ac.uk, is taken. I can't see anyone searching on 'tasc', either.
2 Search engine results will likely be affected if 'fife' or 'college' doesn't feature in it.
3 What are the likely affects of having a name as well-published as "Adam Smith" on search engine results? I'm thinking of other institutions like Reid Kerr, James Watt, Telford etc.
How strong a component is geography in student searches?
Tavis Reddick
Webmaster
Fife College
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