Hi everyone… Roger here. I’ve been cleaning windows on the side for 25 years. Time to go legit. In the past I just used Andersen Window Cleaning. Now I would like to do something a little more original. When I joined the Forum I was planning on using the name “Kiss My Glass window cleaning” . After throwing it past some potential customers there was some pushback. Even though most people love the name because it was catchy and funny. Now I am considering “Kiss Your Glass window cleaning” to soften the blow. Obviously, I want the name to be memorable and stand out from the crowd. Just looking for some feedback. Thanks!
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It will accomplish that.
Besides the play on words, though, the subliminal message puts you in a weaker position before they even meet you.
How would this name set the customer expectations for the relationship?
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You’re starting a business in 2019. Your online presence will be key to your success (or failure) and you need to respect that or failure will be your most likely outcome.
In my experienced opinion I would strongly suggest that you take the most SEOable business name. That means pick something where you can write it out in the URL that you pick - and, obviously, make sure the URL is available before registering the name.
I live in Vicotira, so customers are searching keywords such as “window cleaning victoria” and “victoria window cleaners”, so if either of those names are available I should absolutely pick it. Again, check the URL first - if YOURTOWNwindowcleaning.com is available, then JESUS GOD MAN take that URL. It is absolute GOLD. Even if you don’t end up using it you could likely resell it at some point for at least $1000, and it only costs you maybe $10-20 to register per year.
Branding is good, but it’s better to create a successful brand once you’re established. Unless you have time & money to spend on a deep marketing campaign it won’t matter what you call your brand - if no one is finding you online then what’s the point?
Naming & SEO go hand in hand, if you ask me. I started out as MossAway Services Inc. but I needed to rebrand shortly after launch just to rank on the first page of Google searches. We moved to MossAway Roof Moss Removal in our digital presence which included the keyword “roof moss removal” which was one of the top 3 keywords searched in our field. We then went heavy on keywording “Victoria” into the site as often as we could. We went from spending $500-700/mo on AdWords to now spending $0/mo because our current SEO is just that good. That’s the dream…
Hope this helps! Sorry if I sound nagging - I’ve been through the pain and it’s a little like getting the chance to travel back in time to shake some sense into younger me. 
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Wow, great feedback! I think I better put the name back into research and development. Haha sounds like I better do a little more online research for the new digital age. Thanks…
Looking forward to more comments.
That seems like good advice, I need to take a look through my SEO keywords now.
On your website, your images can usually be set up with “alternate text”. You should most definitely load up this field with keywords.
“Victory Window Cleaning logo Victoria exterior cleaners”
“victoria window cleaning residential Victory Window Cleaning”
“Residential window cleaning Victoria water fed pole cleaning”
“Victory Window Cleaning location victoria bc”
These can be on just about any photo. I would recommend using words in there that are not just keywords, like “logo” for a logo image and maybe “water fed pole” if there’s a picture of someone on a WFP. Make the alt text make sense for every image but include top keyword searches for your area & services. Every image should have this done, and every page should specifically keyword to that pages intent (ie, gutter cleaning page? keywords for gutter cleaning. power washing page? pressure washing, driveway cleaning, etc) Little things like this eventually add up in the SEO game.
When my wife an I were think tanking names for my company last year, we landed on Smack My Glass. We ran into the same chuckles and memorability, but occasional push back from older and more conservative clients which are my majority market. I kept the name for my IRS LLC filing, hopefully making them chuckle cause the IRS never thinks anything is funny, but I use a DBA fictitious name registration form my company’s “Doing Business As” name which is Quick N Clean.
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