Domainer Manages Domains And Web Sites On Your Mac.

If you manage a number of web sites and domain names you need Domainer. It’s as simple as that.

Managing domains and sites requires a special effort. Domainer is the tool that makes it easy, fun, timely, and efficient.

If you don’t manage domain names or web site but plan to look into it, you’ll need a few Mac utilities to make the job easier. Domainer makes it easy.

I manage about 50 domain names for business, family members, and clients. Each domain name is registered with a registrar, each name has a different expiration date, different name servers, and different elements to track.

That includes the IP address assigned to each domain name, or web site, the mail server for the site, and so on. On top of that, clients often want to know additional information about their site, including Google page rank, or AlexaRank, and how many incoming links track to the domain name.

All you need to handle all that information is the mother of all spreadsheets and a lot of time to drop in the details. It’s not pretty. It’s not fun.

Rage Software’s Domainer makes the whole domain name and web site mess much easier to manage. In fact, it’s a pleasure to track all the information you need for a bunch of domain names and web sites.

In typical Mac utility fashion, Domainer makes the complex simple to manage. Domain names can be entered into Domainer and tracked via creation date and expiration date.

Letting a domain name expire makes clients very unhappy. Domainer syncs expiration dates to iCal.

But that’s not all. Domainer also provides automatic inclusion of web-based information such as a web site’s Google page rank, the site’s AlexaRank, and incoming links. Apply the same auto updating of information to a bunch of web sites which compete against yours.

Social bookmark tags are included in Domainer so you can see who has tagged one of your sites (or, a site you’re tracking) on del.icio.us. If you manage a bunch of sites for different clients or organizations, Domainer helps you stay organized with Smart Groups.

Domainer’s interface is all Mac. Elegant and easy to use. The left column looks like iPhoto, or iTunes, or any one of dozens of Mac utilities which organize information by group. The center section holds the domains or web sites in list view. Click on any domain name and see a thumbnail of the site, Google page rank, AlexaRank, incoming links and social tags on the bottom.

Just below that detail are the Top 10 Tags and the Top 10 Incoming Links (referrals). I looked at an early version of Domainer a year or so ago, and it showed promise but needed more capability to get me to leave my beloved and hated mother of all spreadsheets.

At the top of the Domainer window is the ubiquitous Mac toolbar. Click an icon to Add New Domain. Click to Edit Domain. Click to Update Domain Details. How easy is that?

Entering domain or web site information is a simple pop up window. Enter the creation and expiration date, domain registrar, URL and owner. There’s also fields for FTP information, as well as site hosting details, including name servers. There’s even a notes field, which is handy if more than one person manages the Domainer database.

Enter the information and click the Apply button. Domainer goes to work on the internet and digs up all that background information that would take time to do for each web site or domain. Sweet.

The latest Domainer is ready for prime time, Tiger and Leopard. It also made quick work of my spreadsheet. I dumped the Excel data into a CSV file, then imported the whole mess into Domainer.

I’d like to see more information assigned to each domain or site record, such as client contact info, or some kind of connection to Address Book, but that’s a nit picky request. The Smart Folders can be set up to handle multiple clients or site groups anyway.

Some sort of keyword and description management would be handy, too, especially since Search Engine Optimization is such an art form these days.

If you have a single web site, Domainer would be overkill, but handy. If your web site competes with other sites then Domainer can track them in addition to yours.

Rage Software also provides a Google Sitemap Automator utility, and a Search Engine Rank tool. Do you manage domain names or web sites? What’s your information tool of choice? Talk Back to Mac360’s readers in the Comments section below.

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