This is the first of a two-part series on how to choose a domain name for your business website.
It is very important to choose a domain name that presents your business in the best possible light. You should choose a name that conveys authority and trust, and one that is easy for your customers to use.
In this blog post, I will give you five tips to help you choose a powerful domain name.
1) Choose a memorable name.
This name will stay with your business forever. Think of your domain name as a “brand”. It should have “brand quality”. Choose a name that is simple, easy to remember, and conveys the right impression about your business.
2) Mirror your business name.
As far as possible, your domain name should match your actual business name. It isn’t very helpful for your business if your company trades under one name and uses a different name for its website. For one thing, you will confuse your potential customers. If your business has both an offline and an online presence, you have to make sure that the link between both is very clear to your customer. The sure way to do this is to make sure that your domain name matches that of your business.
3) Avoid spelling issues.
If a domain name can have more than one possible spelling, don’t use that domain name. You don’t want your customers typing in different spellings and failing to find their way to your website. Also, avoid using a different spelling for a common term, for example, KwikKleen (instead of ‘Quick Clean’). This will cause confusion among your customers and anybody else searching for you.
Avoid long names. This increases the chances of the domain name being misspelled. Also avoid words that are difficult to spell.
4) Steer clear of hyphens!
I cannot stress this one enough. Sometimes people go for names with hyphens because the non-hyphenated name has already been taken. Don’t do this. Your customers are not always going to remember to add the hyphen when they search for you. Plus, if you’re in the same line of business as the other company (that is, the one using the non-hyphenated name), your potential customers can actually end up on that other website, and you will have lost a sale.
5) Go with .com
As far as possible, go for the .com extension. If the .com extension is not available for your chosen domain name, drop that domain name, and look for one where you can get the .com extension.
Some experts argue that it is still fine to go with another extension (for example, .net), but I actually advise against this. It can work for big businesses that are very well known (e.g. Problogger.net) but, if you’re just starting out in business, I would advise that you put your best foot forward. To many people, using a .com address gives an impression of a more established business. Much more so than using a .net address. Some of the people who think this way will be your potential customers. Therefore, what they think should matter to you.
In addition to the .com extension, make sure you secure all the more common extensions, such as .net, .biz, .me, and .org. Even if you don’t use them, it is best to secure them, and keep them in-house, so that no-one else can get hold of them. This way, you keep your domain name fully yours. Also, secure the country-specific extension of the country in which you’re located, and those in which you do substantial business. For example, if you do a lot of business in the United Kingdom, you should also secure the .co.uk extension.
If there are any domain names that sound similar to yours, claim those as well. Secure all possible variations of your business name. To give you an example, in addition to harcourtlane.com, we have also registered harcourtlaneagency.com.
Conclusion.
Your domain name is one of your strongest signals to the online business community. It conveys a lot about the nature and character of your business. Choose a domain name that shows your business as you wish it to be seen.
In the next post, I will share more tips about choosing a powerful domain name.