If you’re starting a business, one of the first things you’ll want to do is to create a website. After all, a business that doesn’t have a website is virtually nonexistent and will find it hard to attract customers and make sales. But, when building your website, don’t just focus on the design you want it to have and the content that you’d like to upload. Both of these are important factors in making your website popular and well-liked but, if you want to become highly visible online, you’ll also need to focus on choosing the right domain name.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Many business owners don’t really pay much attention to domain names; after all, if you look at a webpage, they barely take up 1% of the space. But don’t just treat them as a simple string of letters. Remember: customers find your website by your domain name, so it has to be memorable and easy to type. Otherwise, people will get frustrated by the amount of time need to type out your URL or search for it on Google, and they may decide to abandon the task. Worse, they may end up checking out the websites of your competitors instead, causing you to lose the opportunity to gain a lot of sales and revenue.
STRATEGIES IN CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME
Picking the right domain name doesn’t have to be an impossibly difficult task — as long as you take the right steps. Here are some of the strategies you can use:
Match your brand with your domain name
If you want your domain name to be highly memorable, it has to be tied to your brand. There are two ways to go about this, and the most obvious choice is to pick a domain name based on your brand. However, this may not always be possible particularly if your desired domain name has already been registered by another company. If this is the case, the next-best thing you can do is to make modifications to the name; for instance, if your company name is Acme and you offer legal services, you can use acmelegal.com or acme-legal.com.
Another option is to pick your brand name based on the domain names that are available to you. This can be feasible if you’re still in putting your business together and haven’t yet decided what to call it.
Remember the “KISS” principle
“KISS” stands for “Keep It Short and Simple” — which is exactly what your domain name should be. It can be tempting to use clever, complex names but, all too often, they’re difficult to spell or remember. Choose something that will quickly stick to people’s minds and can be easily typed on a smartphone or tablet.
Avoid depending too much on keywords
Keywords can greatly help in making your website rank, but they shouldn’t be the only factor to consider. If you can’t get a domain name with one of your keywords, don’t push the issue; as long as the domain name reflects your brand, you’re good to go.
Choose the right extension
There are lots of domain name extensions nowadays, but the most common and most popular is still .COM. If you can get your domain name with a .COM extension, go for it. If you can’t, don’t worry since you can still play around with .NET, .ORG, and other extensions.
Be vigilant about copyrights
One of the easiest ways to get into legal trouble is to infringe on the copyrights of another person or company. So, before buying a domain name, do your research and find out if anyone else owns it. If it’s clear, buy it and register it for the maximum period so no one else can take it away from you.
Use these strategies now to choose the best possible domain name for your business!
Back to Wordpress Tutorials