How To Pick a Domain Name
February 23, 2010 by admin
Filed under Buying Guide
Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky! A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.
A Cautionary Note
Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic.”
For example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book, or do you simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion about the name of the company. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.
Your Choices
The obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.
1) Is there something about your business name that does not lend itself to a viable domain name? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.
2) Double letter problems are an issue unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to launch a site.
3) The nature of your site and search engine optimization requires thought. If you are targeting a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names. However, introducing dashes causes its own propblem for type-in traffic. Are you running “joespizza.com” or “joes-pizza.com”? If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.
4) You should get a domain name that ends in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any arguments or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions. .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic.
Take a breath and think before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.
