So, you’re thinking about creating a website for your business to help boost your online presence and hopefully generate more customer interaction. Amazing, that’s the first step! Or, if you’re just starting your business and have yet to decide on a company name, you may find this article helpful. The next and possibly most important step is choosing a domain name. While you may think this process is fairly straightforward, there are a few things you may want to take into consideration. Keep reading to find out more…
The first step towards finding your perfect domain name is putting in a bit of elbow grease and researching the domains of your competitors and similarly named businesses. We suggest creating a spreadsheet or document where you can easily browse the domain names that are already taken. This will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run, here’s an example. Imagine you’ve spent a few days coming up with the PERFECT domain name and you’re really excited. Perhaps you’ve even planned how to incorporate it into your marketing. Yet, when you have to purchase the domain, it’s already taken or your competitor has something far too similar.
Luckily, there are plenty of online resources that can check domain names for you. You’ve just got find one that works for you!
Once you’ve got your list of taken domain names, you can start focusing on building your own. It’s important to remember what your company does and what your brand represents. We also suggest taking into consideration the future plans you have for your business. For example, if you currently design kitchens, but are looking to expand into other territories in the future, you may want to avoid a name like ‘kitchensbylarry.co.uk’. Whereas, if you choose something like ‘homesbylarry.co.uk’, you’re opening yourself up to the possibility of future expansion.
Like most things, domain names are better off short and sweet while still being memorable. This is important, especially when your website first launches and your SEO practices haven’t yet ranked your business number one on Google. For more information on how to boost your Google Ranking through SEO, take a look at our article on keyword usage. When referring to your website, people will try to remember the URL and if it’s long and rambling, it’s pretty much a lost cause. So, if you’re a beauty salon that offers a lot of services, we’d avoid the following. ‘Sarahs-beauty-salon-offering-hair-nails-makeup-and-much-more.co.uk’. Now, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. Play it safe and keep it short.
When choosing a domain name, it’s important to think about your location. If your business is location specific and you can’t really see it expanding too much outside of there, you may want to consider having your location in the domain name. For example, if you are Sutton based music shop, a potential domain name could be, ‘suttonmusic.co.uk’.
Extensions are easily overlooked when choosing a domain name, mainly because most people won’t know which ones are used for what. Whether you’re best using .co, .gov, .net, .me etc., it’s up to you to decide which best fits your business type. For more information, you can find that here.
Another thing to take into consideration is the availability of your domain name across social media platforms. Ideally, you’ll have the same handle on every platform you use. That being said, you may find that it is already taken on some, which is where having a location included may come in handy.
We’ve covered the different things you should be doing when choosing a domain name, but now let’s take a look at what you want to avoid. While it may be tempting to include a lot of hyphens, this can make it difficult to remember the URL accurately and the same goes for numbers. We also suggest avoiding any words that are often misspelt or just not very common.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better idea of the different steps involved in choosing a domain name. Our last suggestion is that once you’ve decided on one, make sure you act fast! Time is very much of the essence when it comes to domain names…
There are many places where you can buy domain names online. You may be able to buy them through the hosting platform you choose to use. Popular hosting platforms are GoDaddy, 123Reg and many more, it’s all down to personal preference. Or, if the domain already exists, you may have to purchase it off of a domain broker, such as Domain.com, GoDaddy Brokerage, or NameCheap.
If you’ve got any further questions about how to choose a great domain name, or you’re looking for some help building your website, why not give us a call? We’d be happy to have a chat!