Think of your domain name as internet real estate.
As you are setting up your WordPress site it will hit you. I need a domain name. Don’t sweat it, but do take it seriously. What you choose could influence the effectiveness of your website long term. Put the same effort into it as you did the name of your business. Your domain name welcomes people as they enter the doorway of your virtual business. If it gives good directions it should lead people to your businesses cyberpace location with a fair amount of ease. If you want customers to find you here are a few tips that will help make your business a popular online venue.
Not even lying
Domain names need to be super simple.
Keep it short. We are talking approximately 15 characters. No overcomplicating. Do not use underscores, hyphens, or punctuation. Also, keep it to letters. Avoid number use unless they are part of your brand.
Only attract business where you do it
Target your local market
If your services are exclusive to one particular area use your city name in your domain. It makes local residents have an easier time to find you and helps rank your type of business locally. Otherwise, you are in the pile saturated with “competitors” from all over the map.
Make the most of what you already do
Use Keywords
Users tend to type in exactly what they are looking for into browsers. If these words are part of your domain then people can find you by your services without even knowing your businesses name. It is an easy find for your potential customer. Let your keywords do the prospecting. To top it all off this also improves search engine rankings.
Make the Most of your Keywords”A better domain name will lower your lifetime marketing costs.
Frank Schilling
Stand Out
You want to be remembered. The best way to do this is to be catchy and appealing. Test it. Ask your friends if they think it is cool, recognizable and if they would be likely to remember it. Ask them later and see if they do. Memory studies show people will recall it better if it is 7 characters, plus or minus 2. It will stand out if people can bring it to mind easily.
Research it
Web domains usually have a past. You may know you are purchasing a used domain and you may not. Regardless, make sure your domain name has a clean past. Do not buy it if it was used in ways that were, we will just say unwholesome. Also, make sure there are not preexisting businesses that have your domain name. There could be legal repercussions.
Brand Your Business
Branding your domain name means it is unique, easy to remember, easy to spell and not shady. Make sure you are not infringing on other peoples trademarks. If you have a unique brand you don't want copy cats. Protect it by buying various domain extensions that your brand may grow into. Also, purchase mistypes of the brand itself so that others are not knocking you off.
Act Fast
Domain hacking is all too real. If you have tried your domain in the search bar (or sometimes in other places) it may have been found. Names are often purchased just to drive up prices when you go to buy them. Other times they are just snatched up because people like the name. Some domain registrars offer domain name locking services. Either way, domains are cheap so they sell quick. Jump on it when you find one you like.
The Future
Sometimes businesses expand well beyond their original intention. If your domain name were based on one product name or type you would run into problems if you added more. Selling products unrelated to an original domain name is unprofessional. So even though you may not be ready for growth consider the potential of business expandability when you choose your domain name.
Make it Legal
There are no copyrights on domain names. That being said names within domains can have copyrights, and trademarks of many kinds. You can be sued for a domain name and any potential damage you using might have had to that copyright or trademarks value. So make sure there are no businesses, products, or services with names that you are contemplating using in your domain.
The Right Direction
Always Choose .com?
If you can get a .com it is by far the best way to go. People use the extension on autopilot because it is so established and recognized. It is also the most overused extension. Long domain names are often requited to get them. It is, however, worth trying to make your domain .com even when your first idea does not work out. Look up synonyms in a thesaurus of your keywords, rearrange keywords. Keywords can be entered into domain generators online to produce alternative options for you. Lastly, you could always add a descriptive word to your domain. Such as topdoggrooming.com. You can do your best but these days .com does not always work out.
There are a ton of new domains to choose from. Some pretty cools ones at that.
Be Creative.
There are Choices
Choose Domain Extensions Properly
While there are many clever ways to keep your site .com it is not always an option.
Domain extensions are being increasingly used. We do not suggest however you go out and register a .ninja or.pizza domain. Try to stick to what is most commonly used. There are 882 of them but here are the 11 most common ones.
.co : an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community.
.ca : reserved for Canadian websites
.info : informational sites.
.net : technical, Internet infrastructure sites.
.org : non-commercial organizations and nonprofits.
.biz : business or commercial use, like e-commerce sites.
.me : blogs, resumes or personal sites.
.edu — Limited to educational purposes
.info — An open extension that is short for information
.xyz — An open extension available for general use
.ly — Country code for Libya, but used by many tech startups for creative spellings
Not Feeling Creative Today?
Check out namelix.com, its a super fun name/domain generator that can help spin up some really fun ideas. Namelix uses artificial intelligence to mix up and keywords to create a list you can browse.
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