Blog

SEARCH

Client Testimonials

“They listen to the clients. No one listens and acts as well as they do.”

Ten tips on choosing a good domain name

Posted in: Blog, Tech Tips by admin on June 25, 2010

Not to put too much pressure on you, but choosing a good domain name is pretty darn important.  It will be the basis for all your online marketing, your email address, and more for a long long time.  So it’s important to give some thought how you will be referred to online.  Here are some tips for picking a domain name.

  1. Your domain name should equal your website name should equal your email address.  If you sell real estate don’t
    • call your website Sally’s Realty
    • then use the domain www.sallyhomes.com
    • and have an email address of sally@homesbysally.com.

    2. Sally’s Realty should equal www.sallysrealty.com should equal sally@sallysrealty.com.   Seems obvious but I’ve seen it done.

  2. Your domain name should relate to your product:  If your website is Sally’s Ocean Realty don’t register www.SallySellsSeaShells.com just because it’s catchy.
  3. Your domain shouldn’t compete with other trademarks.  Especially if it’s a big trademark.   The only visit you want to get from a trademark lawyer is when s/he wants to buy a house, not take yours.
  4. Pick a domain that can serve as a strong trademark so other companies can’t use similar names.  Overhead Doors of Indianapolis certainly passes the test for a business name that relates to the product, but has to work hard at distinguishing itself from all the other overhead door companies.
  5. Pick a domain that you don’t have to spell out when you’re giving it to someone over the phone.  If your name is Tracy (Tracey, Traci, Tracee) don’t use it in your domain name.
  6. Your domain should be easy to remember.  www.google.com. Enough said.
  7. Keep your domain name short.  When you consider that your domain is also part of your email address, be kind to all those people who will be typing your name.
  8. Hypens – bad or good?

    Pros:

    • Search engines like hyphenated names because they can distinguish your keywords better and rank you in search results.
    • If you have the perfect name but it’s not available, the hyphenated version is the next best thing.

    Cons:

    • It’s easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. This can be particularly problematic if the non-hyphenated version of your name is your competitor’s website.
    • When people recommend your site to others, there is more potential for errors than when the name does not contain hyphens. For example, how do you think your visitors will refer to your site if it is named “Indy-Lakeside-Realty.com”? They might say, “I visited Indy Lakeside Realty dot com yesterday. It was fabulous.” Their friends, remembering that comment later, might type into their browsers “indylakesiderealty.com”. Oops.
    • It’s a pain in the neck to type.
  9. Plurals, “The”, and “My” Forms of the Domain Name.  See the comments under hypens.  If the regular version of this domain is not a competitor site, then you can probably get away with it, since visitors who mistype the address will immediately see their error.  See etoy.com vs. etoys.com for an example.  But if is a competitor then I would stay away.
  10. COM, ORG, NET, etc?  The jury is out on this one.  Personally, I stick to .com names.  I wouldn’t get a .org version unless I was a nonprofit (which is what .org designates).  I might be persuaded to get a .net name but only if I really couldn’t find a better .com name and if the .com version isn’t a competitor.

Not creative?  Get on the mailing list for justdropped.com, which emails lists of expired domain names.  Or use Wordoid http://wordoid.com/ which creates a new word out of a fragment you specify.  Or use the suggestion tool at www.godaddy.com/whois (and you can use GoDaddy to register that perfect domain name once you’ve found it).