Building a new business? Congratulations!
It’s such an exciting time.
There are so many things to think about, and I hate to give you something else to consider…but…
Here’s an important question: Does your business website have the right domain name?
Why is this important?
Getting a good domain name is like getting the right shop unit on a High Street in a town with good footfall. It’s all about location, location, location!
Get the right online location, and your website is found in searches by the people already looking for your goods or services.
They have the intention to buy and they’re already ‘in the street’!
The right domain name connects you with those customers. It makes your business more likely to succeed online.
In many respects, having the right domain name is just as important as having the right business name.
Lots of prime domain real estate has already been snapped up, so here’s what to look out for.
Get the best available domain for your site:
- Make your domain fit your business – Your domain needs to reflect what you do so that potential customers understand that immediately.
- Use SEO keywords to make it easy to find – How will your potential customers be searching online? What keywords will they use? Will they be looking for local services? If so, think about putting your town or city name into the domain.
- Make it memorable and easy to promote – If you make it easy to say and easy to type, people are far more likely to remember it. Think about how it will look on banners, business cards, social media, and adverts.
- Don’t use slang or abbreviations which might not translate well geographically or between generations – Tempting though it may be! If your customers are Gen X or Millennials, their teeth are going to be set on edge if you use ‘skibidi’ in the domain…and how would you feel if someone used 1960s slang like ‘groovy’?
- Keep punctuation and numbers to a minimum – Numbers cause confusion because you’ll be forever telling customers whether they need to spell it out or write the number itself. I had a business friend whose previous domain had a hyphen in it and she had to say multiple times a day: “The hyphen in the middle of the line not the underscore.” She soon got tired of that! Imagine how many potential customers got that wrong and just gave up…
- Keep it short – Aim for 6 to 14 characters. That makes the domain easier to remember.
- Make sure no one else is using it – Absolutely vital! Check for trademarks and copyright issues as well as whether the domain name is available from domain name sellers. Also check for it on social media. This helps prevent legal costs and aggravation, and losing potential clients to another business by mistake.
- Choose the right extension and consider buying up alternatives – The extension is the end of the domain name like .co.uk or .com or .biz, and it’s known as a top level domain. There are now lots of options from which to choose, so think about the purpose of your website. For example, most businesses in Britain would use a .co.uk or .biz or .com domain, though tech businesses might choose .net or bloggers might choose .me. It’s worth considering buying up the alternative extensions so that competitors can’t, and perhaps using them to host landing pages directing traffic to your main domain.
Need help with website design and development?
I’ll give you advice without the jargon! Here’s what I do: Web Wisdom – Website Design
Let’s talk!