kamran sharief 7 Essential Tips: A domain name is the first contact between you and potential customers who are willing to patronize your business online. This is why it shouldn’t be anything but perfect.
Coming up with a fantastic website design may be at the top of your list, but just as agreed by experts, your choice of a domain name would have a high impact on the success of the overall investment.
If you are a business owner finding it hard to choose a winning domain name for your new site, read on as we highlight some essential tips that could help.
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1. Brandable And Represents Your Business
Your domain name shouldn’t be different from your business name. It is supposed to be the same, all things being equal. Notable examples are Amazon and Etsy. This however doesn’t mean that the legal entity abbreviation should be included when deciding on a name. At least, Amazon.com.Inc website is not amazoninc.com,
likewise, GoogleLLC.com is not the official website of Google LLC. But if your business name is popular with the legal entity abbreviation, there is no problem including it.
Aside from this, your business domain name should blend naturally into your brand promotion. It is expected to be easy to customize on banners and any other materials.
2. Keyword Is Not Mandatory
For many years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts were recommending the use of keywords related to the business to boost search appearance such as cleaningserviceinohio.com (this is not a real site).
This advice was valid, at least in the early years of Search Engines. Google over the last few years has continually stated it is no longer using keywords in domain names as a ranking factor.
According to Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, using a keyword in your URL doesn’t give you a special bonus. He confirmed “you don’t need to put keywords in the domain name” to rank.
3. Easy To Pronounce And Remember
Make sure the domain name is easy to pronounce. This can increase the spread of your business name and website by word of mouth. How many times have you mentioned Google during a conversation? Bet it’s numerous.
The name should also be easy to remember and not too long. Domain names with lots of characters are not mobile-friendly. Consider your phone screen and imagine typing www.IAlmostForgetTodayIsANewDayThatForEverybody.com. Even though a desktop/laptop browser screen could accommodate such, most of your website visitors would be mobile users.
4. Non-Availability Is Not Always A Problem
When a domain name is decided, the major problem faced by a lot of business owners is its availability.
Eric M. Jackson, a former vice president of marketing at PayPal, noted in his book, The PayPal Wars that Elon Musk reportedly paid $1 million for the rights to the X.com Internet domain. It was the merger of X.com and Confinity in 2000 that birthed PayPal. Musk repurchased the domain name in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
Likewise,
The domain name you have in mind might not be available, and that is not a problem. You can always connect with the present owner to negotiate a deal. To avoid overpaying, employing the service of a domain broker could help.
5. Avoid Spelling Errors And Usage Of Special Characters
It can be tempting to misspell or include special characters in a domain name all because the one you have in mind is already taken. This is not a good idea as it could cost you a lot more down the line.
Customers may consider a misspelled domain name as an impersonating site and would desist from patronizing it. Including special characters could also make them commit lots of typos while typing and some potential customers may not even be aware they needed to include the special character.
6. Check If It’s Not Trademarked
One of the mistakes you want to avoid is inviting legal issues and fines for yourself over the choice of the domain name. Before finally registering a domain name, check with the necessary authorities in your area if the name is not trademarked.
Businesses in the United States can easily do that by searching the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s website.
7. Use Reputable Gtlds
As a rule of thumb, the .com extension should be used for business domains. But then, there are other Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) that you may want to consider depending on the nature of your business.
Technology related businesses for instance may make use of .io while .pharmacy is used by a pharmacy business.
Google parent company Alphabet opted for abc.xyz instead of abc.com, since the latter is already taken by ABC entertainment.
When choosing an extension, do your research to avoid those with cybersecurity issues.
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