choose a good domain name for small business website

Choosing a right domain name for your online business is important. It is the face of your online presence, the very first impression left on your site visitors. Coming up with a great domain name is a challenging job, and takes up a lot of thought and consideration. To help you with this, this article will list out some tips on picking a good domain name for your small business website.

Why you need a good domain name

Domain name is as important as your website name. We use names to differentiate one from another. Likewise, when talking about your site, customers will think of your domain and website names. A good domain name serves as an effective branding strategy since it is easier for customers to remember and is more likely to stick in their minds.

On the other hand, a complicated domain name would make it so hard for people to recall. As a result, they might give up and end up buying from your competitor.

But don’t worry. A great domain name isn’t that hard to create. Consider these tips to find the best domain for you.

Search by keywords

Having relevant keywords in the domain name makes more sense to your potential customers when they first hear of your business. It allows them to easily have an overview of what your site is about. Non-related names would require customers to go one more step visiting your website.

To create a keyword-based name, think of several keywords describing your business, then mix and match them as you go on the domain name search. Let’s say you’re gonna build a micro job website, such keywords as micro job, marketplace, freelance, money, online might help. This way could help you find a relevant and still available domain name.  

There have been some debates over whether it is beneficial to use keywords in your domain name. Well, this is true with big companies whose names are well known like Google, Amazon, GoDaddy. However, for small websites, this is not a good strategy as you need more branding campaigns (which cost a substantial amount of money) to instill your brand into customer’s minds.

Choose a short & memorable domain

Short names are always easier to remember than long ones. Also, it is easier to spell and type so that your customers can accurately suggest your domain name to their friends (Word Of Mouth marketing). On the contrary, a long domain name will often be mistyped, making you lose potential customers even before they have a chance to visit the website.

Keep it unique & brandable

A unique name always stands out and leaves a strong impression on people’s minds. Naming your domain similar to existing popular sites just makes people mistake you for other websites. And this will hurt your brand for you fail to create a unique mark for your own site.

Thinking of a unique domain name is not simple but necessary. So try to create a name that is as unique and brandable as possible.

Avoid hyphens & numbers

Domain names containing hyphens or numbers are likely to cause confusion for your potential customers. This method also falls short of the memorable criterium. People can’t determine if it’s in numeral or letter and will wonder whether they forget the hyphen somewhere when typing the domain in the search bar. Keep it simple is the way to go.

Go for .com domain extension

As you may know, more and more new domain extensions are available on the Internet. While many of these newbies might sound special and interesting, the best option for businesses is still picking the top level domain extensions. If you want to establish a personal blog for fun and don’t care much about site traffic, then it is ok to pick cool extensions. But if you’re doing business and want to attract many visitors to your site, go for popular ones.

For most people going online, when they type in a domain name but don’t remember its exact domain extension, .com is the first one assigned as it is the most popular and seems more trustful than new, rarely used ones. However, if you cannot find an available .com name, consider the other widely used extensions .net or .org. Although in the first days of your website, customers might type in .com instead of .net or .org. Maybe as time goes by, they will get used to it.

To me, .com is still the best option. But after all, it’s personal preference and the domain extension is not the only one that determines the whole game as long as you have a good branding strategy.

No trademark violation

Anything that relates to the law could severely destroy your career. With a domain name, you might get into trouble if the domain you register is in conflict with others in terms of trademark, copyright issues. This just gets worse when your site already goes online but you have to change your domain name.

Conclusion

Registering a domain name is a critical part of bringing your business online. Before you choose a name for your domain, consider some tips listed above. A good domain name is one of the great ways to help build your brand recognition. Keep it simple and memorable, and avoid any complicated factors. Though many people might be familiar with these do’s and don’ts, and following them does not guarantee your success, going for things that are proved effective is what you should do to keep your business on the right path.

1 Comment
  • Gregory Willard
    Sep  01ST,  2016

    My friend is trying to come up with a good domain name for his business, and he wasn’t sure what to do. It’s interesting that a unique name always stands out and leaves a strong impression. If I was in his shoes, I would want people to remember my business.

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