Your domain name is your business name on the web. It represents both you and your business – therefore, it is extremely important that you choose your domain name carefully. Here are 5 key things to consider when choosing your domain name.
1. Make it DOT COM: Although there are a number of domain name extensions to choose from, including .Com, .net, .biz amongst others, choose .com. Dot Com come to mind first when people think of web addresses, so go with it. You wouldn’t want your potential customers to head off to ‘josephene.com’ if your site is registered as ‘josephene.net’, would you?
2. Make it Relevant: The next rule of thumb is to include at least one, preferably two, of your important ‘keyword’ in your name. Let’s assume that your site is about dog training. So which keywords work best? Dog, puppy, pooch? Train, training or trainer? One way to decide is to find out which one of those keywords or keyword combinations is searched for most often. To find that out visit wordtracker.com to establish which of your keywords is the most popular.
3. Make it Memorable: Which of the following names will you remember a week from now? Dogtraining.com, doggyu.com or dogcollege.com? Shorter names are also easier to remember.
4. Make it Easy to Spell: A site ‘byebye925.com is a good example of a bad domain name. When you hear it spoken, you could guess that it spelled ‘bybynine2five.com’, byebyeninetofive.com or a number of ways.
5. Beware of Trademark infringement: A trademark is a name or symbol officially registered to a third party, and unless otherwise specified, the trademark owner is the only party that can legally make use of a trademarked name. When purchasing a domain name, be forewarned that buying a domain containing a trademarked name could result in a legal battle and the registrar will likely side with the trademark owner.
1. Make it DOT COM: Although there are a number of domain name extensions to choose from, including .Com, .net, .biz amongst others, choose .com. Dot Com come to mind first when people think of web addresses, so go with it. You wouldn’t want your potential customers to head off to ‘josephene.com’ if your site is registered as ‘josephene.net’, would you?
2. Make it Relevant: The next rule of thumb is to include at least one, preferably two, of your important ‘keyword’ in your name. Let’s assume that your site is about dog training. So which keywords work best? Dog, puppy, pooch? Train, training or trainer? One way to decide is to find out which one of those keywords or keyword combinations is searched for most often. To find that out visit wordtracker.com to establish which of your keywords is the most popular.
3. Make it Memorable: Which of the following names will you remember a week from now? Dogtraining.com, doggyu.com or dogcollege.com? Shorter names are also easier to remember.
4. Make it Easy to Spell: A site ‘byebye925.com is a good example of a bad domain name. When you hear it spoken, you could guess that it spelled ‘bybynine2five.com’, byebyeninetofive.com or a number of ways.
5. Beware of Trademark infringement: A trademark is a name or symbol officially registered to a third party, and unless otherwise specified, the trademark owner is the only party that can legally make use of a trademarked name. When purchasing a domain name, be forewarned that buying a domain containing a trademarked name could result in a legal battle and the registrar will likely side with the trademark owner.
