Often, choosing a website domain name is one of the most glaring mistakes made by small businesses. Owners spend a lot of time in the design and development of their small business website, but fail to even consider how customers will find their website, how their domain name fits
How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Small Business Website
Your Domain Name Is The Starting Line
Although there are a host of other marketing steps your business should take in promoting your website — it all starts with your domain name. So spend some time to read through and absorb the following six pointers on how to choose a domain name. In order of importance, six rules for how to choose a domain name:
1. Choose A Short Domain Name
When it comes to domain names, the shorter, the better! The shorter your domain name, the less chance visitors will have at forgetting or misspelling your web address. Long, generic domain names can become confusing. For example, a domain name like www.HoytThompsonAndMifflinAttorneys.com is way too cumbersome. Your small business will see much better results with a short name like www.HTMLaw.com than the above monster.
2. Choose A Simple Domain Name
Keep it simple! A simple domain name will increase recognition, retention and recall of your website. Wherever possible, abbreviate. But ensure your abbreviations are logical! Combining letters and or names with numbers, such as www.Click2LawnCare.com or www.UrPainter55.com, is clumsy and illogical. And avoid using hyphens whenever possible! Our brains naturally drop the hyphen when committing text strings to memory. So, a domain name like www.HTMPC.com is much easier to remember than something like www.HTM-PC.com.
3. Choose A Unique, Memorable Domain Name
Avoid overused and generic terms for domain names. The key is to stand apart from other businesses and to be memorable, yet tasteful. A name like www.SaveYouMoneyAccountants.com is not only too generic, but the name will only serve to “cheapen” your image. A domain like www.LasVegasAccounting.com is a much better choice.
4. Choose A Suggestive Domain Name
If possible, include a qualifier when considering how to choose a domain name. By adding a search engine keyword or keywords related to your target market or industry, such as Las Vegas Web Design or Las Vegas Marketing, you will enhance recognition and improve search engine rank. Don’t be too generic, and don’t add extra words simply for the sake of adding extra words. This rule should yield to the above guidelines.
5. Choose A Domain Name That Is Easy To Say And Spell
When considering how to choose a domain name, keep it easy to say and spell. This will help with word-of-mouth advertising and referrals from other business professionals. A painless domain name will also be easier for you and your staff to repeat over the phone or when networking — without you needing to constantly write your domain name down for people.
6. Personalize Your Domain Name
If the situation allows, it is almost always better to personalize the domain name of your small business website with the name of your business, product or service. Personalization will help ensure uniqueness while further building your brand marketing and image. However, be mindful of situations where your business uses the owners’ surname –- especially when the name is difficult to say or spell.
A Few Additional Comments On How To Choose A Domain Name
Should I Choose More Than One Domain Name?
Many small businesses have found it beneficial to employ a marketing strategy using multiple domain names. In situations where an often misspelled surname is used in the domain name or an easily confused product name is the domain name, the smart option is to register those misspellings as additional domain names and point them to your website.
Using Multiple Domain Names For Different Markets
Small businesses that wish to market key services or products individually, or appear highly-specialized in a particular industry, may find it helpful to use additional domain names linked to individual sections of your website. For example, a law firm with the primary domain name of www.HoytLawFirm.com seeking to promote their competence in labor law, may have a second domain name, such as www.HoytLaborLaw.com, or a sub-domain such as LaborLaw.HoytLawFirm.com that redirects visitors to the subsection of the website related to labor law issues.
How To Choose A Domain Name: The Perfect Domain Name For Your Business
While it may not be possible for your domain name to embody all six of the above criteria in perfect form, the idea is to refine your domain name to fit those guidelines as closely as possible. This will ensure you have an easy to type and remember domain name to effectively brand and promote your small business website offline and online.
Say Something! This isn’t a formal dinner party. Speak your mind and leave us a comment. We’d like to start a discussion with you on choosing a website domain name and answer your questions. Also, please do subscribe to our feed. As always thank you for reading!
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