Web Design Blog

Choosing the Perfect Domain Name

A domain name is what people type in the internet browser bar to reach your website.  If you choose poorly it could cost you money.  With over 60 million American online each day you want them to be able to get to you site.  A good domain name makes this easy.  Most people just assume that if they type in www.walmart.com, then it will take them to WalMart’s website, and of course, WalMart has made sure that it does.  Most large businesses see that their domain name matches their business description.  Here are a few things to consider when choosing your domain name.

1. Make your domain name your business name, provided it is available.  This might seem obvious, but customers will assume that they can reach you by typing your business name into the web browser.  If your business name is Mountain Valley Dental, then registar your domain name as www.mountainvalleydental.com.   Remember, the easier it is for customers to find you on the web, the more your site is viewed.

2.  Keep it simple.  This gets difficult with so many websites available, most of the good names seem to be taken.  Larger companies have paid big money to purchase their domain name, you must decide if it is worth it to you.  Generally, small businesses do just fine if they pick a simple, descriptive domain name.  Choose something that relates to your business and is easy to spell or reproduce in the internet browser.  Avoid using characters other than letters or numbers.  This complicates people getting to your site.  When you tell a person what your website is try to make it something they can remember without worrying about hyphens, dashes, or underscores.  The simpler, the better.  You will have to be creative since so many domain names have already been taken. If you have an overly long business name, purchase it, then consider purchasing a shorter, maybe abbreaviated alternative, as people do not like to type in long domain names. For example, www.mysampledomainnameisthisrighthere.com is a little long and tedious to type into a browser, so I purchase it anyways, and then I purchase an additional domain name using for example just the first letter of each word, www.msdnitrh.com…

4.  Registar domain names that are similar to yours.  Average domain names cost under $10.00, it might be worth it to purchas a few options.  Think of what else your audience might type in and purchase that domain name as well. 

5.  Do not let it expire.  Make sure you are on top of your yearly renewal.  If it expires then someone else can purchase it and customers who are accustomed to visiting your website will lose trust in it if it goes down. 

6.  Use it as much as possible.  If you advertise make sure that it can easily be seen and is mentioned often.  Put it on your business cards, if you have an office, post it on your door, you get the idea.

Buying a good domain name will help you attract customers to your site.  So remember, describe your business, keep it simple, purchase similar domain names, use it, and DO NOT let it expire.  Have fun and be creative!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.