Deciding on a domain name seems pretty simple. Just put a .com at the end of your company name, right?
It’s not as easy as it sounds. You want a domain name that will be relevant to your business, your prospects, and Search Engines. Here are some suggestions:
- Don’t make your domain name too long or say everything about you. People may not remember it. (e.g. JandSonsPaintandHomeDecoratingStore.com)
- Don’t shorten your domain name by dropping parts of words. People will have difficulty recalling it. (e.g. John & Sons Paint and Home-Decorating Store to jspaintnhomedec.com)
- Don’t end a word and start the next word with the same letter. People will misspell it. (e.g. accountinggurus.com)
- Don’t substitute too many letters with numbers. People will get frustrated when typing it. (e.g. L0veP03m5.com)
- Don’t be too generic. (e.g. cars.com)
- Do make your domain relevant to your brand and business.
- Do make it easy to spell.
- Do make your domain name memorable. How does it sound when you say it out loud? Does it rhyme (e.g. MoodFood.com) or glide off the tongue (e.g. WackyWeb.com)?
All this preparation won’t mean a thing unless the domain name is available. Comstar offers a great domain search tool on their website, www.comstar.biz. Click on the Hosting Services menu. Then click on Domain Registration.
Come back next week for our discussion on the pros and cons of .com, .net or .org!