Your domain name is often what customers will use to identify your brand, so you need to be careful to select a name that reflects your company. Below are some tips on how to go about choosing a domain name for a new business start-up.
Choose a keyword-rich domain name
Prominent keywords are essential for your SEO and they are also vital to let your audience quickly know who you are and what you are all about. If you can, choose a domain name that contains a keyword related to your business in some way. Your domain should at least feature your brand name. It is also not recommended to be too vague with your domain name in other ways: for example, if you own a dog grooming company then ‘doggrooming.ie’ as your domain name isn’t really specific – it could be just an informative website about dog grooming in general rather than a specific business proposition. Are you nationwide or is your area important? Think about whether it is possible to incorporate your city name into your domain, to attract local clients.
Be unique
Being unique helps you stand out from competitors and makes it easier to market your brand. It isn’t always easy to be descriptive and unique at the same time, but although you should try to use a keyword you also want to be creative and distinctive. For instance, a dog groomer based in Cork, might try incorporating their location into their domain name, for example “corkdoggrooming.ie”.
Keep your domain name simple
Even though your business name might be long, it is best to keep a domain short and snappy – providing it is memorable. Although most people will access your website with the click of a button through a search engine result, some will still use the old-fashioned method of typing it in manually. Moreover, imagine having to spell it out to every caller you get!
Don’t confuse your potential customers
The same applies to spelling – make sure it is intuitive to spell so that it can be remembered and passed on with ease. Are you considering spelling words differently on purpose? While this may seem clever it can also become an issue. For instance, creating a pun on the canine-friendly word ‘tails’ by using ‘tales’ might cause confusion. Double letters also cause confusion when they occur in website names (“dogrooming.ie” versus “doggrooming.ie”).
Secure your domain
We do recommend that once you have found your perfect domain, you should lock it down straight away. Even if you are starting small but have big ambitions and expect your brand to grow, you should consider registering closely related names to prevent others from aping your site and profiting from your marketing. For example, if you have registered doggrooming.ie, perhaps you should consider registering doggrooming.com and doggrooming.eu, or even doggrooming.irish. Although strictly illegal, there are still plenty of “cyber squatters” registering names they hope to resell at inflated prices. Buy your domain from a reputable registrar.
Of course, there are many factors to consider when choosing a domain, but we hope that these tips will get you started. Remember, a domain name is not final and forever, and it can be changed or rebranded, but for the purpose of continuity and gaining a solid reputation then it is best to get it right the first time!
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