Avoid These Mistakes When Choosing a Domain

Ready to choose a domain name for your new business website or Email?

Domain names are easy to scoop up.  Just head over to namecheap.com, godaddy.com or any other popular registrar with about $15-20 to spend.

But be careful.  Choosing your domain name for a new (or even existing) company can have a huge impact on your future marketing.  The need to change it later can be very challenging, so it is definitely a decision you want to get right the first time.

Before you make your choice, take into account these five factors.

Keep it Simple

While trendy, creative domain names are popular, think of them like tattoos.  Will that domain still be representative of your business one, three or five years from now?

Before focusing on a fun, eye-catching domain, simply look at your official business name as a great option.  It will certainly help in navigational search and brand recognition, and if nothing else will be a consistent marketing tool in the future.

Spelling, Spelling, Spelling

Simply, stay away from words that are difficult to spell.  Any words that take into account the “I before e” or other similar grammar rules that lead to misspellings should be avoided.

More importantly, use real words and common spellings.  Websites such as flickr.com, eventually purchased flicker.com and immediately saw a bump in web traffic.  Make life easy on your customers, especially when they are actively trying to find you.

If You Can, Go .com

While they may not advertise it, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo prefer .com domains to other available extensions out there now.  If your business name is taken on a .com, try altering it slightly before settling for a .net, .co, .tv or similar domain extension.

Be Careful With Numbers

Remember that when people are looking for you specifically after hearing your domain name, that numbers can cause issues.

For example, if your business name is Three Guys Pizza, a domain listed as 3guyspizza.com will be confusing for customers as opposed to threeguyspizza.com.

If you purchase 3guyspizza.com because the other domain is taken, be prepared for a lot of your customers to end up on the other site by mistake.

You’ve Made Your Choice, Now Protect It

Now that you have made your choice to move forward with this domain to drive your digital presence, be sure to protect your investment.  Setup an auto-renew on your domain to avoid it accidently expiring, and be sure to save your account information for future access.

There is nothing worse than building your business around a domain that you lose complete access to later.

2017-08-31T19:09:17+00:00December 7th, 2015|Marketing|

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