What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot actually, especially when we are talking about your business website’s domain name! Your business’s website is your home on the internet, and it needs to have an address that includes a domain name that is branded, short, and memorable so customers will recognize it quickly and easily.
The best way to start is by registering your brand name as your domain. If you are working with a trusted internet marketing agency like King Kong, then you can rely on their expertise to take care of it for you! Having a branded domain name will make it much easier for potential customers to find your website online, and it will form a solid connection between your website and your business.
If your exact brand name isn’t available, or if it is too long, difficult to spell, or contains too many characters, then you might need to make a few changes to adapt it for use as a web address. The things you should consider doing are to:
Avoid unconventional spelling, like using “addy’ instead of “address”
Keep your domain name under 15 characters
Avoid words with a highly complex spelling
Avoid hyphens and numbers. Because people mistype so frequently, it’s better to reduce the chances of users incorrectly spelling your domain name by not using any hyphens or numbers. This will also make your domain name more mobile friendly, because when you have to type in a URL on a phone, you must switch between the alphabetic and numeric keyboards, which can be tricky and frustrating on a tiny phone keyboard, as well as providing more opportunities to make mistakes like typos and misspellings.
So, when concocting your domain name, you should try to avoid:
Hyphens: super-balloons.com
Combining words with numbers: s00perba1100ns.com
Abbreviations: supalloons.com
Doubled letters: farmmachines.com
There is an exception to these suggestions in the case that your brand name actually includes a number! For example, a business called 7spices could just go with 7spices.com because the domain name matches across its brand, merchandise, and social media handles, making it easily identifiable and grounded in the brand so it’s unlikely customers will be confused by the letter and number combo.
Your next important step is choosing a domain name extension like .com, .net, or .org! There has long been some debate on which one will bring you the most web traffic. The famed .com extension was the first and has a highly credible and well established ring to it in part because it is still the most popular with an estimated 75% of all websites using it! A lot of today’s smartphones sport a .com key, making it a breeze for people to type in your domain name.
It’s also possible that your name isn’t available with a .com extension. If that happens, there are plenty other options to choose from, like .co, .org, .net, .space, .trade, .city, .shop, and many more, some of which might be vn more suitable for you because they connote what your business does, like Whammo.comics, or Cozycoffee.shop!
The main thing is that your website provides people with quality goods and services, they will remember that fact over any domain name!
