How to choose the perfect domain name for your business?
Your domain name is your website address and it’s important to get it right. Here are our top 9 tips when purchasing a domain name for your website address.
1) Make sure your domain name strongly reflects your business name
In order to register a domain name you need to be able to conclude that the domain is linked to your business. And it will make much more sense to your potential clients if it matches your business name.
2) Consider adding in a keyword
It can be helpful to include a keyword that describes your businesses service or products. When deciding on a keyword ensure you consider if people would enter that word into a search engine when searching for your products or services. This will make it a search friendly domain name.
3) Keep it short
This makes it a lot easier to promote on all your marketing materials. For example fitting it onto your business card, or displaying it on a TV commercial. It also makes it a lot easier for a potential client to remember. It can often be a trade-off between adding a keyword and keeping it short so you need to consider the length of your business name and how competitive your industry is in search.
4) Avoid numbers and hyphens
These can cause confusion when potential clients are trying to find your web address. The simpler the better. For example a person would be unsure if you used the letter ‘2’ or spelt out ‘two’ in your domain name.
5) Make sure it’s not trademarked or copyrighted
Make sure the domain name you’ve selected isn’t trademarked, copyrighted or being used by another company. It will most likely reflect your business name quite closely so all of this should have been researched when you first named your business.
6) Work out the best domain name extension for your business
Extensions are suffixes, such as .com or .com.au, at the end of web addresses. These can have specific uses, so make sure to choose one that works for your business. We normally recommend registering either:
.com.au – for any business that it is important to show you are an Australian business and if you don’t intend to do business with anyone outside of Australia.
or a…
.com address which is a good idea if you do intend to do business with those outside of Australia.
Other common extensions to consider are:
.org – you need to use this type if you are a non-commercial or non-for-profit organisation.
.info – this extension is great for informational sites, where the majority of the site will be made up of articles.
.net – this extension is often used for technical sites such as internet infrastructure sites.
.net.au – this extension is often used for technical sites such as internet infrastructure sites based in Australia.
.sa.edu.au – Government run organisations such as schools may have unique extensions that they need to follow – this example is for a school in South Australia.
7) Consider registering more than one domain name
A lot of businesses decide to register more than one domain to protect their brand and ensure no one else can own it. One question to ask yourself is how would you feel if someone else registered your exact domain but with a different extension?
For example at Bizboost our main domain name is www.bizboost.com.au but we might register www.bizboost.com or www.bizboost.net.au for peace of mind.
8) Consider if you need domain name email addresses?
Many companies also use their domain name to set up domain name email’s so again keeping it short and reflecting your business name is a great idea. For example our domain name is www.bizboost.com.au and we use email addresses such as sue@bizboost.com.au and info@bizboost.com.au. Make sure you consider your plans for domain name email addresses.
9) Register your domain name with a company you trust.
Why? Domain name scams are very very common so it helps if you register your domain name with a company you can trust. Make sure before you pay any domain name invoice that you are sure it is from the company you have registered your domain name with and check the domain is the exact one that you own. If at all unsure ring your domain name provider to check the invoice before paying anything. Often companies will send you a letter that looks like a renewal invoice but is actually registering you an entirely new domain name that you don’t need or want – it might just be a slightly different spelling, or a different extension. So be careful.
Happy domain name hunting!
We hope you found our top 9 tips when registering a domain name useful. We do register and manage domain names at Bizboost so if you need help determining the best domain for your business, or you are ready to register a domain name then please contact us.
We hope you found this article helpful we have 4 more secrets to boost your business to share with you over the coming weeks.