Stake Claim to Your Domain
A domain name is like a virtual identification card. It’s a way for people to verify your online presence. Many mistakenly believe having a bad domain name is better than not having one at all, which is incorrect.
Having a bad domain name can backfire and even cause you to lose customers. Having a bad domain name makes you look unprofessional while a good domain name leaves a positive impression and fosters a feeling of trust within your clients.
A well chosen domain name will also allow your website to rank higher in search engine results, which in turn allows your site to be seen by even more people.
Since your domain name will be on your letterhead, business cards, and more if you choose to take the business offline as well, you’ll want to choose a name that is reflective of your business.
Now that you understand the importance of a domain name, it’s time to make a list of potential domain names for your website.
You don’t just have to use your company name. In fact, it might be better not to if your company name is long or difficult to spell.
One company had a difficult name to remember so it launched a website for its most popular product and found that customers were able to remember that domain name. This resulted in better customer conversions and higher search engine rankings since more customers were searching for the product than the company.
If you’re the face of your brand, you might consider using your name as your domain name. For instance, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump are two people that are the face of their business. If that’s the case for you, then you’ll want to use your name as the domain name. But it’s best to use a keyword in your niche.
Once you’ve come up with a list of potential domain names, go through and cross out anything that’s too long. Try to stay under twenty characters so your domain name is easy to remember.
Cross out anything that might have negative connotations. If you’re using several words write them without spaces to be sure that your domain name wouldn’t be potentially offensive.
After you’ve gone through your list and crossed some out, rank these domain names in order of your most favorite ones to your least favorite ones. Go online and research which domain names are available.
You can do this through a popular domain register like Godaddy or NameCheap. Once you find a domain name that’s available, be sure to Google it before buying it. Make sure that no one else is using a similar name for something dishonest, spammy or offensive. While this might seem like a menial task, you don’t want your business confused with a similar website that’s not ethical.
