When choosing a commercial property for your brick and mortar business, it’s still all about “location, location, location.” Setting up shop in the right place can make or break a small business.
What some people don’t realize, is their online website address is just as important as their real-world store location. The choice of domain name for your business website is a huge factor in findability and ease of use. Here are a few critical considerations you should take into account before you buy a website domain name:
Short is sweet. The longer and more complicated your domain name, the more likely people will get it wrong, mis type it or are just too lazy to type it in. The problem is that good, relevant short domainnames tend to be taken, but if you can get two short words or your company name, that works too. The fewer the words and syllables the better.
If you’re not using your company name (which is a very good idea for branding), make it keyword rich. Adding words and phrases that relate to your business or what you do can help you get found by prospective customers.
Skip symbols and numbers. Hyphens, underscores, and numbers just confuse people. Don’t mess with spelling either. It’s not clever; it’ll just lose you traffic. Keep it as tight to your name as possible.
Don’t purchase the first thing that pops into your head. Do some research, ask friends and family what they suggest, take some time, and think about what will work best for your business.
Choose a well known, top level domain name such as .com or for non-profits a .org. Subdomains and obscure free domains look cheap, and the tiny savings is not worth the puzzling impression it will make.
Look for and register variations of your domain. At a minimum, try for the .com version, consider having one with your country code such as .es, .de .us etc., as well as .info, .net, and .org. Remember that you can simply forward all those domains to your main websitesite too. The key is to own and be able to control your key assets.Once you have those Domain Names none of your Competitors can register them and possibly profit from YOUR Success!
Consider adding a few descriptive domains to your stable of domains. For example, if you’re registering MichaelsPlumbing.com, in Cape Town, you could add CapetownPlumbing or Plumbingcapetown to the mix, and again, just redirect them to your main domain. As well, a domain for your main product models might be valuable to have as well.
If you do find a suitable and GOOD Domain Name register it as fast as you can. Registering a domain requires a lot of thought, but it also requires action. If you wait too long, you might lose that perfect domain name to someone else, and then it can be gone for good.
Your domain really is the start point for all your digital marketing, and if you get it right, everything else will be easier. Spend some time, make an effort, and reap the benefits.