BASICS – Tips To Picking Your Domain Name

The DO’s and DON’Ts of Naming your Website

The DO’s for naming your website

• Make it easy to type and say – This makes it easier for people to remember
• Before you buy your domain, read it – Sometimes when you combine words you can innocently make an embarrassing domain name. Such as this one, choosespain.com, this is supposed to be – Choose Spain, but reads as Chooses Pain.
• Consider your customer – What would they type in search engines (these are keywords) to find your business? Get one of these keywords in your domain name.
• Focus on the .COMs. – Even today there are people using the web that assume .COMs are the only extensions that exist. If .COM is not available, .NET is the next best thing.
• Protect your Brand – Many businesses will buy misspellings of their domain name (example – amazn.com) to keep the competitors from getting their traffic when a visitor mistypes or misspells the right domain.

 

The DON’Ts for naming your website

• Avoid using hyphens and numbers in your domain name. It can make it harder to remember your name.
• Avoid words like “for” and “to” in your domain name. Is it “to”, “too”, “two” or “2”?
• Avoid spelling out numbers. Even spelled out numbers can present a difficulty when it comes to sharing your address with someone.
• Don’t use special characters – Special characters like “!”, “&”, “%”, etc. are not allowed.
• Avoid Copyright Infringement – Visit www.copyright.gov and check your domain name.
• Don’t worry about capitalization – Domain names are NOT case sensitive – MyBusiness.com is the same as mybusiness.com.

 

Uh-oh! What if the domain name you want is already taken?

• Use your name instead of business name: jimsmythe.com
• Use business name instead of your name: hollycovervresort.com
• Use the name of a product or service: stiwintertax.com
• Try your city, state, county, or region: VisitFranklinNC.com
• Try a description of your ideal client: myfastrefund.com
• Use a result you get for your clients: getnchealthcoverage.com