How to Choose the Perfect Domain

You finally did it. You quit your day job to concentrate on opening your own business. Fantastic! One of the first things you want to do is to create a cool website that will help bring customers to your door. But how do you choose a domain that will be best for you and for your business? No worries. We’ve got you covered. Here are a few things to consider when choosing the perfect domain.

The first thing you want to do is do some research of popular keywords use to describe your business. For this discussion, let’s imagine you are opening your own bakery specializing the in the most amazing brownies anyone has ever tasted. In order to help people find you on the web, you want to not only choose a domain that will point to you as a unique company, but also to those looking for your business specialty, in this case brownies. Do some simple Google or Bing searches for bakeries in your area. See what words they are using. Keep in mind that if you easily found them in a search, others will too. You want to make sure your new bakery is in that list of results. Make a list of the keywords you discover: bakery, gourmet, brownies, sweets, treats.

Once you have a refined list of keywords, check those words against any popular sites to make sure you are not using any names that already have a copyright. Using our brownie example, the domain littlebrowniebakers.com is operated by the Girl Scouts. You don’t want potential customers to go to their site instead of yours. You also don’t want to be competing for the same ad space and ad words. Trust me: the Girl Scouts have a whole lot more money than you do to purchase ad words that put them on top of search lists.

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Another thing to consider when choosing a domain name is ease of use. Does your domain have any numbers, hyphens or  quirky misspellings that you will constantly have to explain: “FourthStreetBakery.com with 4^th and street spelled out.” Anyone who has a complicated name knows it is a hassle to keep correcting the spelling of their name. Your domain is the same thing. Make sure you choose a name that is easily typed, spoken and remembered. In the case of our bakery company, we have chosen the domain KellyBrownieBakery.com. Kelly is spelled traditionally and the keywords brownie and bakery will both be fantastic for SEO and marketing.

We have a name! Now what? When purchasing your domain, make sure the .com version is available. This is the main extension you want to secure.  If it is not available, go back to the drawing board and try a different name. While someone can find you using .net, .org or .biz, .com is the gold standard. But speaking of .net, .biz, etc., go ahead and purchase the domain name you like with a variety of extensions. It is an inexpensive way to cut down on the competition. Imagine how frustrating it would be if you put in all the work and your business and your site is a hit only to find some charlatan is using YOUR domain name with an alternate extension! Not only are they riding your coattails of success, they could potentially destroy your good name and reputation.

Choosing the right domain can be a defining impact on your business. It can mean the difference of easy SEO as opposed to a constant struggle to shine among the masses.  With a little homework, you can choose the perfect name that will bring you success for years to come.