Having a stellar website starts with finding the perfect domain name. If you, like many of my clients, are launching a new business, one of the first things you should do is search for available domains related to your business name.
According to VeriSign’s December 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief, there were 174 million domain registrations in the third quarter of 2008 alone. Hopefully your exact company name is available in the all important .com classification, but with so many domains being purchased every day, finding the right domain name can sometimes be difficult. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing yours:
1. Don’t miss an opportunity. Domain names can be inexpensive (some are not, more on that later). Sometimes you will find more than one domain that is relevant to your business name. Buy them all. Do not assume that you will only need your exact name – buy misspelled versions, buy abbreviations, by longer versions or similar domains ( for example I own both www.jasonmilburn.com and www.jasonmilburndesign.com ). You should be paying around $10 to ‘own’ that domain for one year, and less than this if you purchase multiple years up-front. This is a small expense for your business, and it is very important that you have as many of the relevant domains as you can think of, and now, because you never know when someone else will buy it.
2. Keep it Short. Say you own several versions of your company’s name: www.unknowncompany.com, www.unknownco.com, www.unknown.com. Now you need to decide which one to promote.
Always keep your users in mind – what is easiest for them to remember and also to type in. Which would they most likely assume your company domain would be? No one wants to work harder than they have to, so in almost all cases it is best to promote the shortest domain you have, but also make sure the other ones point to your website as well. One additional note on this: be careful using abbreviations. While shorter is typically better, a bunch of unrelated letters that are hard to remember is not a good idea.
3. Buy the other classifications. For many businesses it will also be smart to purchase the .net classification for your .com domain name. Going further than that and purchasing .org, .biz etc. will largely depend on your type of business, your budget and whether you are concerned with competitors (or others) buying and using that domain in the future.
If you were unable to find an appropriate .com name for your business, and the .net is available, then definitely purchase it. Just be aware that the perception of .net is that it plays second fiddle to .com. For smaller businesses this may not be an issue, but for larger companies, owning the .com is a high priority. Imagine if Nike only owned the .net domain name and someone else owned nike.com. What would your perception be of Nike? They own both, and use them for seperate purposes. Which brings us to the next point…
4. Sometimes you have to pay more. Perhaps the perfect domain is out there and you want it with a desperate unrelenting passion. The only problem is that a ‘link farm’ owns it and is offering it to you for the bargain price of $2,000. That’s right, there are businesses whose sole purpose is to buy what it thinks are good domains names in the hopes of holding them ransom for a high price. If you are a small business, I would seriously consider all other options before paying more than the normal price for a domain, especially if you are a one-man show and don’t have a lot of starting capital. That includes possibly changing your business name to something that is available as a .com. However, if you absolutely must own a .com and someone else owns it, but is not using it, get that check book ready.
5. Think Big. Now that you have a handful of great domain names directly related to your business name, it’s time to think larger. Chances are, there are other great domains out there that you may want to use down the road. Possibly you will run a marketing campaign or pormotion that could use it’s own domain and mini-site.
Companies do this all the time to complement a promotion or for specific online content that is designed to attract more search engine traffic. Take the currently running commercials for the Dodge Ram Truck for example. After showing a group of guys gushing about the trucks and driving them through exploding buildings, they list a specific website to visit: www.ramchallenge.com . If you have a similar promotion coming up it’s better to think about an appropriate domain name now, rather than later, and if you don’t end up using it, it’s only $10.
Also, when thinking big, is your company international? If so, you will need to purchase your domain in a variety or worldwide clasifications (such as .cn and .br).
Hopefully this helps point you in the right direction when choosing a domain name for your business. Jason Milburn Design can help guide you and also handle the registration process as part of our website design package.
“You may delay, but time will not.” -Benjamin Franklin
