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Website strategy for start-ups – 10 tips for choosing the right domain name

By / Sally Hooton / In Best practice /

If you are in the process of setting up a new website, think carefully about the domain name you aim to use. It’s the first thing your potential customer will see and should sum up concisely and accurately what your business is all about; so don’t try to be clever – be clear. These expert tips and an infographic explain how.

Website strategy for start-ups – 10 tips for choosing the right domain name

Did you know that Apple did not own the domain name apple.co.uk until five years ago? Or that apple.com was the 64th domain name registered on the internet (symbolics.com was the first, in 1985)?

Choosing the right domain name is not as simple as picking something that sounds good; it is a business decision that should take a lot of thought and consideration.

So says Webmastersjury’s community manager Josh Wardini, who told the GMA: “Not only does your domain name have to be unique, but it must also represent your business while being easy to remember and find in the busy world of the web.”

He has provided the following tips and tricks to make it easier to find the ideal domain name for your business. Also, check out the infographic included here for more interesting facts and figures about domain names – click here to enlarge the image.

The ideal domain name selection:

Keep it Simple: You want a name that is quick and easy to remember. Short and simple is often the best way to go. If a domain name is long, then there is much more of a chance of the customer spelling it wrongly or not being able to remember it, running the risk of the customer going elsewhere.
Keywords are key: Most businesses know the importance of keywords in the content of the web pages, but it can also be effective to use keywords in a domain name. The best keywords are the ones that will describe the business itself or the services that you offer, therefore the visitor to the site knows what to expect before they are even on the site. Not only that, but you could improve your search engine rankings.
Local businesses: It can be difficult for local businesses to stand out from the competitive global businesses. Therefore, a good way to overcome this is to include the city, location or country of the business in the domain name.
Avoid numbers, if possible: It’s all too easy to include a few numbers in a domain name in order to make it unique. However, this can often lead to the problem of the visitor not knowing if they should use the numerical version or spell out the number.
Easy to remember: One of the most important things is to make a domain name memorable – this is the best way to get repeat business or draw visitors in from advertising.
Get help: If you have an idea in mind of what you want to use, but the domain name has already been taken, then there are services out there that can suggest alternative names, similar to the one you want.
Be quick: All the best domain names are being taken pretty quickly, so if you have an idea of what you want to use, you better register it quickly before it goes.
Use a Thesaurus: Sometimes the old-fashioned ways are best and a thesaurus can come up with some exciting, alternative words.
Pick the right extension: 75% of all domain names have the .com extension and, ideally, this is the best to use. .net and .org are also common extensions that could be alternatives.
Avoid hyphens: These can be annoying to type and easy to forget or misplace – best to avoid them, even if they do make your domain unique.

Have an opinion on this article? Please join in the discussion: the GMA is a community of data driven marketers and YOUR opinion counts.

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Author: Sally Hooton

Editor at The GMA | www.the-gma.com

Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!

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