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LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS
Choosing a Domain Name
By Jerry West
Updated March 24, 2008
Your domain name is the way your potential customers and partners find you on the Internet,
so choose it carefully.
Having your own domain name, while
not required on the Internet, is one of the most essential
things you can do. This includes your blog too.
First, it builds credibility: "www.customcarpentry.com"
will always look better than "members.aol.com/~jim/carpentry.html", or customcarpentry.blogspot.com.
Second, it is easier for customers
to find you on the web. Could you imagine giving someone
on the street that AOL address? You will look second
rate. Give them "customcarpentry.com"
and it comes across as a professional business. Plus, it is a lot easier to remember.
Third, without your own domain name
it can cause problems if you move Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as your email
may not always properly forward. With your own domain
name, you have an email address "for life". This is one of the hidden benefits of having your own domain.
Fourth, keep the name short. We know
you can register long domain names, but don't do it.
The shorter the domain the better. There is a reason why art.com
and business.com have sold for millions of dollars.
They are easier to remember, less prone to typing errors
and easier to translate from print, telephone and radio
advertisements.
I also suggest keeping the domain
name as a close match with your company name. We know
that many of the corporate names or abbreviations are
taken, but do the best that you can, keeping in mind
my guidelines.
Always use a dot-com address. There
are many choices, especially the new extensions. Don't
do it. Most everyone associates companies with dot-coms.
Take the company I worked for back in 1999, Netgateway.net, for example.
I can't tell you how many times a client asked me, "Did
you get the e-mail I sent?" Come to find out they
sent it to "netgateway.com" instead of "netgateway.net".
Be careful of registering a Trademarked
name that you do not own. Legislation has been passed
making "CyberSquating" illegal. Be ethical
in your domain name registrations to avoid possible
legal pitfalls. Speaking of pitfalls, there is a wide-spread issue with domain fraud online. Make sure if you are buying an existing domain, it is legit.
For most of us, the domain naming
process is an exercise in frustration. With most of
the good domain names already taken, finding a name
that works for your company can be a tedious trial-and-error
process. If you've ever spent an hour drilling through
names at a registration site, like GoDaddy.com ,
you know how bad the process can be.
As a result, many Webmasters are
happy to grab the first name that vaguely sounds like their company's
name. That's too bad, because it leads to a proliferation
of bad domain names.
The real value of a domain name isn't
helping people find your site the first time; it's helping
them find it the second time, after they forgot to bookmark
it. Odds are that most visitors come to your site from
another Web site, either by clicking on a banner, following
a link on someone else's site, or drilling through results
in a search engine. If they like your site, that's great;
maybe they'll bookmark it. Then again, maybe they won't.
Lots of people bookmark sites until
their list of favorites becomes a complete mess, then
they stop bookmarking. To find your site again, these
people have to remember how they found it the first
time. In a situation like this, a good domain is worth
a lot. In fact, it may be worth more than you realize.
The hard part about domain name problems is that you
can't tell when you have them. You can't look in your
server logs and see the domain misspellings and mistakes
that keep people from finding your site. As a result,
it's hard to put a value on the business lost due to
a bad domain name.
So what exactly is wrong with "tla-inc.com?"
Well, about the only thing that's right about it is
that it's available. In nearly every other way, it breaks
these basic rules of a good domain name:
- Don't be cryptic. Use the name
by which people know your company. That
usually means don't abbreviate, unless the abbreviation
is your company's trademark. Since many hi-tech
companies are better known by their three-letter
abbreviation, most of them are forced to register
an alternate domain. That's the case with our mythical
company TLA, Inc. If that's the case, it's better
to register "threeletteracronym.com," instead something
like "tla-inc.com," or "threeletterac.com." At least
visitors have a chance of correctly guessing your
domain name if it spells out the company's name.
If you're not sure what people might guess, take
a poll. Surveys are very powerful. Ask your co-workers what domain name they'd
expect your company to have, ask your customers,
ask your friends, ask everyone you can. Also, keep
in mind that domain names can be 67 characters long.
You should be able to get your full company's name.
Typing a long domain name may seem undesirable,
but if your company name requires that extra space,
it's worth considering. The easiest way to follow
this rule may be: consider how your domain name
sounds when you have to read it over the phone to
a customer. If you have to explain special characters,
abbreviations, or spelling, then you've got a problem.
- Avoid dashes/hyphens. With the number
of good domain names dwindling, dashes will eventually
become commonplace, but at the moment they're anything
but that. People still don't know that domain names
can include dashes. Wal-Mart, the big American retailer,
learned that lesson the hard way. The company first
launched its e-commerce site as "wal-mart.com,"
the company's official name. They lost millions
in sales before registering "walmart.com." Now both
domain names take you to the same web site, the non-hyphenated version.
- Register multiple versions of
your name. When you poll your customers
about your domain name, don't let the majority decide
your domain name. Instead, try to register every
name that's mentioned. Someone, somewhere will use
that name to find you. It only
costs $8.95
to register a domain name, and that's not much of
an expense to avoid losing a customer. If your company's
name is hard to spell, register every common misspelling
of its name. Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, a domain
speculator had already registered "wallmart.com."
Too bad, since that's the way many people spell
the company's name. Register every domain people
might use to find your company. That includes products
and services your company offers. Then point all
these domains to your home page using 301 Redirects, which is the preferred method over having your domain registrar point them.
Finally,
no matter what your name is or how many domains
you've registered, it's a good idea to support the
domain name. Reinforce it by incorporating it into
your site's logo. In addition, put your domain name
on all company collateral materials, like your business
cards and stationary. That last part is an easy
step, yet it's surprising how many companies forget
to do it. In a digital age, your company's Web site
is its electronic business card.
There are several ways to register
a unique domain name. You can register your own domain
name through www.GoDaddy.com.
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© 2000-2008, WebMarketingNow.com
Jerry West is the Director of Internet Marketing
for Web Marketing Now. He has been consulting on the
web since 1996 and has assisted hundreds of companies
gain an upper-hand over their competition. Visit Web
Marketing Now for the latest in marketing tips that
are tested and proven.
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