By Cristina Andrei
Your website domain is the address by which you (and implicitly your business) are found on the Internet by web users. It is also the first assessment made by visitors regarding what your website is about and, therefore, one of the first criteria for your online success. A good domain name can do wonders for your business, as long as you know how to put it at work.
There is much debate whether your domain should be your website name or just a cluster of keywords stuffed in the URL. Most online experts agree that your domain name should be your website name, as your business must strive to become a brand instead of an easily forgettable name. Keep in mind that, when people think of your website, they will first think about its name; if the name is part of your URL, they will automatically know where to go.
A good domain name can also include one of your top keywords and be suggestive of your business category. This is recommended especially for a growing business, which doesn’t have the mesmerizing power of a major brand. Google gives you a small boost for your domain name and if it contains your targeted keywords, this can help you get higher search engine rankings. You may also want to consider hyphens between your keywords, although your name would be more difficult to spell out loud and more affected by typing mistakes.
In general, you should try to keep your domain name short and meaningful. Nevertheless, avoid sequences of unrelated letters which are in fact abbreviations of your longer business name. These are more difficult to remember and subject to much more typos than their unabridged versions. Longer names also have the advantage of keyword combinations, but try to keep them under 67 characters in length. No one would remember an extremely long name, no matter how good-looking.
Everybody knows that good domain names are hard to find, especially those containing the most sought-after keywords. Very often, the domain name registrar will suggest alternate forms instead of the one you wanted to get in the first place. You are given the possibility to add “the”, “my” or plural forms to your original choice, which means that you must always remember to promote your website with the full form of the name. You can also change the popular “.com” extension to the less frequently used “.net”, “.org” or other country-specific domains. While these may not be a bad choice after all, you must be very careful in choosing them according to your business purposes. If your website aims at getting international traffic, then the above-mentioned method is not a solution. For local businesses, however, it’s wiser to pick a country-specific domain, which is more likely to become popular with their targeted audience.
All in all, you must strive to get a domain name that best represents your business. It is your online calling card and must be easy to remember, meaningful to your targeted audience, search engine friendly and, above all, able to be smoothly turned into a brand.
