By Aoife Hayes on Growth Business – Your gateway to entrepreneurial success
- Try and match your domain name to your business name. It’s also a good idea to check if it’s available on your preferred social media platforms to keep your branding consistent.
- Avoid complicated names, trade marks and other brand names.
- If your domain name is already taken, try looking up who owns the name and when it expires. Contact the owner and ask if you could buy the domain name from them. Alternatively, try variations of your domain names as well as different domain extensions (.co.uk, .com, .ai).
Your domain name is one of the most important parts of your business and your branding, especially if you’re online.
Here are some quick tips on how to choose a domain name, plus we hear how other businesses chose theirs.
Try and match it to your business name
Of course, it’s crucial that your business name is included. So, if your business is ‘Russell Smith Window Cleaner’, some variation of this should be included in your domain name.
Choose a name that can grow as your business does
Ah, but not so fast. If you are a window cleaner that wants to expand into gutter and driveway cleaning longer-term, something like russellsmithclean.co.uk allows you to add more services to your business as it grows.
Use the correct domain extension for your audience
Your domain extension is the bit at the end: .co.uk, .com, .ai. If your audience is global, go with .com. If you have a local business like our friend Russell Smith, it’ll help customers to see the .co.uk extension. That tells them that he’s based in Birmingham, UK, rather than Birmingham, Alabama, USA, for example.
When your business isn’t as location-specific, it could be worth registering other domain extensions to stop your competitors from doing so.
Register similar domains to cover incorrect spellings
If someone types in your business’ domain incorrectly, it helps to have similar spellings covered that redirect to your main site.
That’s why it’s wise to not include hyphens or complicated spellings in your domain name.
Avoid well-known brand names
If your business does work with Amazon, for example, avoid using Amazon in your domain name to avoid confusion and legal hot water. This goes for other trade marked names, too.
Match it to your social media profiles and email
Check the social platforms you use (or want to use) to see if your name is available. Try out different variations of your business name until you get a match on the domain and on social media.
Try a few email providers to see if they’ll allow the same name as part of your email. If your name is Maisie and you’re a mechanic, having an email address like maisie@maisiesmotors.co.uk would be ideal.
My domain name is already taken
So, you’ve used a domain name checker and discover your favourite name is already taken. Take a breath, it’s not time to fret yet.
First, check to see who owns the domain and when it expires. If it expires soon it might go on the market if it isn’t renewed. If it’s far off its renewal date, contact the domain owner and find out if you could buy it from them.
You could explore variations on your business name. Say you run a florist called Bloomin’ Wonderful and that domain’s taken, you could go with bloominwonderfulshop.co.uk
How we chose our domain name
‘Choosing the correct domain name for your company can seem daunting, but it is critically important,’ says Phil Thomas, co-director of financial information website lse.co.uk.
The site, whose initials stand for London South East, bought its primary domain lse.co.uk back in 1998 direct from a domain registration company. Thomas comments, ‘The name was short, easy to remember, and importantly at the time, available.’
Danielle Tanner was coming from a different position when she set up online gift shop Bumbleberry Gifts. She says, ‘I was a bit pedantic when choosing my domain name as it was also going to be my business name – as an online business I couldn’t have one without the other.’
Following several brainstorming meetings, Tanner eventually came up with the name Bumbleberry and checked rigorously online that the name was unique within the gift and homeware sector.
‘After careful deliberation I decided to include ‘gifts’ – a hint to what we did, whilst also hoping to improve our search engine optimisation (SEO). I did a final search to check there were no others on the web and then decided to go for bumbleberrygifts.co.uk.’
Tanner used Mr Site to choose her domain name and build her website. CEO of Mr Site Clifford McDowell states, ‘She went for an address that’s not only branded but good for SEO.’ However, about a week after launching, Tanner was inundated with people telling her that an American bumbleberrygifts.com was now showing up on search listings.
McDowell describes this as unfortunate but explains there are ways around it. ‘We’ve registered two more domain names for her – www.bumbleberry-gifts.com and bumbleberry-gifts.co.uk. She can have the three domain names pointing to her main site, so potential customers will find it easier to find her company.’
Thomas remarks that lse.co.uk also has multiple domain names. ‘We purchased SharePrice.com through a domain brokerage from an individual in East Asia,’ he comments. ‘We chose the name as it was highly relevant and had the potential to rank well in search results.’
Domain names can cost anything from a few pounds to several million. Thomas notes that lse.co.uk has walked away from a number of domains as the price was simply too high. He advises businesses to keep a sense of proportion: ‘At the end of the day, a domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.’
New territories
Businesses are not limited to .com and .co.uk when choosing a domain name. There are a host of other top-level domains (TLDs) available, which may offer the opportunity for companies to register URLs that complement their main website. One such is .tel, whose operator Telnames aims to provide companies with a no-frills, mobile-optimised web page displaying essential contact details and links to their main website. The company’s service costs £14.95 a year and is aimed at all businesses from pubs to professional services firms.
FAQ
A domain name is an address to find a website on the Internet.
Try and match it to your business name as far as possible. Avoid hyphens, complicated spelling and trade marks. Have a look at a domain name checkers to see whether it’s available.
Use a domain registrar to search for and register your domain name. There will be a cost to register your domain name and it will expire after a certain number of years.
The post What to consider when choosing a domain name appeared first on Growth Business.
