Picking a Domain Name When Starting An Online Business

Jul 21
07:40

2014

Jon Allo

Jon Allo

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When starting an online business having a bad domain name can backfire and even cause you to lose customers. It can makes you look unprofessional while a good domain name leaves a positive impression and creates a feeling of trust within your customers. So what makes a good domain name?

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When setting up an online business your website will need a domain name. This is what your website is called with an easy to use word,Picking a Domain Name When Starting An Online Business Articles or sets of words and it is how your customers can find you on the internet. A domain name is like a digital identity card. It's a way for people to check that you are actually online. Some people think that choosing a domain name that is bad is much better than not having one at all. But this is completely wrong.

Choosing A Website Name.

Choosing a domain name that is reflective of your business will allow your website to rank higher in search engine results, which in turn allows it to be seen by even more people. The first step when choosing a domain name is to make a list of potential names you could use for your website. You don't just have to use your company name.

In fact, if your business name is lengthy or complicated to spell, it may be better not to use your business name at all. One company that had this issue launched a website named after its most popular product and found that their customers were able to remember that domain name easily. This resulted in better sales and higher search engine rankings because more customers were searching for the product rather than the company.

When starting an online business, and the business is about you, one option is to use your name as your domain name. For example, Donald Trump is the face of his business. Obviously, it takes time to establish your name as an authority in your industry, so as well as to choosing a domain name with your personal name, also get one that contains a keyword associated with your business. You can re-direct search engine traffic from the keyword domain to your personal name domain.

What Makes A Good Domain Name?

Once you've come up with a list of potential domain names, go through and cross out anything that's too long. Try to stay under twenty characters so your domain name is easy to remember. Cross out anything that might have negative connotations. If you're using several words write them without spaces to be sure that your domain name wouldn't be potentially offensive.

After you've gone through your list and removed the unsuitable ones, put them in order of your most favourite to your least favourite ones. Go online and see which domain names are available. You can start choosing a domain name with a domain register like GoDaddy.

Picking a Domain Name.

When you find an available domain name,Google it before buying it. You want to check that nobody else is using a similar name for something unethical, spammy or unpleasant. While this does take a little extra time, you don't want your business to get mixed up with a similar website that is not legitimate.

It's always a good idea to opt for a .com, rather than one of the other extensions, as a .com is a universally accepted business domain extension. It's always a good idea to add the .net, .biz, .co.uk, .us and other domain extensions too, to avoid the possibility of someone hijacking those other domains and catching your spill over traffic. It's also worth registering a domain with your personal name that contains the term 'Who is.'

When starting an online business it can be tempting to opt for choosing a domain name from websites that provide 'free' domain names. But it is always better to actually purchase one. A free domain is really just a subdomain. This means that the name of the website that is giving you a free domain will appear before your online business name. It would be something like: www.free-domain-name.yourwebsitename.com. That makes it difficult to remember and easy to mistype so your website visitors could go the entirely the wrong place.