Every decision that you make for your business matters. When it comes to online business domain names, it can make or break you on a number of levels. By understanding the importance of choosing a good domain name, you can be more successful.
Brand Identity
Establishing yourself as a new business can be a challenge. It’s why you have to focus so heavily on your brand identity. What makes you different from the competition? Why is your story unique?
As you explore online business domain names, you have to ensure that your brand comes through. Don’t leave people guessing as to what it is that you do. The word or words used within your domain name will help to give people an idea as to what to expect from your brand – fun, serious, or smart.
The name you choose will help to establish your identity – and you’ll want to use this throughout every platform you create. Once you establish your domain name, that same personality should be felt throughout social media, print marketing, and beyond.
Search Engine Optimization
Of the online business domain names that you consider, it’s important to know how they’ll affect your search engine optimization. Obviously, you want any boost that you can get to help you become more visible in the search engines.
The domain you choose should be well-branded to include a keyword or two that tells people who you are or what your product/service is. The name should be short, meaningful, and even a bit catchy. If people stumble on it, you may want to go back to the drawing board.
By using the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool from Google AdWords, it can help you to see how your brand name ranks. If you’re competing with some big-name domains, it may be a struggle to appear on the first page no matter how big your marketing budget is.
Too many keywords can look like spam. When it comes to SEO, keywords matter everywhere – in your domain name, your metadata, and your content. If you have more than five words in your domain name, back off of it a bit.
Ease of Use
Online business domain names serve as your identity. If people don’t know how to say it or spell it, you’re in trouble. Think about how the domain name comes out if you’re saying it out loud to someone. They’re going to spell it the way that it sounds. If you have to stop and correct people on the spelling, it’s going to be problematic.
You shouldn’t have to explain how to spell or pronounce your domain name. Make it simple. Otherwise, word of mouth marketing will be null. Think about someone talking it up to another person. They share your domain name but don’t share the spelling. When that person goes to look you up, they won’t be able to find you. They may, however, find your competition.
Don’t hand off your hard-earned business practices to your competition simply because you didn’t bother to make your website name easy to say and remember.
There’s something to be said about the KISS method – keep it simple, stupid. Try to keep your domain name under 15 characters. You should also avoid numbers and hyphens when at all possible.
When you’re making it easy, you also have to consider the domain extension. Just because you can’t find the domain you want with a .com extension doesn’t mean you have to choose a complicated web address. Opt for a .ONLINE. The word “online” is recognized in over 22 countries. It’s a fun way for you to tell people that you’re online…and you can have more flexibility with your titles since you no longer need to have .com as your extension.
Premium Marketing Tool
It all comes down to knowing that your domain name is a premium marketing tool. You are going to share your business name and domain name on a number of vital marketing components – business cards, flyers, posters, social media channels, and even on the side of your company vehicle.
You never know when your website is going to be shared amongst friends or on the radio. If your domain name is too complicated, people won’t be able to duplicate it when they are typing it into their web browser.
Your job is to create online business domain names that make sense. Establish a list that allows you to identify who you are and get the search engine optimization help that you need. It can even be beneficial to talk with other business professionals to see what they have to say about the different domain names that you are contemplating.
Once you have a domain name in place, it is the ultimate way for you to identify yourself as a business and as a brand.