You should put a lot of thought into naming your website and domain name before you buy domains. As a startup, you cannot afford to waste weeks of productive work on a website under an unsuitable domain name. This is especially true since poorly chosen business domain names may negatively affect the brand they represent.
Domain names and descriptive words
You may buy domains that have descriptive words in, but descriptive words may not be needed within business domain names in the long term. For example, if someone saw your startup domain called MovieReviews.com, he or she may correctly guess your website hosts movie reviews, but branding can do more for you than a readable domain name. Evidence exists with the two biggest movie review websites. At the moment, they are “Rotten Tomatoes” and “IMDB.” You can see how having descriptive words in your domain name is not essential.
Do not rely on keyword trends
You may be tempted to pick a domain name that features well within the Google trends tool. It is up to you how you pick your name, but having keywords in your domain name is not as search engine friendly as you think. The benefits it offers are outweighed by how restrictive your domain name becomes. If you use a keyword that is associated with something bad in the future, or it is replaced by a more prominent word, then you are stuck with it. Put keywords in your URL’s instead, as they can be changed and moved as trends change.
Avoid the common mistakes
There are a lot of common mistakes that businesses make when choosing their domain name, so here is a quick run-down of what you should know already:
- Do not use hyphens
- Do not pick a name that is similar to a competitor
- Do not use numbers unless they are part of your brand/company name
- Do not make it too long, complex or hard to spell
Two common errors
Be careful when picking one that isn’t spelt phonetically. People will tell their friends and their friends will search for your website, but they will spell it how they hear it.
Be very careful if your domain name has silent letters. Consider buying both versions of the domain name (correctly spelt and phonetically spelt) and setting up redirects on one of them. Also, be careful of how your domain name will look on the browser. For example, Therapist.com may be interpreted as something else to others.
Your business name may hold the largest marketing advantage
It is true that getting your website to the top of the Google search engine results pages for certain keywords is important, but you can drive a staggering amount of people to your website by simply making people aware of your brand. If they are, then they will Google your business name. All you have to do is make sure your business/brand name is thoroughly embedded in the SEO of your website, and a domain name with your business/brand name may help you do that. This obviously assumes you are not going to change your business name any time soon.
What do you think makes a good business domain? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.