Domain names are a key component of every website. Establishing a domain name is one of the first tasks completed when setting up a new site. Making a memorable, effective domain name is easier than you may think. Because this is such an important gateway to your business, here are a few suggestions for picking a domain name.
Is it Available?
The best way to narrow down a list of potential names is to determine if the name you want is available. Don’t worry if the exact name you want is already taken because there are a variety of ways to adjust a domain name to fit your business. Use www.SiteReserve.com to search for available domain names anytime. For example, if you own a carpet cleaning business and run a SiteReserve search for “carpet cleaning”, you can view a list of all closely associated names (.com, .net, .org, .us, and .info) and determine which domain names are already taken and which are available. Brainstorm some keywords, ideas, and phrases that relate to your business. This will open up more options for domain names. Taking keywords and phrases and implementing them for your domain is one strategy for making a unique and effective domain name. Sometimes in your search, you will discover more than one domain name – grab them all up and point them to the same website!
Make it Brief
Just like a catchy nickname, creating a domain name that is short and sweet will help attract more people to your website. Not only is a succinct domain name easier to remember, but it is also more visually attractive. The average website domain is 2-5 syllables long. The shorter and more unique a name is, the more likely a person will remember and revisit your website. Using acronyms is one way to create a compact and customized domain name. Always remember that a domain name should not be a long description of your business; save that information for your webpage. An effective domain name identifies your business brand or product but leaves the rest to the website.
Avoid Vague Terms
Unless you’re Amazon or Google, the best and most effective domains are clear and brief. Take WEBii.net (as well as WEBii.com, by the way) – judging by our domain name, you would be right to assume that we do things involving the Internet, web design, and development. From the address, customers easily understand that our business deals with the World Wide Web in some fashion. WEBii.net is an easy-to-remember, concise domain name that gives insight into what the company does. We could have chosen “TheBestInWebDesignAndDevelopment.net,” but that is obviously a bulky and ineffective domain.
It is important to understand that with the growth of the Internet, it has become more challenging to find domain names, especially short ones. Most of the words of less than 6 characters have already been long registered. So don’t be discouraged if your ideal word or short acronym is not available. You do sometimes need to be creative and paraphrase the name you use for your website while keeping it closely related to your other business marketing.
I would like to start using social media to market my nursery/kindergarten in the UK. I was thinking of using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn…would all of these be useful for my type of business?
Also, how would I best utilise these tools to get the full benefits of social media marketing?