Domain name registration and website naming advice

Choosing your domain name and registering it could be one of the most important steps in marketing your company - therefore before you rush out and choose your domain name, you might want to consider some of the following: When you come to buy your domains email us because we buy as cheap as anyone in the UK and gaurantee to find you the very best deal.

 Your Domain Name Should Be Your Website Name

It pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business - you need to put as few obstacles in the way of people finding your site as possible - don't let the name be one of them. If your site name is right it is one less thing for your customers or visitors to remember. The name reflects what you do and is easy to remember, that's the key.

 What if you cannot get the domain name of your choice?

It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you're known for, you'll probably not want to ditch that name just because you couldn't get the domain name. You might want to try to buy the domain name from the current owner - a great deal of domain names were just bought up and never used - so first see if the domain you want is being used, if it has an active site and is being used the chances are you won't be able to get the current owner to sell - however if the domain is just held - check up the "whois" information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they're willing to sell it. You probably should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher fee than you'd normally get when buying new domains (assuming they want to sell it in the first place).

 Generic Names Or Brand Name Domains?

A domain name that matches your brand name is a very powerful asset. The very name that you use to advertise your products is then also the name that you will want for your domain, because that is the first thing that people will try in their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember, and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than the obscure domain name.

 Long or Short Domain Names?

Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. Having said that, there appears to be some disagreement about whether a long or short domain name is better.

It's increasingly more difficult to get short meaningful domain name.

Long domain names that have your site keywords in them also have an advantage in that they fare better in a number of search engines - just see our name as an example web-site-design-promotion-and-marketing.co.uk. Often search engines have a preference for keywords that are also found in your domain names.

 Hyphenated Names?

Should you get a hyphenated name? There are a few things to consider here:

Disadvantage: It's easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name.
Disadvantage: It's a pain in the neck to type.
Advantage: Search engines can distinguish your keywords better and thus return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords occurring in your domain name.
Advantage: The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain name you want.

 COM, ORG, NET, etc?

One common question I encounter is from people who can't get the ".com" domain of their choice, but find the ".net", ".org" or other country-specific top level domains (TLDs) available (like .de, .nu, .sg, etc). Should they try for these?

The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. If your website or business caters to the local community, such as a pizza delivery business or recruitment agency or the like, then it makes sense to get a country-specific domain. You actually benefit from having such a local domain because the people in your country know that they're dealing with a local entity, which is what they want.

Some say it is better to have a domain name of your choice "myperfectdomain" even if it has a TLD of ".net", ".org" or some other country specific extension, than to wind up choosing an obscure domain name for the simple reason you can't get your first choice. Against this is the argument that if you get a country specific domain, people might think that your business only caters to that country.

Another school of thought finds that ".net" and ".org" extensions are actually quite acceptable domain names. For some, the ".org" extension actually describes the non-profit nature of their organisation. So, for example, the famous Apache web server can be found at "apache.org".

Others would settle for the ".com" extension and no less. As grounds for their arguments, they cite the browser algorithms used to locate a website when a user simply types a name like "acme" into the browser. Apparently, the browser searches for a domain name "acme.com" before attempting "acme.net", etc. As such, people who do that will be delivered to your competitor's site if you do not also own the ".com" extension. Indeed, even if people do not rely on their browser to complete their typing, many simply assume a ".com" extension when they type a domain name, so if your business is "Acme", they'll just assume your domain name is "acme.com" rather than "acme.net" or some other such name. Things are changing though and this is becoming much less of a problem.

As you can see, there are actually good grounds for accepting any of the above views. If you get a domain name with an extension other than ".com", make sure that you promote your business or website with the full domain name.

 In Conclusion...

Don't make the mistake of attempting to retrofit your domain name to your business or website.

If you need help getting through the domain name registration minefield and need that 'perfect' domain name we are more than happy to discuss what would work well for you and why. We often register domains for clients and get the very best prices for all domains due to our bulk buying power.

The bottom line is if you are thinking of going into business online there is a hell of a lot more to picking your domain name than you may think. Let us help you choose and help you avoid the pitfalls many many people continually fall into. Contact us, tell us about the names you are interested in, we will check them and report back to you with our recommendations - for free. CLICK HERE and tell us about the domain names you would like.