Domain Name Selection for Your Business

Choosing the right domain name can be critical to the success of your business. Your domain name is your street address for the Internet. Your job as a business owner is to make sure that your customers can find you on the Internet (before they find your competitors). Careful selection of the right domain name can go a long way towards getting potential customers to your website. Also, your domain name can also affect the inbound links to your website and your ranking in search engines. So let's take a few minutes to discuss the issues you must consider when choosing a business domain name.

Here are ten tips to choosing a domain name for your business:

1. How about a K.I.S.S? That is, “Keep It Simple Stupid.” Good domain names must be short (no longer the 10-12 letters), easy to spell and pronounce, and not have any hyphens or the initials of your company name. Otherwise, your website may be confused with the other, non-hyphenated or initial-based domain name.

2. Location, Location, Location? Many “gurus” say do not include a location in your domain name [i.e., michiganwidgets.com]. However, if you are a small to medium-sized service business then including a location in your domain may yield better branding possibilities, not to mention some search engine benefits.

3. Business Name = Domain Name. Register your company name as your main URL. It’s what people usually try first when looking for your business website. You might also consider registering your product/service names as additional URLs. The reason? Some companies now create mini-sites specifically for products and services -- think Jif.com or Tide.com. Or they point the product URL to a section of their main website that features that product. -- Some companies register industry-specific terms, common words or short phrases that your customers or prospective customers may commonly type into a browser. According to Monte Cahn, CEO of Moniker.com, “Seventy percent of people type directly in the browser address field, while the other 30 percent go through a search engine.”

Your domain name and website name should be the same. People may not notice the website address of your website when they find you through the search engine results. That’s not say you cannot add-on some domain names particular to your business or industry and redirect them to your website [i.e., superwidgets.com, howellwidgets, etc.]

4. Make it a dot.COM please. Arguments for ONLY choosing a “.com” extension include: browser algorithms when a user simply types a name like "widgets" into the browser. Apparently, the browser searches for a domain name "widgets.com" before attempting "widgets.net", etc. Thus, potential customers to your site will be delivered to your competitor's site if you do not also own the ".com" extension. Additionally, most consumers understand “.com” as the default extension and will assume a ".com" extension when they type a domain name. Moreover, when consumers know the actual business name (“Target”), but not the domain name, they will overwhelmingly try the “.com” extension first (www.target.com).

However, if the “.com” extension is not available and you already have a business name established in your industry or community, then at least reserve the “.net, .biz, or .org,” extensions. But make sure to promote your business or website with the full domain name For example, if your domain name is "specialbluewidgets.net", make sure that when you market your website or business, call it "specialbluewidgets.net" not "specialbluewidgets". Otherwise, you risk potential customers assuming a ".com" extension and ending up at a competitor’s website.

5. A word about “mydomain.com.” You may ponder or domain registration sites (godaddy.com) may suggest alternate forms of the “.com” name when the name you requested is already reserved. For example, if you wanted “widget.com,” the domain registration site might suggest names like “thewidget.com” and “mywidget.com.” Again, avoid these domain name variations unless you have committed the necessary budget and resources to properly brand them in your industry and market. Otherwise, people are likely to forget to affix the necessary "the" or "my". Always avoid the plural form of a domain name (e.g., “widgets.com”) if you cannot reserve "widget.com" because the chance of the visitor failing to type the "s" in the name is very great. (see “etoys.com” and “etoy.com.”
6. Variations. Buy the variations of your domain name [i.e., michiganwidgets.com, michiganwidgets.net, and michiganwidgets.biz]

7. Do your homework. Research your target markets, competition, and industry. This research should be part of your business or market planning process.

8. More homework. Closely aligned with #5 above, research all company names and domains names currently in use. Avoid trademarked names. Use the following four websites for any business in Michigan (in this order):

a) www.godaddy.com for domain name registration($7 a domain name with coupon);

b) http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/sr_corp.asp to check corporate name availability with the State of Michigan;

c) http://www.cis.state.mi.us/bcs/corp/pdf/markcom.pdf. check trademark or service mark status with the State of Michigan (a list of Michigan registered marks is available on the website & a request for the search of Michigan registered marks may be submitted by mail);

d) http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=v5tsck.1.1 check trademark or service mark status with the Federal Trademark Commission (http://www.uspto.gov/).

9.Accidental customers? If your domain name is easily or commonly misspelled (or is that misspelled?), then purchase the common misspellings of your domain name. Thus, by directing the wayward surfers to your actual site, you won’t miss the additional traffic and your competitors won’t be able to buy the misspelled domains and garner traffic intended for your site. Hint: Gather a group together and type in your domain name 100 times. Keep track of every mistyped domain name. The resulting domains are the ones to purchase.

10. Don’t forget mobile. Mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) are becoming more and more standard business communication equipment, so many of the big corporations are starting to register and develop their “.mobi” sites specifically for mobile users. Perhaps small businesses might be wise to protect their brand and register their .mobi. domain names.

A Quick Word on Branding and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Many times, businesses choose a business name and domain name based on potential keywords. A keyword domain is a domain chosen to take advantage of search engine traffic. By choosing a domain that matches a keyword search, a business is able to rank higher for targeted keywords, and thereby benefit from added traffic to its website. For example, an insurance agency might want to target the search phrase “Howell Insurance” by choosing the domain “howellinsuranceagency.com”. However, many of the most successful sites do not use keyword domains. These online businesses have chosen to go with a completely original domain, and brand it. A few examples are Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, GoDaddy, and eBay.

Whether you choose a brandable domain or a keyword domain is a choice you must make, and a choice you should make in accordance with your business plan. If you have a large offline advertising budget and the budget necessary to brand your organization, I'd recommend a brandable domain. If, on the other hand, you're working on a shoe-string budget, choose a keyword domain and let the search engines bring the customers to you.

Conclusion.

Reserve your domain name BEFORE you start your website or even your business plan. In fact, once you make the decision to become an entrepreneur, the first thing you should do is check potential names with the State of Michigan and “GoDaddy.com.” And once your reserve you domain name, set-up your e-mail address through your webhost and e-mail client (Outlook). Don't make the mistake of attempting to retrofit your domain name to your business or website.