Regardless of whether you’re about to launch your own business or simply thinking about rebranding, one of the most important decisions you have to make is the one that concerns your website. Needless to say, no serious business today operates without some form of online presence and the better you organize your presentation, the more success you’re likely to have.
Although no one can dispute the importance of a well-designed and informative website, there’s something that you also need to think about carefully before going online. It may sound trivial to some, but the domain name you choose has a massive impact on your business. It affects the click-through rate, search results, brandability, and offline advertising, to mention just some aspects. So, what is it that you need to know when selecting the domain name for your business?
Consider Brandability
The name of your domain should sound like a brand, which is why you should avoid hyphens and numbers. Also, the choice of words has a great impact on the visibility and brandablity, which means you should stay clear of words that are difficult to pronounce or write.
Ideally, you’d go for a short, but memorable name, which people can remember easily and which stands out among many similar ones. Depending on the line of business you’re in, this task might be more or less challenging, but you should never make any compromise about it.
It Should Be Pronounceable
Even though people can type the address without actually knowing how to pronounce the name properly, you are running a risk of people referring to your company or website in a completely wrong way.
This is particularly true if the name requires a lot of effort on behalf of the people visiting the website to pronounce and remember. They’d be more likely to give up trying to remember it and eventually stop visiting your site. So, you’d lose the existing or potential customers for a very silly reason.
Keep it Short
Again, the key lies in simplicity. You want your domain name to be as short and easy to type as possible. The reason is very simple: people are more likely to remember it, type, and share.
Another benefit is that it gets less shortened on social media sharing platforms and search results, which means your visibility is likely to increase.
Be Careful About Trademark Infringement
So, you’re happy because you’ve found one of the increasingly affordable cheap domains available and you’ve decided to buy it immediately. Well, before you complete the arrangement, make sure that there’s no company with a similar domain name, which might take you to court and sue you for trademark infringement.
It might be hard to prove that your name isn’t a deliberate copy, but the fact that you could be sued will undoubtedly affect your brand and reputation, which is something you want to avoid at any cost. If you’re in doubt, consult an attorney or a legal professional about the domain name you’d like to use before actually registering it.
It Should Be Intuitive
This is especially important for businesses that are yet to become a strong brand, since you want your domain to give a clear indication of what kind of business you’re presenting. You want people to look at your domain name and know exactly what they might expect to find when they visit your website.
You might decide to change your domain name once your brand develops enough and when people immediately associate it with what you offer, but until you get to that phase, make sure you make the domain name as intuitive as possible.
Modification Is Acceptable
It might be the case that the domain name you want is not available, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on the idea of designing a great website. On the contrary, modify the name by adding a prefix or a suffix or an alternate TLD extension.
This will also show that you can come up with a creative solution to a problem, which is something people usually appreciate and recognize. So, don’t be afraid to be a bit creative when it comes to your online presence.
Conclusion
Needless to say, there are some other things you need to consider when choosing your domain name, but they may not have such a great impact on your performance as the ones mentioned here. We could also expect some trends in this field to change in a near future, but at the moment, the situation is quite clear. Keep it simple and intuitive, but allow some room for creativity and your domain name will play its part quite well.
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