So you want to start up a website? One of the best things you can help yourself with in your domain name choice is to develop a strategy and plan of attack. A well chosen domain is a key component to your website’s success. Hopefully at this stage of the game you already know that Search Engine placement is critical to getting visitors to your website. Among other factors, the domain name you choose will help you in getting to the “top of the charts”.
What if someone already owns the domain name you covet? Would it still be possible to buy the domain name? Maybe. It’s possible, but there are some things to consider. With some research and hard work you can possibly obtain the name from the current domain name owner. Instead, let’s check out some alternative strategies to get the domain name you want:
Hyphenated Names One strategy to consider if the domain name you want is already taken would be to hyphenate it, as in turning ricksantiqueshop.com into ricks-antique-shop.com. Is hyphenating the best way to go? Yes and no. For example, if the domain name you want is already taken AND well known, most likely this is not a good idea, because most web surfers would likely just type the non-hyphenated version into their browsers and thus could end up at your competitor’s website. Not a good strategy. Word to the wise: keep the domain name as short as possible. The longer the name, especially with dashes in between words, the more likely that potential visitors to your site will enter it incorrectly into their browsers, thus foiling the chances of them visiting your website and costing you customers! So keep it short. But if the name you have chosen is already taken and there is no chance of getting it from it’s owner, and the owner either has no website or a poorly designed one with little traffic, this can be a good strategy in purchasing a name.
Longer or Shorter? You can purchase domain names up to 67 characters in length. You could purchase a domain name like thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensome
andthensomemoreandmore.com which is 63 characters long, but why would you want to do that? Who would want to type it into a browser? My website is www.StartMyWebsiteToday.com When choosing my domain name I wanted something that in a few words would tell the web surfer what to expect from my website. Good name selection can be helpful also with search engine ranking. When choosing your domain name try to keep it short and concise, and if at all possible let the name tell the story of the site. Shorter is better here.
Brand Name or Generic Should you give your website a descriptive generic name or do you want to use a brand name? Definitely if your business is known by a fairly well known brand name, then you would want to try and secure that as your domain name. Budweiser.com is a site that is well known and gets a lot of traffic, even though there is nothing specifically in the domain name that says anything about beer. But because Budweiser is known all over the world as a beer brand, people know what they are getting when they surf to the website. If your brand name is well known, definitely try to obtain your brand name as a domain name. But if your company is Nike or Coca Cola or Budweiser don’t discount the idea of buying the domain name shoes.com or soda.com or beer.com if they are available as well. People often search the web using generic terms, more so even than brand names. A person is more likely to search the internet with generic terms like shoes or footwear or sneakers than to search by a single brand name, even one as big as Nike. Research your domain name as thoroughly as you can, including looking for generic keywords which could be a good fit as a potential domain name. You can have as many domain names as you want pointing to a single website, so the more generic terms you can acquire that directly describe your business, the better. A generic name if your business is new or not yet well known can get great results, if you can find a good one. To start your search for your own unique domain name, here is a link to a domain name search engine.