Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Business

In the real brick-and-mortar business world, businesses strive to put their offices or storefronts on the right street. After all, it's all about location. And a prestigious, well-known street address is worth a fortune to a business. That's why all the best advertising agencies are on Madison Avenue in New York and all the best stores are on Fifth Avenue.

The same goes for addresses in the virtual business world on the Net. Sure there are no streets, no parking issues, and no foot traffic. But your business address on the Net is just as important as a good physical business location. On the Net, your address is your domain name. The domain name is how people find your site on the web. Just type in the name, followed by a dot and a TLD (top level domain, as in ".com") and bam, you go to the website you're looking for.

Choosing an effective domain name is so very important, yet most businesses don't give them much consideration. They end up choosing domain names that are so long, convoluted and difficult to remember, that people have trouble getting to their sites. This costs them big time in lost traffic and potential sales. If your business' web site is set up to take orders or make sales, a bad domain name will cost you even more in the way of lost sales.

Some important points to remember when choosing your domain name:

1. Keep it short! The shorter your domain name, the easier it is to remember. And the less chance that someone will make a mistake when they type it into their browser. Abbreviations are OK, but only if they are easy to remember and make sense. It should be able to roll off your tongue without much follow-up to help in its spelling. If your company name is something long and wordy, like "Alpha Technology Systems, Inc", consider a domain name more like "alphatech.com". Remember the less characters the better, but keep the name coherent.

2. Make it memorable and catchy! If you're intend on using your domain name as part of your brand identity, make sure it's catchy and sticks in people's heads. Sometimes the best domain name for your home business may not have anything to do with the products or services you offer. Consider "Amazon.com", it's easy to remember, but says nothing about the company, nor that it sells books and retails products. "Ebay.com" is another solid example. The name is four characters long (not including the "TLD"), and for years has been part of pop culture lexicon. It says nothing really about being an on-line auction site does it? Could you imagine if Ebay had gone with a name like "Onlineauctions.com"? Not nearly as catchy, though probably still memorable.

3. Use a major Top Level Domain that's applicable to your business. There are now literally dozens of TLD's out there. Aside from the old standbys, .com, .net, and .org, there are .info, .biz, .tv, .cc, and dozens of others. This is not to mention all the TLD's from other countries as well. The choices are almost endless. Despite the wide selection, it's still best to stick to the classics, particularly .com if at all possible. Use .Net as a second place contender if the .com version is not available. You want your name to be as memorable as possible, and keeping the domain name .com or .net will make at least half of your domain name a no-brainer. They don't even have to remember that part of the name. From a marketing standpoint, this remains invaluable.

4. Make a short list of different choices for your domain name. Work on several different options: abbreviations, hyphenated versions (though I'm not a fan of hyphens, they don't seem to cause too much trouble on the domain name's effectiveness if used properly), and any other names you may be able to utilize and consider marketable. Then, filter them down to a final short list of domain name candidates. I often find it's best to do an informal poll to find out what other people think is the best choice of domain name for your business. Ask friends, colleagues and even your customers what they think. Remember your customers will be using the domain name you choose. Their feedback is invaluable, so use it.

5. Consider multiple domain names. If you have a very catchy brand name and want to use it for marketing purposes, try to lock down as many versions of that name as possible in the other TLD's so you can "lock" the domain name. For example, in addition to registering "alphatech.com", also register "alphatech.net" "alphatech.biz" and "alphatech.info" for example. Then point them all to your website. This way a competitor can't use them to steer traffic away from your site by hijacking a different version of your domain name. Domain name registration fees are cheap enough now that you can conceivably register twenty or more names, and spend no more than a couple hundred dollars per year. From a business and marketing standpoint, this is chump change when you consider the effectiveness of protecting a well-branded domain name.

Once you do have your domain name decided on and registered, be sure to print it on every piece of advertising, stationery and business cards that you use. Remember, it's your address on the Internet! Also remember that domain names are highly effective for email as well. It's much more professional to have a business email address like "joesmith@alphatech.com" than it is to have "alphatech@hotmail.com". Use your domain name to boost your professional image whenever and wherever possible.

Take the time and work diligently on getting the best domain name identity for your business. Make it easy as possible for your customers to find you on the Net. Despite your business' small size, you'll be able to do business with a professional image just like the big guys. And that's almost like having a coveted location on Fifth Avenue.