Choosing the Right Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name is an essential part of planning your web presence. In an earlier article I discussed the need to plan. Now, we will take this a step further and look at the considerations when choosing a domain name.

Let's look at the key points to consider when choosing the best domain name for your site:

1. Domain Names are An Important Part of Marketing

   A domain name is not simply a pointer for resolving the IP address to your web site. There are thousands of examples on the Net of companies that have been formed around their domain names, making the domain a key part of their branding.

2. Branding vs. Keywords

   There are hundreds of sites containing articles about whether branding or keywords should form the basis of your domain name choice. You will see just as many arguments for going with branding as you will find arguments for using only keywords in your domain name. Ideally, a domain name should immediately identify the site and tell potential visitors what the site is about; this can be difficult if your brand is new or relatively unknown.

   To determine whether you should base your domain name on your brand or use keywords you need to look at your business and marketing plans. If your online presence is designed to be long-term and part of a strategy to build awareness of your company and services, opt for branding. Your brand can build visitor loyalty, trust, and create a point of difference to your competitors. Using a brand-based domain name also makes it much easier to have consistency across your marketing efforts, both online and offline. Another key consideration is that with a brand-based domain name you are able to more easily protect your domain and brand. Domain names are not subject to copyright but brands can be protected by trademark.

   The argument for using keyword-based domain names revolves around search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. If your site is not intended to build an offline presence, or is resource or affiliate-based, or perhaps intended only for a short-term commitment rather than building a business over a period of years, then keywords are the way to go. Using keywords in a domain name provides a slight advantage in terms of search engine result placement.

   Whether you chose branding or keywords as the basis of your domain name depends on the purpose of your site, your plans for its future, and whether you are building a business or hobby site. Keywords can give faster results in search engines but given time, even the most obscure brand can achieve good results.

3. Site Name Should Match Domain Name

   What do you think of when you see the domain "fruit.com"? Do you immediately think of a 150-year-old clothing company? This domain is neither a brand, or meaningful in terms of the site name. While an established bricks and mortar company that has a lot of offline marketing can get away with this, for most of us, having a domain name that matches our site name is important. Discrepancies between the site name and the domain name make it difficult for people to remember your site.

4. Domain Names Should be Unique

   It is getting increasingly difficult to find a domain name that is available. Take the time to find one that is unique - plural, hyphenated or misspelled variations of existing domain names can result in visitor confusion and loss of identity. Worse, it can result in your traffic reaching your competitor. Be careful of meaningless names. Google, Yahoo!, Flickr and Meebo are all examples of names that had no meaning until their brands became widely recognised. All of them did considerable marketing well beyond their own web sites to achieve branding recognition. Unless you have a powerful marketing strategy and a great deal of money to spend on it, avoid meaningless domain names.

5. Domain Names Should be Short, Memorable, and Easy to Type

   Short names are usually more memorable and easier to both type and to locate in search engine results. Memorable names are those that can be passed on by word of mouth without having to be spelled out. The ideal domain name is one that takes up little real estate on your printed stationary, where someone can tell you the name and you can remember it. Avoid quirky spellings and, if possible, avoid making assumptions about language use. Names that use the following letters can present problems for people whose first language is not English: v, q, z. x, and p.

6. Don't Be Afraid of Hyphens

   Hyphenated domain names are becoming more common as sites recognise the SEO benefits. However, while the old "rule" of avoiding hyphens no longer applies you need to be aware of two things - hyphenated domain names are harder to say (eg. "mambo hypen tutorials dot com") and some search engines treat the hypenated domain the same as a domain with two words combined without a hyphen. Depending on your search engine marketing strategy this can be either a good or bad thing, but it's something you need to keep in mind.
   Hyphenated domain names are useful if you have chosen a keywords-based domain name. Search engines change their algorithms all the time and nobody knows how much weight they give to keywords in domain names, but there is evidence that there are some benefits. Using hypens allows you to use multiple keywords in a domain. Just keep in mind that the purpose of your site is to attract humans and nobody likes being forced to do too much typing!

7. Take Care With Translations

   When you have established a short-list of potential domain names run some searches on the word you have chosen. Over the years, there have been some wonderful "bloopers" where a nice-sounding word in English has had a completely different (and undesirable) meaning in a different language. The internet is international and you won't want to offend potential customers.

8. Purchase All TLD's for Your Chosen Name

   Whether you choose branding or keywords as the basis for your domain name, you will want to protect it. Many web users immediately go to .com in the assumption that domain names all end with .com. Ensure you have the .com TLD for your name and if you do not intend to use this as your base domain, set it up to redirect to your site. If you are providing products or services from your site you should always ensure you obtain your domain name for your country, even if you do not use if for anything more than a redirect to your site.

   The "rule of thumb" for the TLD to use is as follows:

   • If your business is based, for example, in the UK, obtain the .com, .net, .org, .mobi for your domain name, as well as all TLD's for .uk. If the primary focus of your business is the UK market, use the .co.uk TLD and redirect the other domains to this. Keep the .mobi to use when you start to present your site as mobile content.
   • If your focus is on the US or international market, use the .com and point all other TLD's to this domain.
   • Search engines use the TLD's to determine which directory your site should be listed in. If you are targeting local markets you need to ensure high visibility in search engine results for your market. There is not much point in being listed in google.com if all your visitors are searching google.co.uk is there?

9. Beware Expired Domains

   Domain names expire and come back onto the market. While it is tempting to secure a recently expired domain from sites that offer these, do some research first. Recently expired domains may still be listed in search engines and may bring initial traffic to your site but unless the site was offering the same things you intend to offer this traffic is worthless to you. Before you select any new domain name check on its past history. Use search engines to find any lingering references and search the Internet Wayback Machine to find out what the previous site was used for. An associate recently created a new online presence only to discover that his carefully selected domain name had previously been a porn site and its email addresses had been blacklisted as a spammer account. So, doing some research before securing your new domain can save you a lot of grief later.

10. Avoid Trademark Infringement

    You are establishing a new web site and will put a lot of time, effort and money into building your online presence. The last thing you will want is to lose the lot and to face potential legal action. Trademark law is complex and many countries recognise first-use trademark rights for unregistered trademarks. Search your country's trademark register, the US uspto.gov site, and any other register you can find. Also run searches in Google and Yahoo! for references to names that are similar to the one you have chosen. If you can afford it, get a trademark attorney to search for existing trademarks.

    If you are setting up a site based on products or services for an open source application check the published trademark and IP usage guidelines for these applications. Most are protected by trademarks.

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