How To Choose A Domain Name
Businesses requiring exposure give a great amount of thought to their physical street addresses and location. Such is the case when choosing domain names for their website locations. Acquiring a great domain name is the first step towards gaining the online exposure you need for your business and becoming an online success. The Internet is still fairly young, so acquiring a great domain name, or two today, is considered an excellent investment for your business, and for the long term.
Whether you own an architecture design firm, run a clothing company, or are the marketing director for a large manufacturer, the Internet will be the first place people look to find your business. Many companies, such as real estate businesses, find the majority of their business starts online.
Having an effective online identity for your business is crucial as the Internet is now the recognized standard for information of every kind.
A premium, targeted domain name will offer you the highest benefit. Your entire online marketing campaign will be based on the name you choose to use, and selecting the right domain name(s) will have an important impact on how visible you are on the Internet. Additionally, when you promote your website, your domain can be printed on your stationary, business cards, brochures, and used as your email address. It’s for these reasons you need to “start with a great name.”
You will find this “How To” guide full of important information designed to give you fundamental knowledge in choosing “domain names.” Domains can be valuable online real estate; and you may soon realize that purchasing a targeted, premium domain name is a small investment when considering the returns you experience.
How To Choose A Domain Name
1.) Always start by choosing a domain with a (.com) extension.
Unless you have the time (and) money to promote, promote, promote, best practice is to always choose domains having the (.com) extension. The .com extension is the foremost extension most people utilize when typing in the name of a website.
If someone tries to promote a website with a .net extension, for example, they can potentially lose a lot of money through the process, as the majority of people will forget about that websites (.net) extension and default to the website using the (.com) website. In other words, their efforts, time and money, may very well drive traffic to the (.com) site.
Example: PattisonsPlumbing.com. The (.com) extension is by far the most widely accepted and recognized extension for a domain name. Typically, the (.net) or (.org) extensions are perceived to be of lesser quality and value, as either the owner either couldn’t afford to buy the (.com) name, or their competitor had the foresight to register it, first.
Non-profit organizations often utilize the (.org) extension and would not necessarily be viewed in this way.
2.) Register additional extensions for your domain name.
Assuming you have purchased the .(com) extension, if the (.net) and (.org) extensions, etc., are available, it is a good idea to register these other available extensions, as well.
3.) Register the singular and plural version of your domain name.
It is also a good idea to register the singular version of your domain name, as well as the plural version: PattisonPlumbing (and) Pattison(s)Plumbing. You should set up your website using the domain name you typically use: PattisonsPlumbing.com, and then have the other version redirected to your website. This way you are sure to catch all potential visitors to your site.
4.) Register names people typically know how to spell.
Choose a name that does not contain confusing spelling or has the possibility of being misspelled.
5.) People often times forget the hyphen… Best practice is to avoid domain names with hyphens and numbers such as gifts-4-you.com. It takes a great deal of extra time, effort, and money, to brand a site when the spelling is unusual.
Unless it is an absolute killer “keyword rich” domain phrase that has the possibility of getting lots of search traffic… for your ultimate domain name choice, meaning the name you will use for you website address, it is best practice “not” to use a hyphen in the spelling: Pattisons-Plumbing. Often times people forget the hyphen and will be directed to different website, all together.
6.) Make it easy for customers to remember your site.
Avoid using slang words in your domain name. Make it memorable, if possible.
7.) Avoid trademarked names.
Use common generic words in your choice. Do not infringe on another companies trademarked name. You can do a online search at the US Trademark and Patent Office, if necessary.
8.) Utilize keywords in your domain name.
Select a domain name that contains relevant words “keywords” to your industry or business, in its name. If your business is selling windows then it’s a good idea to use “windows” in your domain name. This is a good step toward helping your company show up in search engine results when a user types in the word “windows.” And ideally, to really target your users, choose a domain name that is the exact search phrase that people and businesses are searching for each day. Example: VinylReplacementWindows.com
9.) Direct Navigation: Don’t miss out on acquiring domain names that can capitalize on type-in traffic (domain names derived from generic terms and common phrases). If you owned Vinyl Replacement Windows.com, for example, you could then extend that website out to include wood windows, triple pane windows, etc. This is key!
The time is coming when all every day, common phrases / generic product terms, that users often type-in when searching, will be registered as domain names – many of these have already been registered.
As the number of web pages on the internet continues to increase, and web development becomes more streamlined, (allowing websites to be developed with greater ease), more and more people will realize they can simply type-in what they are looking for in the address bar of their browser, and add (.com) to the end. This is referred to as “direct navigation.”
These generic domain names can then be set to go directly to the website of that acquired domain name, ex: San Diego Restaurants.com, (or) redirect to an already established site like: Discount Patio Furniture.com, has done.
It is for very these reasons, as described above, that Toys.com, Party Supplies.com, and Punch Bowl.com, have sold in the recent past to savvy individuals and businesses for such large amounts of money. Over time these “exact keyword” domain names have appreciated tremendously, and should continue to do so.
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Advanced Domain Name Strategy
You may have heard in the news of companies purchasing domain names for hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. These are the all-important generic domain names: Toys.com, Seniors.com, Party Supplies.com.
Savvy marketers and businesses, have recognized the value of type-in traffic from direct navigation and are purchasing generic domains for additional online business marketing strategy.
Securing generic domain names relative to their service, product, or industry, many companies are launching multiple websites using generic domain names as a cost effective method to increase traffic.
You can find excellent generic domain names at Fortunate Domains.com. Select from a fantastic variety of categories showcasing domain names related to: Retail Products, the Environment, Food and Hospitality, Art & Photography, Geographic Names, etc, etc. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then look at buying a generic domain name, or two, or three, for your business.
While brandable domains are unique to your business, generic domain names are representative of entire industries, or services. For example, ChicagoWebDesigners.com or SeattleArchitecture.com.
When you purchase a generic domain to build your website on, you are aligning your business as a leader in that segment of the industry, or service. Generic domains are great source of type-in traffic, or “direct navigation” traffic, as well.
Generic domains provide free targeted traffic from the website users typing in what they are looking for. This is called direct navigation.
So how do you stay ahead of the competition and garner greater visibility for your business? A website marketing campaign should involve a comprehensive search engine optimization program, submission to directories, and exchanging links with sites that are relative or complimentary to yours. Additionally, securing additional generic domains is key to capturing those potential customers who use direct navigation.
This is an excellent time to obtain targeted domain names and build websites containing helpful content. As the number of web pages and competition on the internet continues to grow and become more intense, people are refining their web search habits.
Rather than sifting through multiple pages of search results from mega-sites that have one web page of information on every subject imagineable, many people are choosing to navigate directly to websites “focused” on their needs and wants. By typing-in the address bar what they are looking for and adding (.com) to the end, they look to find exactly what they need on websites targeted to their interests.
While people are typing business names into the browser bar, they are also typing in generic terms such as NewYorkCityHotels.com or WeddingPhotography.com
Direct Navigation traffic which stems from having generic domain names, is a continual stream of highly targeted traffic that does not rely on search engine placement, paid advertising, or links from other web sites.
It is the most targeted form of traffic on the web, and considered by many to be the highest quality traffic.
Using Direct Navigation To Your Advantage
Imagine how effective it would be to have several generic domains pointing to your main website.
While search engine marketing and links from other websites will help the branding of your website, the method of direct navigation will ensure that your visitors are actively interested and looking for products or service related to your domain name, consequently, finding your website using the most direct route.
Purchasing a generic domain can help you dominate your niche and increase sales for your online business. While having these type-in domain names can be highly beneficial for businesses, they typically are referred to as Premium Domain Names and usually cost more to secure, initially. They may pay more up front, but then the domain name is their name always…. as long as they remember to pay their $10 yearly renewal fee.
Currently, the most popular and effective way to profit from direct navigation is to place your website on a generic domain that has a high quantity of type-in traffic.
For example, you are a garden designer and your focus is modern garden design. But your business is named “HarmonyDesign.com. Of course, no one would arbitrarily type-in HarmonyDesign.com as that could stand for any one of a 100 different things, but in their desire to redesign their garden, they do type-in ModernGardenDesign.com. In essence, you want to capture direct navigation type-in traffic so you purchase ModernGardenDesign.com and build a website offering your service.
And of course, if they do use search engines, having the name ModernGardenDesign.com in the results is your favor, as well.
Online Website Marketing Strategies
There are two types of domains to choose from when you’re thinking of branding your business – brand able domains and generic domains.
Brand”able” Domains
Many online businesses choose to create an original domain and use this to brand their business. If you have an offline business you may have already spent money building that brand. If this is the case, a simple “PattisonsPlumbing.com” would be appropriate. People who know about your business will usually first try “typing in” your business name as a domain name. It makes sense that you should own it, and if you don’t, you should realize its importance and register as soon as possible.
You may wish to browse the Brand-able Domains for several excellent website domain name branding choices.
Generic Domains
Generic domain names are an extraordinary way to brand an existing business online. For example, if you sell running shoes and your offline business is called “Bob’s Shoes” it would be smart to purchase the domain bobsshoes.com A generic domain name that would be beneficial to this business would be runningshoes.com. By directing this domain to your website, you are aligning your business with the entire industry of running shoes. Visitors will associate Bob’s Shoes directly with running shoes. The results of this type of branding are phenomenal.
In some cases, you may purchase the domain before you build your online business. For example if you want to build a business around careers or jobs, you will find these are competitive industries and you would need to be smart about creating or choosing the best domain.
In this case, it is wise to select a generic domain name. A generic domain name is one that is made up of generic words that are common, for example, medical careers. After you have purchased the domain, you can now brand your website as “MedicalCareers.com.”
In Conclusion
When it comes to targeted domain names necessary for the “most important” first step of your entire website existence, the choices are becoming fewer. As savvy companies, domain investors, and marketers buy up more and more of the available premium domain names for their own use, the choices are narrowing and the prices are steadily increasing.
We hope you found this information helpful. You should have gained some solid knowledge regarding what makes a quality domain name.
We will be including several business marketing strategies to help aid in your online success, so check back often.
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