How to Determine a Good Domain Name

“Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Company Name”

One of the most important decision you are going to make as business owner is not whether or not you should be a LLC or Incorporated. It is going to be the domain name you decide to use for your website. Your domain name is going to determine how many customers visit your website… actually how many people are able to find your website. Choosing the wrong domain name will not only limit the amount of visitors that find you, but it can also cause confusion and if you aren’t careful it can land a lawsuit.

With all that could go wrong it is wonder why many website owners leave selecting their domain name to chance instead of hiring a professional to create the perfect domain name for their website and get them online. Believe it or not, most people don’t realize what it takes to create a good domain name. One that is going to get them the customers they are after. Many people fail to realize that there is more that goes into a domain name then just your company name.

This brings up an excellent starting point. One thing that you should never do is use your company name as your domain name. That statement will probably make a number of people scratch their heads and wonder, “Why not, it will make it easier for people to find my company and to remember me.” Will it really? Let’s think about this for just a moment. If you are starting up a new web business… and you are starting a website that sells organic foods, you decide to name your web business Sunshine Estates. Why not, it has a nice ring to it, makes people think about the sun and natural things. Great! Now you go domain shopping and find the www.sunshineestates.com is available. You buy the domain, put up your site… and wait.

While you are waiting to make that first sale you notice that you are getting visitors but not any customers. You also find that most people coming to your site are looking for property… or maybe a nursing home… or a warm place to visit… what they are not looking for is a place to buy organic food. See people aren’t searching for Sunshine Estates as an organic food seller because they don’t know that you have a company named Sunshine Estates that sells organic food. This brings up the question then, “How did these people land on my site?”

The answer is pretty simple, keywords. When they sat down at the computer and did a search they put in certain terms they were looking for. Which should tell you then that if you used a keyword that people might search for such as “organic foods,” “natural products,” or “fresh food” you would actually have gotten visitors that would’ve converted to customers because they found your store based on what they were looking for, not your name. Think about it, the last time you were trying to find something on the internet did you look for a company name that you picked out of the air or did you use keywords or a memorable phrase.

There are other items to consider when creating a domain name. Should you use numerals or dashes or commas in your domain name? You should also think about whether the name you are choosing is going to help you when it comes to search engines and directories. You also need to think about how quickly technology changes. The web currently looks at different parts of websites, to determine what is useful to the users that are doing the searching… part of that is the domain name.

Let’s look at a few “must haves” when it comes to domain names. Your domain name should be something that is easily to remember. It should also “command respect,” you don’t want people to come to your web business and think that you are a joke. Your domain name should also be a business asset, not a liability. Your domain name should be complimentary to your business. A flower business would not want a domain name such as www.rocksandmore.com.

This means that you want to take a little time, or invest in a service that will do the leg work for you, to find out in your niche what people are looking for. You want to then take a look at what it is you have to offer that people are going to want to buy. It is the careful combination of what people are looking for and the services you have to offer that create the perfect domain name, which is known as the category killer.

Having the perfect domain name not only does wonders for your business, but it can be an excellent financial investment for you as well. You never know when you will get that email or that phone call from someone that is willing to pay big money… not for your business, but your domain name. With this being one of the most important business decisions you will have to make that will ultimately determine the success of your business, isn’t it best that you ask an expert?

Neil Bartlett is the founder of LocalBusinessSuccess.com. Local Business Success provides Local Businesses with Tips and Techniques for getting started and/or improving their online business marketing skills. To learn more and INSTANTLY grab his FREE report Local Online Success