What’s in a Domain Name? More Than You Think.

You’re rushing to get out of the house for a networking meeting. You’re late. You forget to grab the business cards that you left out on your desk. Too bad you don’t realize this until you’re almost at your meeting. Once there you see lots of new faces. You meet someone who’s a great prospect. They want to learn more about your dog grooming business that specializes in poodles and ask for your card.

Now what would you rather say?

• “I can’t believe I left my cards home! But visit my new website. You’ll really like it. The domain name is justpoodles.com.”

or

• “I can’t believe I left my cards home! But visit my new website. The domain name is weluvpoodledoggiez.net. It’s pronounced poodle doggies but there’s a ‘z’ instead of an ‘s.’ And love is spelled l-u-v. That’s weluvpoodledoggiez. Oh, and don’t forget, that’s ‘dot net’ not ‘dot com.’ Hey, come back!”

This one waggish example illustrates several mistakes you don’t want to make and important domain guidelines you won’t want to ignore. You want your domain name to help, not hurt, your business. It should make your website easy to remember, easy to find, and ensure that your web visitors get there without accidentally going somewhere else. Frustrated users may give up on finding your site altogether.

Selecting a domain name may take days.

A lot of thought must go into selecting your domain name. At best, it should be able to stand on its own as a memorable aspect of your company’s branding effort. A good domain name can represent the overall theme and feel of your company – be it serious, creative, or whimsical. Or it can be a direct and easy-to-remember representation of what your company does.

But the important thing to remember is that a great domain name will help prospects find you easily, hopefully on their first try.

Here are 8 simple but important guidelines to follow when selecting a domain name:

1. Whenever possible use the “.com” extension/top level domain (TLD).

Most people will assume that your website ends in .com. If it ends with another suffix, people may forget and will type the wrong domain name into their browser. Domains with a .com extension can be more expensive, but you should be able to find one that fits well within your budget.

Some common TLD’s are:

• – .com – for commercial use; the most used extension. In fact it is reported that over 51% of all websites use this extension. https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/tld-com-.
• – .net – network; use is unrestricted
• – .org – organization; originally restricted but now use is unrestricted
• – .mil – military; restricted to the US Dept. of Defense and affiliated organizations
• – .edu – education; restricted to accredited US institutions of higher education
• – .gov – US government bodies. This used to be restricted, but it now appears it is possible to get a .gov domain even if you are not affiliated with the government. So, when you visit a .gov site don’t assume it’s associated with the government.
  

2. Don’t think you can have a unique name by capitalizing/changing to lowercase certain letters in the domain.

Domain names are case insensitive. That means that http://JustPoodles.com will take you to the same address as http://justpoodles.com. You cannot become the new owner of a domain name by capitalizing some letters in an already-taken domain. Both uppercase and lowercase letters are treated the same way by your web browser.

3. Select a name that will be unique and will not be confused with your competition. Set yourself apart from your competition by having a fresh domain name true to your company that doesn’t play off another name. Show others that even if you have competition, you know how to do it best. (Whether “it” is installing pools or litigating cases.)

4. Don’t create a wordy domain. Keeping it short, plus or minus about 15 characters (excluding the extension) usually works best. However, a domain name can be up to 63 characters long, not including the 4-character extension.

5. Don’t use any unusual abbreviations in the domain. People will forget how you spelled the unconventional abbreviation(s) and will not find you online. For example, if you have a landscaping business keepingitgreen.com will not invite spelling mistakes or memory problems like wecntrlweeds.com would.

6. Make your domain easy to pronounce and easy to memorize. If you are giving the domain name over the phone you don’t want to have a name that is difficult to convey. For example, MDmessages.com is much better than MDAnswrSrvc.com. as a domain for a doctor’s answering service.

7. Possibly, think up a unique name to represent your brand. Anyone ever go to Google.com? Just make sure it is easy to remember and is spelled the way it phonetically sounds.

8. Only letters, numbers and hyphens can be in your domain name. However, the domain cannot start or end with a hyphen.

When inspiration is needed …

Give yourself at least a couple of days to come up with your domain name. It will take some time to find something you like that is catchy and comfortably represents your business. There are free domain name generators online that will give you suggestions that may inspire you. One example of a free domain name generator is Instant Domain Search.

How the process works.

Once you come up with a domain name you will need to make sure that it’s available; then you will need to make a payment to secure it. I like to use GoDaddy as they have been hosting our websites for many years and have proven to be exceptionally reliable and helpful. Although you can easily find other companies that offer these services – possibly even for less.

So, once you think you have the domain name, find a place that registers domains, such as GoDaddy.com. At GoDaddy, you can go to the domain page, type in your desired domain name, and see if it’s available. If it is, you can purchase (technically rent) it right there on the spot. If the name is taken GoDaddy will generate similar names which are available; one of them may be appealing to you.

Whichever company you choose as registrar will register your domain at The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is a non-profit organization that oversees IP addresses and domain names; it will always protect your registered domain name and make sure it is not duplicated.

Rather than a purchase, think of it as having a yearly lease for your domain name.

When you pay for a domain name, you are paying fees for the registration of the name. These fees are usually renewed on an annual basis. If you do not pay your registrar when the fee comes up for renewal, your domain name will once again be marked as available.

However, once rented, your domain name is yours to use if you keep up on payments.

What to do if your favorite domain name is taken?

Sometimes a domain name is owned by someone who wants to sell it later – for a hefty profit. Buying a domain name can be costly, but if that particular name is extremely important to you and you don’t mind spending a bit, you may want to go through with the purchase. This can be costly. I once had a client who wanted a domain name, but the asking price was $6000! They felt the name was especially important, so they ended up selecting a different extension. Of course, prices may be much lower. It is all up to the owner and whether they are open to negotiation.

Here’s what I did when my domain name was taken.

Several years back I was starting my personal blog. It was to be a mixture of how-to tips, heartfelt inspiration, and humor.

I thought about it for several days and finally came up with the perfect blog name. I loved it! I was extremely disappointed to find that the name was already being used.

So, I came up with a variation of that name. “This will work even better,” I thought. But research showed that name had been purchased and someone wanted several thousand for it! Nope!

So, I came up with a third name. That name had been purchased too. I was so sad by this point, but I was getting mad with these domain hoarders standing in my way.

When suddenly, inspiration struck. I had stumbled upon the perfect name for my blog!

“MyDomainNameIsTaken.com.”

The name was a great representation of being able to move forward when faced with frustrating roadblocks or difficult circumstances. Just what my blog was going to be about! I knew that readers with my sense of humor would get it right away and would be attracted to my blog.

Now, go get your domain name!

Whatever you choose as your domain name, make it a memorable representation of your business. Don’t let your prospects take a wrong turn on the information highway; they may be lost forever.

If you already have a domain name, what do you like/dislike about it?

Have you ever thought about changing it?

Laura Elton is now a full-time freelance content writer specializing in website content, articles, and blog posts. While she has always respected technology, her number one professional passion has always been writing. Previously, as owner of Laura Elton Marketing & Web Design, Laura developed websites using HTML and CSS and wrote great content. Reach her at laura@lefreelancewriter.com. Join her mailing list for tips on content writing and web development, and complete blog posts.