What makes a complete domain name? Yes, it should be: 1. Comparatively 2. Easy to remember 3. Easy to spell I was talking to a customer who recently owned a business called 'Otway Valley Trading Company'. The domain name he wanted was:
www.otwayvalleytradingcompany.com Can you spot some of the problems with
this domain name? Here’s a few: 1. It’s too long: Having to type a long
domain name into your browser is annoying and also increases the
chances of your customers making a spelling mistake. 2. Too many
keywords: Having 4 keywords (Otway Valley Trading Company) makes it hard
for customers to remember the name of the site. Try to stick to one or
two keywords in your domain name. 3. Easy to misspell: The word ‘otway’
can be easily confused for ‘ottway’. 4. Makes the email address too
long: An email address for this domain name would look like this: sales@otwayvalleytradingcompany.com
… that’s a mouthful for anyone to remember. Picking a Good Domain Name:
1) The shorter the better Having a short and snappy domain name makes
it easier for your customer to remember your website address, and easier
to type into their Internet browser. 2) Go for something catchy Keep in
mind that your domain name doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, if you
can come up with something catchy – it’s a great way to distinguish your
business from the competition – just ask the people at Yahoo!. 3) Avoid
using hyphens We’ve found that hyphens in domain names tend to confuse
people. Sometimes you’ll see websites that have a hyphen separating
keywords (e.g. ace-accounting.com). This is almost always because the
preferred name (aceaccounting.com) has already been registered by
someone else. If the domain you want is already being used by someone
else, then you’re better off coming up with an alternative name then
using hyphens. 4) Avoid using numbers If possible, try avoiding the use
of numbers in your domain name, as this can also lead to confusion (e.g.
was that 3phones.com or threephones.com ?). But if you have to use a
number, make sure you register both the written and numerical versions
of your domain name (3phones.com and threephones.com). 5) Grab a
thesaurus If you’re struggling for inspiration or finding it difficult
to come up with a name that hasn’t already been taken – grab a thesaurus
(or visit Thesaurus.com) Say you run an adventure tour company and you
want to register excitingadventures.com – but somebody has already
registered the domain name. Lookup the word ‘exciting’ at Thesaurus.com
and you can quickly find an alternative like ‘breathtaking, sensational
or fascinating’. And don’t be afraid to use a little imagination –
companies like Google and Yahoo! have benefited a lot by having a unique
web address.
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