|
|
How To Choose The Right
Domain Name For Your Company
by Andrew Allemann
As the editor of DomainNameWire.com, I’m frequently e-mailed
by people asking for domain name advice. Specifically, what should
they look for when registering a domain name for their company?
This may be basic for some of you, but I hope some of my readers
gain value from this.
Let me start with the things to avoid when registering a domain
name that will be used for your main company web site.
- Never use a hyphen. If your domain is some-name.com, many people
will forget the hyphen when typing your name into the browser
or sending e-mail to you. This can result in lost business.
- Avoid digits if possible. Using digits requires you to spell
the domain name out to people. For example2.com, you need to tell
people it’s the digit “2” rather than the word
“two” or even “to”.
Here are the positive things to look for in a domain name.
- .Com extension. It’s imperative that your domain name be
available with a .com extension. I’ve seen businesses and
major web sites try to get away with .net or .org, and perhaps
half of their intended visitors land on someone else’s web
site. Or worse, confidential e-mails are sent to the wrong domain.
- Easy to spell. Keep in mind that your spelling might be better
than most people.
- Short. Try to keep it to 2 words, 3 maximum and 20 characters
or fewer.
These are general guidelines applicable to your main company
domain name. There are instances where hyphens, numbers, and non-.com
domain extensions are fine for secondary sites and search engine-optimized
sites. But your company’s main domain should follow these
general guidelines. Good luck!
About the Author
Andrew Allemann is editor of Domain Name Wire, a popular news
and opinion site for the domain name industry.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
