Effective Domain Names – How To Select The Best Domain Name For Your Business

October 31st, 2009 by Dhruv Patel | Filed under Domain Name.

Selecting the perfect domain name for your business is one of the most significant tasks that will dictate your level of success or failure. Knowing how to select the best domain name for your business, however, is as easy as it is vital.

If you have a website, then you need to make it easy for people to find you. Selecting a domain name that makes no sense, or has nothing to do with your business products or services, is going to hurt you in the long run. If you have software company, your domain name should reflect that. If you have a company that sells ATVs, your domain name should reflect that as well.

If you have an auto repair shop for instance, and you want to build a website to provide information on these services, then you need to have a domain name that is either your company name or a domain name that includes references to what you do.

Domain names that have no relation to your company name or reason for being in business are a waste of time, energy, and money. Most of your new customers who need your product or service are going to search using that term. If someone needs “fish tank repair services”, and that’s exactly what you do, then you need to have this in your URL. If you decide to buy a domain name such as www. FinsAndFishies.com you’ll lose a large possible customer base because when they search for what they want, your site won’t be presented.

Some people choose domain names that have nothing to do with what they do. This proves to be nothing more than a waste of time, energy and money. The website could be beautiful, but ultimately it will be useless if customers don’t find it. Someone who is interested in the type of product or service you provide is going to search on that term. The first page of search results is a list of domain names including those words. If a customer wants to buy grass seed, having a domain name like www.barrysbeautifulyards.com may not help you much.

Perhaps you have your company name and URL all picked out, but now you find out that someone has already purchased the domain name you want. If you have your heart set on a particular domain name, you might not have to give up – yet. There are a few things you can do.

Before anything, click on that domain and find out where it brings you. If it is indeed a real company, then you might want to find another name. Don’t use a similar name because you can still loose customers if they type in your competitor’s name or your competitor’s site appears first in the search engine results.

Or, in a case like this where you won’t be losing customers to a competitor, you might consider using the name with another extension such as.net or.info. People won ‘t necessarily need to know that your correct URL; they simply need t search on Hartfords Best Baby Deals and your domain will come up for them to click on.

In any case, just remember that it will be a waste of money and time and effort if you just buy any domain name that has no branding recognition for you, your service, or your company. Domains that have abbreviations or a mixture of numbers and letters that don’t mean anything to possible customers, won’t help you at all.

Dhruv Patel is a happy DreamHost customer. He has a web site to promote DreamHost. Use the DreamHost coupon to get a discount at DreamHost sign up.

Scam Alert II: Domain Hijacking