One wrong move, and you jeopardize your organizations entire online presence.
That is the unfortunate reality of making a mistake when picking a domain name for your business. Here are 8 critical considerations, which should cross your mind at least once when making that all important domain name purchase.
For illustration purposes in the examples below, we’ll be picking domain name portfolio for an imaginary web design company called ‘Cena Space’ .
1. Keep the name short and simple. Use as few words as possible
A fair amount of your customers are going to be typing in your domain directly into the browser and you need to make it as simple as possible for them to do so. Fail to do so, and customers may miss your page, or even worse, they may be redirected to a parked domain, and THINK they’ve reached your page!
Example #1: CenaSpace.com is a better than CenaSpaceWebDesign.com
2. Do not use separators in the domain name
Resist the temptation to use ’separators’ like underscores or dashes. Again, this becomes an issue when people directly type in your domain name, and forgets to include the dash. No, it’s not that much easier to read. It’s just harder to type, and way harder for people to remember in a casual conversation.
Example #2: CenaSpace.com is better than Cena-Space.com
3. Own your brand domains as well (in addition to your main domain)
Don’t just buy your company domain name and stop there. In most industries, you will be marketing your brands not your parent company. Hence, to establish a better web presence for those products, your domain portfolio should include your company brands as well.
Example #3: If Cena Space has a product called WebReader, it should also try to buy WebReader.com
4. Buy the generic product category names if you are a small business (in addition to your main domain)
If you are a small company, chances are people looking for information about your product category, not your company. Try to buy a name which relates to your business. You should be able to rank better with search engines, and it’s also been proven that about half of new Internet users actually type in the category they are looking for rather than search for it. e.g. They will type in Candy.com if they are looking for candy information.
Example #4: CenaSpaces should also consider buying related generic names like webdesign.com (Yes I know this is easier said than done as good generic .coms are are to find)
5. Buy a .com whenever possible
Try not to follow the urge to buy from any other TLD like .biz or .info. A .com URL is by far the easiest for anyone to remember. A .net or .org domain may be not as attractive as a .com, but they are at least common enough for the general Internet population to remember.
Example #5: CenaSpace.com is better than CenaSpace.biz
6. Buy domain variants (in addition to your main domain)
If you know for a fact that customers tend to spell your name wrongly, try to buy up the names of the top common spelling mistakes, so it gets redirected it to your proper site. Gogle.com is a good example of this (redirects to Google)
Example #6: XenaSpaces.com should also be considered for purchase (assuming you know customers tend to make this mistake)
7. Don’t infringe another company’s trademarks
The thing about trademarks is that according to American law, if you do not defend it, you will stand lose the trademark. So expect organisations to defend their trademarks in cyberspace well.
Example #7: If Cena Space develops up with Ipod software tool, buying a domain called IpodTools.com would probably get them in trouble with the Apple legal team.
8. Get it right the first time…
because if you try to fix it later, losing search engine result placement, splitting traffic, and confusing customers, just may not be worth it.
If the domain you want is already registered, you have a few options
- If it infringes your copyright, you may want to consider legal action
- If it does not, you may consider tracking down and contacting the owner and repurchasing it from him.
- Choose another one. If your service is very local focused, you may want to get local domain names (e.g. .com.my, or .co.uk)
[tags] domain, domaineering, domain naming [/tags]
November 5th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Domaineering is the online business of acquiring and monetizing Internet domain names for their use primarily as an advertising medium rather than as an investment for resale as in domaining. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued for their revenue generating potential derived from attracting Internet traffic hits. As with traditional advertising, domaineering is part art and part science. Often to be the most effective as advertising tools, the domain names and their corresponding landing pages must be engineered or optimized to produce maximum revenue which may require considerable skill and knowledge of search engine optimization ( SEO ) practices, marketing psychology and an understanding of the target market audience. Domaineering generally utilizes a firm offering domain parking services to provide the sponsored “feed” of a word or phrase searched for. Occasionally content is added to develop a functional mini-website. Domaineers and some of those who advertise online using keywords believe domaineering provides a useful, legal and legitimate Internet marketing service while opponents of domaineering decry the practice as increasing the ubiquitous commercialization of the world wide web. Often quite lucrative, domaineering is practiced by both large companies who may have registered hundreds or even thousands of domains to individual entrepreneurial minded domaineers who may only own one or a few.
December 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
For clarity: domaineering is about advertising while domaining is about speculating.