The Right Domain: How To Name Your Website

There's no need to tell you that an online presence will make or break your business right now. With so much COVID-19-inspired uncertainty around--from how and when regions will fully open to whether customers will return to brick-and-mortar locations even when they do--your website and inbound marketing are more important that ever. As customers do research on products and services they want and need, choosing a good domain name (that is, a name for your site) will help you get found and ultimately land more customers. Picking one isn't as difficult as you think, but it does require some strategic thinking.

Let's take a look at a few tips that will help you choose a domain name that works.

Check for Good SEO Potential

Having a domain name that's easy to find is crucial, and that starts with your website showing up in someone's radar (and on their computer screen). When consumers conduct an online search, they'll type in words they think are relevant to what they're looking for -- aka keywords. Meaning, if you have the right types of words in your domain name -- the sort of words that someone is looking for -- the better your chances of someone clicking over to your website.

Here are a few tips to make your domain name more SEO-friendly:

• Make it clear: This isn't the time to get too creative. The point is for someone to be able to quickly assess whether your website is the sort of business they're looking for. All it takes is a split second for someone to make that decision. Instead of choosing a name like TheMoolaBar.com for a financial services company, try something like EffectiveMoneyManagement.com.
• Make it easy to say: You want your domain name to be easy to recall, in case someone were to share your website or tries to remember it later. Making it memorable means making it pronounceable: If your domain name is hard to read out loud, it's easier for someone to forget it. Instead of using PremierPlumbingServicesForSingleFamilyHomes.com, try something shorter like PremierPlumbingServices.com.
• Target location-specific keywords: Whether they're seeking a product or service, consumers often search for a business in their local area. So including location-specific keywords makes it more targeted. You want your website name to pop up first when someone searches for a firm in their neighborhood.

The goal with all of these suggestions is to help your search engine rankings so that your firm is ranked higher on the search results lists. The closer you are to the top five, the more likely someone will head over to your website.

Look at Your Competitors

Avoid any confusion and potential legal battles by researching a potential name before buying the domain name. If your domain name isn't clear and is easily mistaken for a competing outfit's, you're losing out on a lot of potential business. To take it even further, using a name that's copyrighted could land you in legal hot water. And being slapped with a surprise lawsuit and forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars is probably not in your business plan.

For example, say you want to create a domain name for your restaurant's e-commerce site, where you hope to do a roaring trade in takeout and delivery, and your last name is Domino. While it sounds like a good idea to incorporate your last name, you might want to think carefully how it might be mistaken for that of a certain well-known, nationwide pizza chain.

If the name you want is already taken or it's too similar to a copyrighted name, brainstorm ways you can still keep the integrity of your first choice while still making it unique. Now might be a good time to break out the thesaurus to help you come up with different word combinations.

Choose the .com Extension

Part of having a domain name that's easy to remember is to use a .com website extension -- it's the first thing people think of when talking about a commercial website. If you can't find the .com extension of your chosen domain name, chances are someone has already used it and you're better off coming up with something else. Other options include .co and .net.

Perhaps the .com extension isn't available, but nobody is currently using it as their business name. You can try and contact the domain name owner to see if they'll sell it.

Choosing a domain name to increase your online presence can be fun, even if it may take some creative finessing. As long as it's easy to remember, unique and targets words that consumers are searching for, the more you will increase your website traffic.