choosing the right domain for your online business

Obtaining a suitable domain name for your online business is not as simple as it was before. With more and more businesses utilising the web to market their products and services, finding an optimal web domain name is becoming increasingly difficult. Most of the easy to market domain names have already been grabbed by online businesses or have been snapped up by cyber squatters who are waiting for the highest bidder.

Get Creative with your domain name

If the domain name you seek is not available, do not be disheartened. All that is needed now is for your organisation to be more creative in the search of your optimal domain name. Here are a few tips on how to find a suitable domain name for your online business.

• Search for a suitable domain name at a domain name broker.
  This means visiting a site such a Yahoo and browsing the list of domain names which are currently in use and the ones which are free. Simply type in the domain name you desire and Yahoo will check to see if it available or in use.
• Check for various permutations of a domain name
  While the .com of the domain name you desire may be unavailable, the .net of it may be obtainable. So make sure you check your domain name broker for alternate options.
• Your domain name does not have to be too descriptive
  While it always helps to market a domain name which completely describes your site, there are plenty of top quality websites which do not do so. Be creative and think of domain names which while being true to your product or service will help attract your target demographic.
• Keep your domain name as simple as possible
  Domain names which are packed to the brim with keywords, although being descriptive can end up sounding cheap and unprofessional. For example which website are you more likely to visit superinvestmentcentre.com or invest now.com?
• Your domain name should be instinctive to your target audience
  The most important thing to remember is that a link must be maintained between your main product or service and your domain name. For example if you primarily deal with cotton socks and your URL is www.cottonsocks.com, then it is best that your site also be called “Cotton Socks” as that’s the first thing anyone searching for your particular business will enter into a browser.
• Avoid hyphenated domain names
  Wherever possible try to avoid obtaining a hyphenated domain name, unless you also own the unhyphenated domain name as well. Hyphenated domain names are difficult to remember and more often than not lead to Customers visiting the domains of their unhyphenated counterparts. So if www.cottonsocks.com is unavailable, rather than opting for www.cotton-socks.com why not opt for a different domain name all together.