Choosing a Domain Name

If you thought registering your domain name was as easy as registering your business name, think again! With over 180 million domain names sold worldwide its becoming increasingly difficult to get the domain of choice. OK so we live in SA and the market is not as saturated as the States or the UK but what if you wanted to play on an international playing field and all the dot com’s where taken?

When choosing a domain name most people will go for their company name and if its still available that’s what you should go for. Check your .co.za or .com before moving onto other domain extensions. .com’s are great if your customers come from abroad (travel & tourism) and you need to tap into that international market. Use a .co.za when your customers come purely from SA (Builders, Public Services etc). The rule doesn’t follow that having .co.za will not get you listed in an international search but having the .com will help, a lot!

When you market your domain name remember to market your tld extension. Opportunities will be missed if you registered hannascookies.org and everyone is finding the .com. and buying from them just because you forgot to mention it! If your domain is new, type in your business name and see what pops up first. If you find the .com and .co.za are already taken and they come in first and second place its going to take some time to kick them off or at least till you rank number three. The last thing you want to do is send your devoted customers straight into the arms of the competition. Also be careful when choosing names like mybusiness.com when the business.com is already registered. Again you are sending your customer to your competition as most people will forget the “my” part.

Fortunately this only applies to people you have met and word of mouth. Most people these days use search engines to find things so the golden rule is to have your website being recognized for the products and services it sells. Having a domain name as a keyword to what you do can work wonders in the world of search and SEO and if it forms part of your business name even better.

Point to remember

The reason why many recommend your website not to have hyphens, long domain names, other tld extensions is that people you talk to stand a high chance of forgetting your domain name. If you are banking on users coming from the internet these rules can be broken because if you are dedicated enough and pursue your keywords you can get your website to the number one spot meaning people can type in what they want and they will be able to find you!