Your domain name is the “address” where your website lives. It’s the part that comes after the “www.” and runs through the “.com.” It’s one of the ways people find you online*, and you want it to be easy to remember and hard to get wrong.
There is no right or wrong domain for your website, but giving some thought to the following can help make I easier for people to fine you.
- Relevant – Make it relevant to who you are or what you do.
- Easy to remember – When your domain is easy to remember, it’s more likely people will remember it later and visit your site, even without any of your marketing materials sitting in front of them.
- Hard to misspell – Do you use a unique spelling or abbreviation in your business name? If your brand identity is strong, many people may be familiar with your unique spelling, but new customers or people outside of your market area may have trouble finding you.
- No longer than necessary – The longer your domain name, the easier it is for people to inadvertently make a typo. Keep it short when appropriate.
- Use a common extension – This means you probably want your domain to end in “.com.” Alternative extensions such as .net, .me, .info, etc. are becoming more popular, but .com is deeply ingrained in our collective psyche. I recommend using the common .com extension unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise. (Is the domain you want already taken? Stay tuned for tips on handling this situation!)
*The vast majority of your website traffic will come from people clicking on links to your site. Think about it: when was the last time you typed a website address into your navigation bar? This is why it is so important to promote your website through a variety of channels.
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