The quickest way to getting eyeballs on your business these days is by establishing an online presence and central to establishing a powerful online presence is choosing a domain name that will attract the right customers.
This is one of the things that often goes overlooked - how your domain name attracts or turns away customers. Let’s look at a few tips.
1. Choose A Descriptive Domain
Your domain name should make it clear to your visitors what your website is about, even before they land on the site. Don’t make them guess what you’re offering.
eg. If your name is Lisa Barstow and you run a hair salon, get a domain like lisashairsalon.com instead of lisabarstow.com. Unless you already famous, or want to become famous, your own name isn’t the best option.
Also, shorter is better because it’s easier to remember. It’s also easier for them to type, with less chance of spelling mistakes.
2. Get A Domain That Includes Your Keywords
It’s becoming increasingly important for business owners to have their websites indexed and ranked well in search engines like Google.com, MSN.com and Yahoo.com. And it helps this cause tremendously if you have a keyword-rich domain name. The reason for this is simple: Your potential customers search using specific keyword phrases to find what they’re looking for.
Spending the time to research your keywords and find a domain that uses them, while still meeting the first criteria (descriptive, short as possible) is well worth the time.
There are other things you can and should do to get better rankings in the search results, but starting with a good domain sets a strong foundation. Avoid using hyphens in your domain name as well since it’s believed they can hurt your rankings. Take the time to find a good domain rather than taking a shortcut and using a couple of dashes.
3. Do You Really Need .com?
Well, the answer is yes and no. There’s no reason you can’t use a different extension like .net or .biz if that’s the only way you can get the domain you want. It’s not the best choice however, because everybody thinks in terms of .com. If your site uses something else, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get people to recognize your site. If someone else already owns the .com version, they’re going to get a lot of free traffic thanks to your marketing.
Another reason is when emailing, customers automatically assume every company ends with a .com extension and this can be devastating to your business if your customers’ emails keep ending up in your competitors’ database.
In some cases it makes sense to use a different extension, such as a non-profit society using .org, but generally you should stick with .com.
Don’t rush into picking a domain name. Take the time to research your market and find keyword phrases that people actually search for. Websites such as Wordtracker.com and GoodKeywords.com can help you with this. Taking the time to plan correctly in the beginning will pay off well in the long term.
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