The rules of choosing a domain name for a small to medium-sized business are quite different than those for larger companies.
Keep in mind that 60% of all searches at major search engines are local searches. In other words, people spend much more time looking for “Dentists Melbourne” than “Dentists”.
A company that has a web-only presence (such as Flickr) does not need to concern itself with local search. Likewise, national chains, such as Walmart and Taco Bell, are wise to focus on a domain name that brands their product or service.
But for small businesses, anticipating the types of searches by which you’ll be listed in search engine results can be reap big rewards.
Having the name of your community in your domain name can make a real difference. Visitors seeing results with a local town, city, or county in a domain name often feel more comfortable visiting that site.
Moreover, once you add in that powerful keyword to your domain name, you’ll also be able to find more domains available that have your business service or product.
For instance, whereas “dentist.com” is not going to be available, “dentistpalmbay.com” is far more likely to be available.
Avoid hyphens: Although you may have heard that putting hyphens in your domain name can be helpful to search engines (and in some cases this is true), your domain name will look unprofessional, and be difficult to communicate over the phone (including email addresses). Imagine giving out this email address over the phone: sales@brevard-web-hosting.com.
Keep it Short: If possible, keep your domain name short. The shorter the better. However, don’t take this too far. A readable name that is easy to remember is equally important. There may be a day when you begin advertising on roadways or billboards where a easily read name may be of value.
Avoid Abbreviations: Many companies sometimes buy a domain name that is just their initials. For instance, Brevard Web Hosting might buy bwh.com. Although there is nothing wrong with that if it’s available, it does not communicate anything to potential visitors. You know what the initials mean. Others don’t. This also goes for putting things like “inc”, “ltd”, “llc”, “ass” (for associated), “gen” (for general), and “std” (for standard). Once those letters are squished against other words in your domain, it becomes difficult to read.
Don’t use numbers or numerals: It’s tempting to put a number in your domain name, especially the numeral “4” which can be used like thus: hotproducts4you.com. Don’t do it. It’s unprofessional and can’t be communicated easily over the phone. Other numbers, whether spelled out or as numerals, always become confused by people later: “Was it websites2u.com, websites2you.com, or websitestoyou.com?”
Don’t buy a domain name that clearly represents another person’s business name or trademark. Even though they may not have bought it, leaving it available, you are just creating a future court date for yourself. If you later have to give it up, you’ll also lose all the hard work and page rank you’ve built up over the years.
You can always buy additional domain names to market specific segments of your business. Choose the best domain name that fits your overall website and the target market you are going after. If you later find that a certain niche product or service is becoming popular, you can always buy a domain name that fits that niche better and use it to direct traffic to that specific portion of your website that describes it. Better still, you can have Brevard Web Hosting develop a whole new website just for that niche. Then you can market that domain name independently and focus your advertising dollars just on your new popular niche.
