When building an e-business, one of the most critical steps is choosing and registering a domain name that will be the home of your business on the Internet. People know and remember many companies by their domain name alone.
The domain name should reflect the business you are in or its message. You want it short enough to remember, and long enough to identify your business. You ideally should register a domain name that relates directly with the business name.
What issues should you consider when registering a domain name?
- Length
- Keywords
- Brand Name
- Top Level Domain
- Multiple Domain Names
The shorter the better. You want people to be able to remember it and type it in quickly. Have you ever tried dictating a long domain name to someone with hyphens or other characters. Chances are the person will forget it or mistype it.
Search engines love to index you based on keywords. Have those keywords in your domain name? Then it should help you slightly with search engine rankings.
If you have a brand name, like Google, then you will want to register the “brandname.com” domain name. Keep up your brand awareness.
.com domains are the most registered domain names out in cyberspace. People will always put in “CompanyName.com” as they try to find your site. It’s just natural. Since .com domain names are harder to find, you may look into alternatives such as .net, .info, .gov, .biz and more. For a complete list of domain names to register, visit our domain name registration page.
In the world of cybersquatting, where people want to make a quick buck off your hard earned brand name,you will want to ensure you register the .net, .info, .biz, .us (if in the us) domain names to avoid cybersquatting, where users will try and sell you that domain name later for thousands of dollars. It makes sense to register the multiple domains. If you don’t, its possible someone may register the domain name and put a site up that goes against your company image.
Keep in mind these issues before registering your domain names.