If you are planning on financing a website design and development project for your company, it is quite commendable and the right way to go. The best advice that you can get for such a noble undertaking is to get everything right. A website is a permanent part of your business and as such any corner cutting and impetuousness will definitely come back to haunt you. There are also strategies that you can employ to ensure that the whole process involved in securing a website gives you less headaches starting with the domain. In this article, we are going to explore the various tips that can be employed to make your domain registration process smarter.
Importance of a Domain Name
A domain name is your identity. It is what customers will use to identify and search for you on the internet. The benefits that come with a good domain name arte enormous and include giving credibility to your business and giving the impression of a forward thinking company that is part of the digital revolution.
The selection and registration of a domain is such an important exercise during which nothing must be left to chance. The process can also be quite cumbersome if you fail to pay attention to the right issues.
Tips
Use the Name of Your Business As A Domain
This is a good idea even in case where you intend to use a different name for your domain. It makes perfect sense to register your name or even an equivalent. This will surely save you from ‘cybersquatters’ and also prevents the competition of disgruntled former employees from creating a website whose name confuses the market and affects your profitability. This action, though illegal, is preferable to having to engage in protracted battles to regain control over the identity of your company.
Prefer Generic Word Domains
It is preferable to go for generic domain names. This is despite the fact that finding a good generic domain name can be quite taxing. All the effort exerted in this endeavor is totally justified given that generic names with an association to your products or services are easy for the customers to recall. In the event that you decide to sell your business in the future, such a name will have the greatest resale value.
You Can Also Try Made Up Names
Apart from generic names and names belonging to0 the English language, you can also make use of made up names. The greatest advantage of this option is the ability to develop a brand and stand out from your competition. One excellent example is the name Google.
Make It Short and Simple
Domain names are supposed to be easy to remember, enter as a search query and even relay over the telephone. This can only be achieved if the name is short and simple.
Never Include Numbers or Hyphens
This practice is a recipe for disaster as it makes you miss out on valuable traffic. Some entities use them but it is not a practice to be emulated.
Consider Misspellings
Consider any common misspellings that might be associated with your domain name. Try to type it out yourself to see if it will come out correctly all the time. This is usually a common occurrence with names that contain double letters. In such cases, it is wise to buy the other domain names as well and you can use them for creating redirects.
Maybe the most important tip pertains to the period immediately after you have had a business idea. You must first go through the domain registration process before printing those marketing t-shirts and placing ads in the classifieds. This saves you from the embarrassment and inconvenience of finding the name you have invested so much in already taken by someone else.