So you’ve had an idea for a business. It’s great. You love it.
You’ve developed a lean canvas or business model, and everything is coming together. Go you. Now it’s time to put your idea out there, onto the world wide web. What should the domain name be? What subdomain should I use; .com or .org?
It can be difficult to know what domain is the right fit for your company.
We can’t make that choice for you, but we can however, set you up to make the most informed choice.
There are many things to consider when choosing a domain for your website. It can be incredibly difficult deciding which direction to take your domain. A few things that are important to consider when choosing a domain:
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You do not want to be chopping and changing your website domain. It’s bad for your SEO, and bad for branding. It will negatively impact your online presence.
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Keep it as simple as you can. The easier it is to spell or remember, the better your chances are of people visiting. For example, if you sell coffee, consider myshop.coffee, instead of mylongcoffeeshopname.com. It’s short, fun, and recognizable.
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If you largely operate offline, choose a recognizable name related to your real-world name. It will help people remember you, and direct more traffic toward your site, if they visit you out there in the real world.
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If you are in a competitive market, sometimes purchasing multiple similar domain names is an effective strategy. You will be able to forward all of these addresses to your main web domain, and competitors will not be able to buy up similar names.
So, does my domain have to end in .com?
Not at all - although .com is the most popular domain suffix, there are plenty of other great options! Take into account the purpose of your site. Are you a sports club, or non-profit organization? Then .org is a great choice. If you want, you can use your country code, such as .de, or .uk.
There is also the option of using what is known as an ‘exotic’ domain name. These refer directly to the type of business or organization you are. Some examples of this are .club, .travel., or .academy. Get creative, you are not limited to .com, despite this remaining the most sought after domain suffix.
Got the perfect idea for a name? See if it’s available with our domain name finder!