Choosing a small business domain name

Choosing a domain name for your business website might seem like a small task – but as so many millions of names are already taken it can be quite a process. The following guidelines set out the key aspects to consider when making the decision.

Get in quick
Domain names – even the seemingly obscure ones – are snapped up suprisingly quickly. For this reason, you shouldn’t wait around until you have decided on the ‘perfect’ name, instead get in quick and buy a handful of domains that attract you. Domain names are resonably cheap to buy, and once they’re gone there’s no getting them back. If you are left with domain names that you don’t want, you may be able to resell them at at least cost price. If you plan on having a strong internet presence, you should even think about finding a domain name before you name your business.

Keyword domain name vs. brandable name
The biggest question you will face when deciding on a domain name is whether to go with a keyword name, or a brandable name. While www.xlntelecom.co.uk is a brandable name, we could have gone with cheap-small-business-telecoms.co.uk instead – which would be a keyword name.

Both keyword and brandable names have their advantages and disadvantages.

Brandable name advantages:

• Brandable names are much more attractive than hyphenated keyword names,
• Brandable names are better for any kind of offline marketing – such as business cards, stationaries, or flyers.
• Brandable names are much easier to remember than keyword names, which means your website will be easier to find for those that have heard of you
• Brandable names are much easier to incorporate with a logo

Keyword name advantages

• Many more keyword names are available
• They help to place you higher in search engines, though only slightly
• Keyword names make it very obvious what you’re selling
• If people on other sites link to you, those links will be valuable as they will contain the keywords in your domain name.

Whether you decide to use a brandable or keyword domain name should depend on how you plan to reach your customers. If you plan on any kind of offline marketing, or if you want people to hear about you through word-of-mouth, then a brandable name is the way to go. If you want to rely solely on your website for marketing, and you expect people to find your site through natural search (i.e. by typing ‘cheap small business telecoms’ into Google), then you could benefit from a keyword name.

Another option is to choose a hybrid name – which is one that combines both a keyword and a brandable name. This could be very effective, however most of these names are long gone.

If you choose a brandable name…

• Ensure the name is short, snappy, and easy to remember.
• Make sure it is easy to spell and pronounce
• Avoid hyphens, dashes and numbers if possible
• Get feedback from family and friends about the name. This is crucial!

If you choose a keyword name…

• Make sure you do your research. Use a tool like Google Adwords to find out which keywords people are searching for
• If you think your business might expand or change at some point in the future, don’t make your domain name too specific

Getting tradmark protection
Names which describe your product or service in a straightfoward manner can be more difficult to get trademark protection for. Names like ’sport.com’ or ‘food.com’ for example would not get trademark protection, because they are too general. This can also apply to names with surname’s or geographical locations in them. When you have an idea for a domain name, ask your lawyer about whether or not you can get trademark protection for it, and if not you may need to think of something more unique.

Choosing a top level domain (TLD)
If you are a UK small business, then the best TLD for you will be .co.uk. You should also purchase the other top level domains however (such as dot-net, dot-com or dot-org) in order to stop other people from capitalising on your brand name. If the other TLD’s aren’t available, then it may be worthwhile choosing a new domain name.

Choosing a domain name supplier
It’s important that you choose a reputable domain name supplier, preferably one which has been around for a while and is well known. Some domain name suppliers provide a user interface which will allow you to manually edit your domain name details, so you may want to use one of these. You may own lots of domain names, in which case it’s better to have them all registered under one supplier, as they’ll be easier to keep track of and renew. If you’d like to compare suppliers, a list of approved domain name registries is offered at www.internic.net/alpha.html.

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