A good place to start when choosing a domain name is to ask yourself how and why your customers may use your web address?
1) They may read your web address on printed material such as business cards, adverts or on the side of your vehicle etc.
2) They may hear of your website verbally by word of mouth or over the phone.
3) They may use a search engine to find your specific business.
4) They may use a search engine to find a service or product with or without a location – e.g. “Hairdresser Winchester” or “Harry Potter book” and then click on your business website in the results list.
So bearing all these in mind we recommend the following approach:
Ideally, your domain name should be the same as your business name. This makes it much easier for customers to find you and also makes other business and marketing activities tie in with your website for maximum effect.
It is best to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and type. Domain names can be up to 67 characters long but it is best to avoid very long domain names that can be confusing and prone to typos. Shorter names that having meaning are easier to remember, just avoid abbreviations.
Including numbers in your web address is also not advisable. However, if your company name includes a number we would suggest buying a domain name for both the numeric version and the written version, e.g. www.121coaching.com and www.onetwoonecoaching.com. This will give people searching for your business a better chance of finding you.
Sometimes your first choice of domain name is not available but the same name with hyphens is available e.g. www.cute-cafe.com. In some cases this can work but on the whole it is better to avoid doing this. People often forget to include hyphens in domain names, particularly when recommending a business website verbally.
The last part of the web address is also important – do you choose .com or .co.uk and what if either of these aren’t available for your domain name of choice?
Are you a local UK business or do your business plans involve an international audience? It makes more sense to choose .co.uk if your market is UK based as customers will know that your website relates to a local business. If you want to attract business from overseas (or may look at this in the future) then go for .com. Our advice is to purchase both options to prevent another business using the same domain name as you. If at all possible, choose a .com or .co.uk domain name as it helps establish credibility.
An alternative is to choose a domain name that relates to your business product/service and location, i.e www.winchesterlifecoaching.com but often these options have already been sold. Also, people looking specifically for your business may not recognise you. If you can’t get your first choice company name web address it is still better to use you company name in the web address, e.g. www.supercutswinchester.co.uk.
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