Seven Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing A Domain Name
One
of the most common questions I'm asked by my clients is "What domain
name should I use for my website?". In response, I would recommend
considering several factors:
1. Should I choose a country code domain name (like .CO.UK or .CA), or a global top-level domain like .COM?
If your target market is specific to one country, I would recommend
using a country code domain name, especially if you sell physical
products that can only be delivered within that country. Many people I
have spoken too tell me that they are often uncertain of where online
stores are located, and it is not until they reach checkout and are
asked to pay in a foreign currency that they are not able to order the
products in their shopping basket due to the website not selling
internationally. Having a country code domain name instantly lets your
potential customers know that you are located in the same country as
them, and that your service is designed specifically for that nation.
Alternatively, if you have a website developed for the purpose of
sharing information, with little or no content which is only relevant
in one part of the world, my advice would be to choose a global
top-level domain such as .com.
2. Should I break up words within my domain name with hyphens? Is 'widget-shop.com' better than 'widgetshop.com'?
There seems to be a general consensus within the search engine
optimisation industry that using hyphens helps search engines deduce
what the actual words within an URL are, therefore leading to those
pages being ranked higher in the search engine results. However, there
is also speculation that using 2 or more hyphens within the domain name
incurs a penalty. With this in mind, I would advise anyone who plans to
receive most of their custom from organic search engine results to use
one hyphen in their domain name to separate their targeted search
keywords.
However, if your business model is not heavy on search engine
optimisation, my recommendation would be to not have any hyphens in
your domain name, as the vast majority of internet users intuitively
enter domain names in their browser address bar without any hyphens. In
domain name value appraisal circles, the non-hyphenated version of a
domain name is usually considered to be of greater worth.
For search engine optimisation, studies show that one hyphen may
give you an advantage, but on the whole I would recommend not using any
hyphens in your domain name.
3. Is it better to have digits (2, 3 etc.) or words for numbers (two, three etc.) in my domain name?
Generally speaking, I would dissuade anyone using word of mouth
advertising from having any numbers, either as digits or as words, in
their domain name. The reason for this is that a domain name should be
easy to remember and easy to spell correctly. Lets say for example you
had the domain name 'widgets4u.com'. If you meet someone that is
interested in your product, and tell them to visit your website, you
are going to have tell them specifically that the 4 is numeric and the
U is just one letter. Otherwise, they may input 'widgetsforyou.com',
'widgets4you.com', 'widgetsforu.com' and end up at the website of one
of your competitors.
If however you are prepared to accept this risk, in my experience
the layperson tends to instinctively put the numeric version of a
number in a domain name. Therefore, use 'widgets2.com', not
'widgetstwo.com'.
4. How long should my domain name be?
As short as possible. Long domain names are harder for your
customers to remember, take longer to type, longer to spell out (you
may find yourself having to spell your domain name letter-by-letter to
some clients) and also may be harder to actually fit onto your business
cards, print advertisements and similar. I have one client whose
business name consists of four words, two of which are tricky to spell.
My advice to him was to use a domain name with the first letter of each
word only, which has proved very easy to remember.
If you are targeting specific search keywords, I would recommend
that your domain name consists of those keywords and as little else as
possible. If you were targeting 'purple widgets', my advice would be to
use the domain name 'purplewidgets.com'. If that domain name is not
available, I would recommend adding one extra word to the end. For
example, I personally have a web site which targets the search keyword
'weight loss'. As one would expect, 'weightloss.com' and
'weightloss.co.uk' were already registered - so I opted for the domain
name 'weightlossweb.co.uk'. Choosing an added word that begins with the
same letter as your first keyword helps your visitors remember your
domain name. So, going back to the purple widgets example: Alternative
domain names could include 'purplewidgetpro.com',
'purplewidgetpower.com' and 'purplewidgetparadise.com'.
5. Are some domain name extensions better than others?
Yes. Generally speaking, the most desirable top-level domain is the
.COM. Charitable websites may choose .ORG in order to declare that they
are a charitable organisation, but there are currently no restrictions
on who can register .ORG domain names or what they need be used for -
and many commercial websites still use them.
My personal "league table" of favoured domain name extensions is as follows:
1 .COM
2 Country-code (.CO.UK, .CA, .IE etc.)
3 .NET
4 .ORG
5 .BIZ
6 .INFO
7 .NAME
I currently have in excess of 300 domain names registered, none of
which are .INFO or .NAME. I would only recommend that one registers
.BIZ, .INFO or .NAME domains if they have a large website with a brand
name to protect. For example, my business trading name is
'Starsol.co.uk'. At the time of writing this article, 'Starsol.com' is
currently registered by a domain name squatter, who is asking for an
extortionate price. I have chosen to register 'Starsol.biz' to prevent
a similar situation occurring in future. I feel it is very unlikely
that anyone actually types the domain with the .BIZ extension into the
address bar looking for my website - but if I didn't register the name
myself - someone else might and go on to use it for purposes that may
harm my brand.
6. What about .TV and .WS?
Although they may be marketed as such, .TV does not mean
tele-vision and .WS does not mean web-site or world-site. .TV is the
country code extension for Tuvalu and .WS is for Samoa. Tuvalu is small
island country located in the Western Pacific Ocean with a population
of approximately 11,000 in the Western Pacific Ocean that gained
independence from the UK in 1978. Samoa, also in the Pacific, gained
independence from New Zealand in 1962 and has a population of around
180,000. If these countries are not your target markets, I would
personally dissuade you from using their country code domain names.
Other similar domain names include .FM (Federated States of
Micronesia) which masquerades as the TLD for radio stations and .CC
(Cocos Islands).
7. Why do some domain name registrars charge more than others? Are their domain names better?
Surprising, this is a question I have been asked on several
occasions. Just like how some supermarkets which charge more than
others for identical cans of fizzy drink than others, domain name
registrars also charge differing domain name registration costs.
Although some domain name registrars may provide extra tools with
domain name registration, a domain name registered for $8.95 a year
will work in exactly the same way and one registered for $35.00 a year.
If I may give my own service a plug here, Starsol Domains at http://www.starsol.co.uk/domains/ offers .COM registration for what I believe are some of the fairest prices on the 'net.
I hope this article has helped you in your search for a perfect
domain name. I would like to add however, that with domain name
registrations being so cheap, that registering multiple domains and
redirecting them all to your one "main domain" may prove to be a very
good idea. If there is one domain that you will be heavily marketing, I
would strongly advise you to at least also register the .COM version of
that domain name too, and if you are outside the United States to also
register the relevant country-code version of the domain name. Many of
your customers may input the wrong extension when looking for your
site, possibly leading to you losing their custom to a competitor of
yours; or like my personal situation which I described earlier, may
lead to a domain name squatter registering a domain similar to yours in
the hope that you will spend many thousands buying it from them.Author:
Rupe Parnell is the founder and lead developer at Starsol.co.uk,
a website development and management firm located in Norfolk, England.
Rupe specialises in creating professional grade PHP scripts, a
selection of which are available free at Starsol Scripts. Terms:Articles may be reprinted provided content is not edited and links are kept live
Source: www.articledepot.co.uk |
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