Choosing a domain name can at times be every bit as tricky as choosing the name of your first born. Here are 5 top tips from TOSD:
- Memorable and as short as possible beats long and descriptive every time.
- A name connected to your products, services or business name is great as long as it doesn’t conflict too badly with (1) above.
- Domain names with multiple words are fine, as long as the individual words are recognisable e.g. www.mapbrokers.com.au.
- It is good to have a important keywords embedded in a domain name, but to be effective a search engine must be able to recognise them. Hyphens are the answer. e.g. www.map-brokers.com.au.
- Don’t want to use a hyphen in advertising? Easy – set the hyphenated version to be the primary domain name attached to the hosting account and then piggy back the non hyphenated version on to it. To follow the example above www.map-brokers.com.au would be the primary domain while www.mapbrokers.com.au would be an add-on domain with a permanent re-direct to the primary domain.
- Avoid names with words that seemingly run into each other e.g www.oneensignforall.com.au – I almost feel obliged to explain that this attempt at a domain name was intended to be “one ensign for all”. It just doesn’t visually stand out does it? The chances of people typing www.onesignforall.com.au would be just too high.
- If you are operating within Australia, and your audience is primarily Australian, stick to a .com.au address – .net.au or .org.au if appropriate.
A final thought. With domain names, the name of the game – above all else – is to be memorable.
Good luck!
