It’s time to pick the perfect domain name for your business. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good domain name — it’s every bit as important as the name of your business. In some cases, it’s more important.

Yes, you heard that right. If you have the option, you might want to wait to name your business until after you choose your domain. As the digital world gains more and more prominence, your website becomes more and more the face of your business. If you named your business and then found out you couldn’t get a sign made for the brick-and-mortar location with your business name on it, you’d be pretty frustrated, right?

That’s why your domain name is so important. It’s how people find you online. It defines your brand. It affects SEO. Most important, it’s your first impression with your customers.

So take your time and think about this. You want your domain name to be perfect.

The Anatomy Of A Domain

There are two parts to your domain. There’s what’s known as the second-level domain (SDL), which is composed of letters, numbers, and hyphens and makes up the most recognizable portion of your domain.

Then there’s what’s known as your top-level domain (TDL), which are the two or three letters following the dot after your SDL — think .com, .org, or .edu.

The TLD can usually give some indication of the entity behind the domain: 

• .com - commercial entity

• .org - organizations, usually nonprofit organizations

• .edu - educational institutes 

• .gov - the U.S. government

• .biz - a business (similar to but less popular than .com)

While your SLD is the one you will put the most thought into, it’s important to know about TLDs because you want to secure the other TLDs in addition to your primary TLDs. This will help prevent any confusion in case you are a .org site but somebody searches for you using a .com TLD.

It also saves you the headache that could inevitably happen when an imposter tries to make a fake site.

You don’t have to worry about creating a separate site — just having the other TLDs redirect to your main site.

Attributes of a Perfect Domain Name

If you’re brainstorming ideas for a domain name that can also serve as your brand name, come up with something that’s memorable and difficult to forget, but is still easy to pronounce. You don’t want to have to clarify the spelling of it 10 times while you’re trying to communicate it to someone over the phone.

Ideally, your domain name should be fewer than 15 characters and even that is pushing it. If you have a business name that is longer than that, come up with an acronym that people will easily remember. Although domains can have hyphens and underscores, avoiding these or keeping their use to a minimum is ideal, as they can look and feel clunky when people are typing out a domain. Double letters can also be difficult for some people, and they’re hard to read when you’re looking at your website’s name written out on promotional material.

Get Creative with Naming

You want something that’s unique and brandable, but beyond that, you’re only limited by your creativity. Try coming up with cool, catchy nonsense words that conjure up images you would associate with your brand — after all, Google was not a real word before the famous search engine, but there’s something about its sound that makes you think of looking for something. Maybe that’s because it is similar to words like “ogle” and “goggle”.

If you’re stumped, trying flipping through a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary to come up with words that resonate with you. You can also use online resources like Shopify’s business name generator.

Before you settle on your domain, be sure to do a quick search to make sure there are no other businesses out there with the same name or with names that are too similar. If you’re set on a particular business name and somebody else has it, but they’re way on the other side of the country, you could opt to include your city or state in your domain name — but be careful, as people who are searching can easily get confused by this.

Once you’ve come up with your domain name, you should check to make sure you can set up your social media platforms. While Facebook allows multiple business pages with the same name, Twitter and Instagram do not. It doesn’t help you to nab the perfect domain only to find out that the Instagram handle is taken.

Now It’s Time to Register

Once you’re happy with the idea for your domain name, register it quickly. There’s always a chance that somebody else could come up with the same ideas and snatch it out from under you. We recommend buying your domain from GoDaddy.  Chances are you will want to buy more domains in the future and having one place for all of your domains is a good habit to get into. 

And if your ideal domain name is already taken, don’t despair — there’s a chance you could buy it from the current owner or that it will become available in the future.

Want to get started boosting your web presence? Contact ASMM Digital by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com.