Choosing The Right Domain Name
For Your Business

How To Make The Right Impression And Not Fall Into Common Traps

Selecting a domain name for your business can be difficult - but you can do with great results if you know how to go about it and what pitfalls to look out for.

The unfortunate fact is that many desirable domain names have already been registered and it is increasingly difficult to find combinations that match typical business names.

The good news is that the old rule of a domain name being as short as possible applies less today. Web users in general are now more used to dealing with longer strings of words running together and, when printing a long domain name, there are techniques such as mixing typefaces, bold and normal type or colours that can make them easier to read.

However, you should beware of the way in which words that are quite innocent when presented in normal title or sentence form can be misread when strung together. For instance, Therapist Finder is a genuine Californian web site for marriage and family therapists as well as other mental heath professionals. Their web address is www.therapistfinder.com

If your business or own name is not available in a common web 'space' such as com.au or .com, you can choose to use another space such as .net or .biz but be aware that, if a competitor occupies one of the common spaces with the same name, a potential customer typing it in may forget you were .net and go to your competition at the .com instead.

This issue particularly highlights the importance of looking for a domain name available in all the common web spaces and, if they're available, taking them all.

Also try to avoid the temptation to abbreviate your business name down to an unreadable or difficult to type domain name. If in doubt, test your proposed abbreviated domain name on other people first.

Remember, it's also not strictly necessary to have a domain name that is the same as your business name if it reflects instead what you are or what you do. For instance, at the time of writing, a male operator of a business that unblocked drains might have registered draincleanerguy in both com.au and .com

Also becoming increasingly popular are marketing phrases that are associated with the way a company sells itself or a product, such as myfun.com.au for Gold Coast theme parks or superlittlemodel.com for the 2008 Mazda 2 car.

It costs nothing to search for a domain name for your business right now. Just click here to go to our domain search page and try a few names on for size.