Does a domain name matter a lot in business? Yes is the plain answer. But coming up with a good company name and obtaining a cool and catchy domain name with the same name is not an easy thing to do. A business name as well as the domain name can determine the success of the business and you must put efforts in the naming process. Following are some guidelines and rules that you should keep in mind when registering a domain name for your business.
Always go for the dot com domain instead of any other domain like dot net or dot org. This is a common mistake entrepreneurs make because the name they decide is not available in dot com domain. There are many reasons to avoid this thing; for example people by default assume the website is on dot com domain. The easiest way to avoid this mistake is to grab the dot com domain as soon as you decide the name of your business.
Never use misspelled words because it is not easy to tell people the name of your business and the website URL with a misspelled word. Many companies not only obtain the domain name for the company but also get separate domain names for their popular products. IBM dot com and ThinkPad dot com are some examples. When you get the perfect domain name with dot com domain, make sure you get the exact same domain names with other domains like dot org and dot net.
Make your domain name short and interesting; although it is preferred to use an actual word or combination of actual words but if you are going with a fabricated or made up word then make sure the name is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce and most importantly easy to memorize. Obtaining a short domain name is a good advice but shorter domain names worth thousands of dollars if not millions.
A normal LLLL.com (‘L’ stands for letter) domain name sells for few hundreds to few thousand dollars and a 3 letter domain name sells for much higher price. Of course shorter domain names are now rarer than ever and these price tags have put new business owners in a decision making situation where they have to decide how much dent they can afford on their investment just by a domain name.
Shorter the domain name, the better, period. Here are few things you must keep in mind when obtaining a domain name for your company.
- Catchy domain names are more expensive than relatively generic names. However, catchy domain names need lesser marketing and advertising budget to get the same amount of traffic a generic domain name can with larger marketing budget.
- Similarly, shorter domain names can get traffic naturally without spending tons of money on paid advertisement. An inexpensive domain name may not generate traffic on its own and it might need a huge advertising campaign.
- Whether a particular domain name is good for your company or not, also depends on how much investment you have. Spending 80% of your capital on a domain name because it is catchy is not the smartest move. Companies like Facebook have spent millions of dollars on domain name but if you cannot afford pricey domain names then you shouldn’t.
Interestingly, some companies sell their domain names with much higher price tag as compared to the initial price. The prices of shorter domain names like LLLL.com and LLL.com domain names always go higher with passage of time because of more demand and less supply. Some people have made it a business; they buy domain names and wait for their prices to go up. Meanwhile they resell products from Amazon and other websites by simply utilizing the catchy domain name they have.
The point is the value of a shorter and catchy domain name never depreciates. Even if your business fails, you can still sell the domain name for a much higher price than the initial investment.
Why spending money on a catchy domain name is a good idea??
As mentioned above, you can get the same amount of traffic by spending the same amount of money on marketing instead of a catchy yet expensive domain name. But we didn’t consider an important factor; obtaining a catchy domain name is a one-time deal while marketing and advertising are on-going expenses. You need to spend money continuously to generate traffic. Let’s clear the concept with a simple example.
Spending $3,000 on a catchy domain name is a more effective strategy than spending $2,980 on marketing and advertising of a $20 domain name. Another factor is branding; you cannot transform a generic domain name or business into a brand. However, catchy domain names make it possible and much easier to build a cult around your business or products.
How you can get a catchy domain name without emptying your bank?
Shorter and catchy domain names are more expensive than generic domain names but there are still some ways to get the best deal. More and more new TLDs are introduced everyday; internet is now more than ‘.com’, ‘net’ and ‘.org’. There are thousands of new TLDs like ‘.app’, ‘.law’, ‘.London’ and others are available nowadays. These top level domains may not help you in marketing and SEO but they sure help in branding. Other than these categories, you can also go for regional TLDs which are available worldwide.
Before you obtain a domain name, do thorough research; make sure no one else is using a similar domain name, business name and there is no trademark registered on a similar name. Using an exact or even matching name could lead to legal complications. For example, recently WordPress sued a person for using their trademarked word in his domain name.
It is always recommended to use words with easy spellings in domain name but if you are obtaining a domain name for your existing business which has quite difficult words then try to obtain some other domain names with misspelled words too. It is a small investment that makes sure your visitors end up on your website even if they type wrong spellings.