Choosing a Domain Name for Your Business Website

Internet for Business

A Domain Name will help identify your business website & strengthen branding

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Choosing a Domain Name for Your Business Website
Once you’ve decided your business should have a website, you’ll need a domain name.
This is the name that people type into their web browser’s address bar to call up a website, like www.amazon.com or www.google.com.

It’s this domain name that locates your website on the Internet. In reality your website will have a numeric address - like 199.0.0.2 - but who’s going to remember that?

Instead, websites also have an easy-to-remember alphabetical domain name that corresponds to the numeric address.

In choosing a unique domain name, you have various options, including whether your domain name should end in “com”, “net”, “gov”, “org” etc. These suffixes are known as top-level domains and usually reflect the purpose or category of the organization, for example, com for commercial, gov for government agency, org for an organization, edu for educational institution, and net for a network.

The identifying part of the name, like amazon, together with the top-level (com in this case) is called the second-level domain name. It’s this second-level domain name that we’re most familiar with and what most site owners are concerned with.

So how do you choose, and claim, your domain name?

There are a couple of important points to bear in mind when choosing a domain name.

For a small business, it’s logical to choose a name that most closely resembles the name of the business, as this is what existing customers and business associates will be familiar with. Such a name helps enforce your brand identity.

The main stumbling block here is that very often that name will already be registered, unless it’s fairly unique.

Use Variations
In such a case, you can try variations of the name, by including hyphens or abbreviations.
So, for example, if you have a local business that designs and builds kitchens called “Perfect Kitchen Designs”, there’s a strong likelihood that that name is already registered as “perfectkitchendesigns.com” by another kitchen business, possibly in a town thousands of miles away.

That’s when you’ll need to look at possible variations, such as “perfect-kitchen-designs.com” (with hyphens) or “the-perfect-kitchen.com”, “perfectkitchens-4u.com” etc.

The second point to consider when choosing the domain name is ease of use - how comfortable is it to give the name over the phone; do you have to spell it out every time; will customers easily remember it?

Short, easy-to-remember domain names that also incorporate some element of your business name are ideal, but often will already be taken by someone else.

Checking Domain Name Availability
There are many websites that you can use to check if the domain name you want is available. You normally simply type in the name, for example “perfectkitchens”, without the www. or .com, and the site will check if the name is taken.
Here are some sites you can use to check domain names:
Check Domain.com
Network Solutions.com
000Domains.com

Next ... Registering a domain name

Last updated: August 2008. Copyright © 2006-2008 Scotch Macaskill, 18 Strawberry Fields, 36 College Road, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Tel: +27 33 3422811. Privacy: Your privacy is guaranteed. Personal information, including email addresses, will never be sold or given to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for further details.

Internet for Business
A Domain Name will help identify your business website & strengthen branding
Home > Domain Name > Choosing a Domain Name Choosing a Domain Name for Your Business Website Once you’ve decided your business should have a website, you’ll need a domain name. This is the name that people type into their web browser’s address bar to call up a website, like *www.amazon.com* or *www.google.com. It’s this domain name that locates your website on the Internet. In reality your website will have a numeric address - like 199.0.0.2 - but who’s going to remember that? Instead, websites also have an easy-to-remember alphabetical domain name that corresponds to the numeric address. In choosing a unique domain name, you have various options, including whether your domain name should end in “com”, “net”, “gov”, “org” etc. These suffixes are known as top-level domains and usually reflect the purpose or category of the organization, for example, com* for commercial, gov for government agency, org for an organization, edu for educational institution, and net for a network. The identifying part of the name, like amazon, together with the top-level (*com* in this case) is called the second-level domain name. It’s this second-level domain name that we’re most familiar with and what most site owners are concerned with. So how do you choose, and claim, your domain name? There are a couple of important points to bear in mind when choosing a domain name. For a small business, it’s logical to choose a name that most closely resembles the name of the business, as this is what existing customers and business associates will be familiar with. Such a name helps enforce your brand identity. The main stumbling block here is that very often that name will already be registered, unless it’s fairly unique. Use Variations In such a case, you can try variations of the name, by including hyphens or abbreviations. So, for example, if you have a local business that designs and builds kitchens called “Perfect Kitchen Designs”, there’s a strong likelihood that that name is already registered as “perfectkitchendesigns.com” by another kitchen business, possibly in a town thousands of miles away. That’s when you’ll need to look at possible variations, such as “perfect-kitchen-designs.com” (with hyphens) or “the-perfect-kitchen.com”, “perfectkitchens-4u.com” etc. The second point to consider when choosing the domain name is ease of use - how comfortable is it to give the name over the phone; do you have to spell it out every time; will customers easily remember it? Short, easy-to-remember domain names that also incorporate some element of your business name are ideal, but often will already be taken by someone else. Checking Domain Name Availability There are many websites that you can use to check if the domain name you want is available. You normally simply type in the name, for example “perfectkitchens”, without the www. or .com, and the site will check if the name is taken. Here are some sites you can use to check domain names: Check Domain.com Network Solutions.com 000Domains.com Next ... Registering a domain name
Last updated: August 2008. Copyright © 2006-2008 Scotch Macaskill, 18 Strawberry Fields, 36 College Road, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Tel: +27 33 3422811. Privacy: Your privacy is guaranteed. Personal information, including email addresses, will never be sold or given to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for further details.