Specialising in Business Website Design, we at LogoDesignMonster.com understand that there is a lot to think about when it comes to your Company Website. Do you design the website yourself or have a professional do it? Do you use a Content Management System (CMS) or just hard code your information? What content should you include for visitors to read? In all the decisions that need to be made, one of the most important can often be forgotten.

Choosing a great domain name could be the difference between success and failure for your business. It could affect how many visitors visit your site, how many people can find you through a search engine, and even whether people are likely to return.

This crucial decision can’t be understated, and with so many different domain names already taken it is becoming an increasingly more difficult step in the website development phase. This information will help you to understand exactly why it is important to find the right domain name for your website, and, more importantly, how to go about deciding on one that will represent you and your company.

It’s all in the name

If the domain name for your website isn’t memorable, then you will find that visitors don’t return to it. They might say to themselves, ‘I remember looking at a great website on this subject… But what was it called?’ Without a name that will stick in the mind, they will struggle to return to your online domain.

Of course, they might remember a part of your domain name, in which case they could search for it. However, if your domain name is similar to that of several other companies you could find yourself buried beneath their results in a search engine such as Google, losing business to your rival companies.

Your domain name could also give you a big advantage in the search engine rankings if it contains a keyword phrase that people are actually searching for, such as ‘expert website design’, or ‘large fish tanks’.

Choosing your domain name

Don’t be intimidated by the importance of your domain name choice, because by following the next few simple steps you will soon be well placed to find and purchase your ideal website address (Please note that if you require a domain name for a company website then using your business name would probably work best but the five points below are most useful for businesses that are looking to launch a new online service):

1.    Get a notepad and pen and write down some words related to your business, for example, if you sell fish tanks you might write down fish, tanks, aquatics, sell, tropical, etc.

2.    Add some ‘filler’ words to your notepad that could work with the other words that you have noted down, such as HQ, direct, online, etc.

3.    Try putting some of the words together to form phrases, such as Fish Tanks Direct.

4.    Head to a website where you can enter a domain name to see if it is available and enter a few of your chosen phrases to see what is free. Remember that, although it is unlikely that www.fishtanks.com would be available, www.fishtanksHQ.com may well be.

5.    Purchase the .com variety of your chosen domain name, as well as the one local to your particular area (e.g. .co.uk for the UK).

Business considerations when choosing your domain name

Although it is great to have keywords (Words searched for in search engines) within a domain name such as LogoDesignMonster.com contains the words Logo Design which is highly relevant to what we offer but this can also be limiting as now LogoDesignMonster.com is also offering Website Design but this is not clearly reflected within the domain name. Whilst this is not a major problem it is certainly worth considering the possibility of your business expanding into other areas and how your domain name may affect this.

The best advice would probably be that if you can have keywords within your domain name that will not be limiting to your business then that is great but building a recognisable identity that is memorable is the best way to build a strong online business identity. It can also look unprofessional to cram keywords into a domain name so if you are considering incorporating keywords into a domain name you need to consider how respectable it will look to potential customers as a respectable online presence really helps to win the trust of potential customers which is an essential part of running a business online and off line.