How to Choose a Domain Name That Attracts The Right Customers
Author: Theo McLanahan / Category: About WebhostingOne of the fastest ways of getting attention for your business in today’s world is to have a good online presence. And the first step to getting your business online is a good domain name.
Somehow, there hasn’t been enough emphasis placed on choosing a domain name that attracts the right customers, so allow me to expound on this subject with some tips you can put to immediate use for your next website or blog.
1. Make Sure Your Domain Describes Your Business
What your website offers should be clear from the domain name. Don’t make your potential visitors guess at what they’ll find on your website.
For example, if your name is Veronica Smith and you own a hair salon, get a domain like veronicashairsalon.com instead of veronicasmith.com. Unless you’re famous, or want to become that way, your own name isn’t the best option as your domain.
Keep it as short as possible as well. It’s easier for your customers to remember and they’re less likely to make typing errors when they enter it in their web browser.
2. Get A Domain That Includes Your Keywords
It’s becoming increasingly important for business owners to have their websites indexed and ranked well in search engines like Google.com, MSN.com and Yahoo.com. And it helps this cause tremendously if you have a keyword-rich domain name. The reason for this is simple: Your potential customers search using specific keyword phrases to find what they’re looking for.
If you’d done the research and used these customer-specific keyword phrases in your domain name, more than likely your website will be listed on the very first page of the search engines, outranking your competitors because you had exercised due diligence where keyword-rich domain names were concerned.
There are other things you can and should do to get better rankings in the search results, but starting with a good domain sets a strong foundation. Avoid using hyphens in your domain name as well since it’s believed they can hurt your rankings. Take the time to find a good domain rather than taking a shortcut and using a couple of dashes.
3. Must A Domain Name End With .com?
In a word, ‘No.’ You could very well use .net, .biz, .org or .info as an extension and no one would complain, except that you’ll likely regret that decision in the long run. Here’s why. Websites ending with any other extension besides a .com usually requires extra marketing efforts to establish credibility because everybody assumes a .com extension to be the standard in domain name branding.
Another reason is when emailing, customers automatically assume every company ends with a .com extension and this can be devastating to your business if your customers’ emails keep ending up in your competitors’ database.
Unless you’re intentionally targeting to brand your business as, let’s say, a nonprofit organization, in which case the .org extension is highly recommended, then sticking to the instantly recognizable .com extension is the best way to go.
Don’t rush into picking a domain name. Take the time to research your market and find keyword phrases that people actually search for. Websites such as Wordtracker.com and GoodKeywords.com can help you with this. Taking the time to plan correctly in the beginning will pay off well in the long term.









