Domain Names

How to Choose a Good Domain Name?

Tips for Choosing a Domain Name that Works

Choosing a domain name can be as important to your company as choosing the company name. In fact, in several cases, companies have changed their name to their website domain because people recognized it more readily than the company name. So finding a domain name can be very important. These tips should help you choose wisely.

Branding and Your Domain Name

. Whether you are trying to sell paper clips or web design services, your website domain name will affect your brand. As I said above, some companies have even changed their company name to their website domain name. So, when you're choosing a domain name it should be something that you could live with if it were your company name.

In fact, the best domains are your company name

. Your current customers know your company name and they're comfortable with it. Some of your customers may have already typed in your name with .com at the end to see if that's your website. So if you can get a domain name that is your company name, you might have the perfect domain.

To do: Check to see if your company name is already taken

. Go to your Web browser and type http://www.YourCompanyName.com into the URL box. If the result is a competitor or something you wouldn't want to be associated with, you can try to buy the domain or you might want to consider changing your company name.

How Long Should Your Domain Name Be?

It depends upon your domain name registrar, but in general domain names can be anywhere from 26 to 67 characters long. But just because you can, doesn't mean that you should have a domain name that is over 30 or 40 characters long. Remember:

• Your customers need to type your domain in.
• Even if they're clicking a link, that link needs to be typed in by someone.
• Longer domains are often harder to remember.
• Recommend sticking with domain names that are no longer than 20 characters or so.

To do: How long is your company name? Is it more than 20 characters including spaces? What about not including spaces?

Special Characters in Domain Names There aren't a lot of special characters allowed in domain names. For the most part you can use alphabetic and numeral characters as well as hyphen (-). Some domain registrars may allow other characters, but those are the most common ones allowed.