Nowadays, a powerful online presence is a must. This is something almost all entrepreneurs are aware of. If you have no online presence, you don’t really exist for your customers. It doesn’t matter if you are only planning to start a business or you already have one, one thing is for sure – a good website is half of the job.
The first thing your prospects see when looking for your product or service is your website. With a good website that is easy to navigate and easy on the eye, you are increasing chances of making sales.
However, the first step towards crafting a great website is selecting a good and strong name. In other words, the whole story starts with the domain name. Only when you sort this out should you think about nice themes, design, and so on. But, how should you go on about registering a domain name? Why is it so important? What are the benefits of it? Keep reading and you will find out.
What is a domain name exactly?
Simply put, your domain name is your website’s name. This is the address where users can access your website. Domain names are designed for people to easily find and identify computers online, much like looking up a name on a phonebook to find the matching number. Computers use IP addresses and these addresses are a series of numbers. But, it is hard for us humans to remember long sets of numbers.
This is exactly the reason domain names were developed. They are here to make it easy to identify different entities on the internet. The price of a domain name typically runs from $10 to $25 per year. But, it’s best that you do your own research when it comes to prices. Just bear in mind that high prices don’t necessarily translate to high quality. Sometimes even the cheapest domain name you register can fit your business perfectly and save you lots of money in the long run.
But, what does a domain name have to do with your business’s online presence? Well, a strong domain name can make all the difference. On the other hand, the wrong domain name can make you disappear from the online world. Below are some benefits you can enjoy with a strong domain name.
Benefit 1 – credibility
A good and strong domain name adds professional credibility to your business and sets you apart from dozens of get-rich-quick-scheme websites online.
If you are working in the eCommerce industry, this is really important. There are millions of online businesses and stores of many kinds nowadays and a lot of them are, simply put, frauds.
Hence, a good name will do wonders when it comes to your professional credibility. If a visitor senses that something is sketchy about your website right away, the chances are that you have already lost that sale.
Benefit 2 – forward-thinking
Selecting a strong domain name proves that you are a forward-thinking person. The fact that you own a website and a good domain name is a clear sign that you are a part of the digital revolution. This also means that you are up-to-date with the latest trends.
Of course, the thing that will put you ahead of your rivals is creativity. To be precise, you need to be creative when it comes to crafting a domain name. You should do your best to make it unique.
For instance, if you are in the tech industry, it would be wise to have a .tech domain name. This kind of maneuver will help your brand build authority from the very start.
Benefit 3 – interaction with a niche market
If you are dealing with a very specific audience, you need a specific domain name for your website. This isn’t very difficult to explain. Just take a look at Amazon. This brand sells everything. You can buy knives, books, gardening tools, electronics, and even clothing garments from them.
To be honest, it would be a lot easier to list the things you can’t find on Amazon. Let’s get back to this issue. Instead of letting their users weed through the website, the brand created specific domain redirects that direct customers to what they want. For instance, contextual domains such as www.kindle.store or www.alexa.online redirect paying customers to the matching product pages on Amazon’s primary website. Smart, right? Of course, it is.
Benefit 4 – establishing your identity
It’s fair to say that people’s first contact with your business is most likely going to be your domain name.
That is the exact reason why it is important that your domain name clearly communicates something about your business to the visitors. Linking your business with a ‘brandable’ domain extension will help you establish your business identity in the industry.
Let’s say you own a co-working space and your website and domain name are the same (e.g. www.workingtogether.space). This will certainly increase qualified internet traffic and it will clearly communicate to your visitors what your business is about.
Benefit 5 – memorability
A strong domain name that is short and concise is easy to remember. On top of that, this kind of name will improve your marketing results. Since it is short, it can easily be incorporated into your marketing material. And when you consider that short names are less likely to be misspelled by people, you realize that there will be fewer errors and, consequently, fewer missed opportunities. For example, it is easier to remember www.smartphone.store than www.buysmartphonesonline.com. If you want success, you have to make it easy for people to remember you. And a short domain name is definitely one good way to achieve that.
How to pick a domain name?
Now that you are familiar with the benefits of a strong domain name, let’s see what you can do to make this decision in no time. Your brand should tell everything about you. This includes:
- your values
- your identity
- how you solve customers’ pain-points
- why you are doing all of this
Your domain must not communicate something different. This is a mistake you shouldn’t make. So, before you start choosing, educate yourself on the different styles and types of domain names.
This will help you take the best decision to fit your needs. For instance, a new start-up business should go for a domain name that matches the company name to direct customers to the site with no confusion. This is a good chance to choose a name for your business that is creative and unique.
On the other hand, if you already own a business and your company name or various keywords you want to use aren’t available, be creative! A little bit of creativity might be just what you need to select a good domain name.
Length issue
A pro-tip when it comes to length would be to have a domain name that is short and easy to remember. It would be best if the name was between 6 to 10 letters long. Simple, concise, and clear words always bring better results than longer and overly-descriptive names.
On top of that, the longer the domain name, the higher the chance that someone will misspell while typing. Finally, beware of the letters that don’t normally link together or are confusing which may unintentionally form an insult or swear word.
Keywords
Keywords are the words linked to the product or service used in a domain name. According to Domain.com article, although many people assume that using keywords “will drive traffic to their websites, Google has changed their algorithm in the past few years to downplay the strict use of keywords and now rewards websites with a strong sense of branding.”
However, using keywords in a domain isn’t always a bad thing. From a marketing standpoint, you should know exactly what you are selling and that also needs to be clear to your customers. But if you overdo it with keywords, you will look spammy. Instead, create a strong brand image and back it up with unique content to create a trusted online presence.
