Names are smoke and mirrors, as the saying goes. Of course, the marketer sees it differently. For him, two aspects are essential when choosing a domain name: easy communication and positioning in search engines and other media. With the approval of new top-level domains, there is always a tremendous hype regarding domain names. It is easy to see that domain names were given high priority by domain traders. So domain names are just hot air, aren’t they? Not at all. But when it comes to choosing a name, there is no simple answer. Nor is the choice of a name the most important thing for successful marketing.
What points do you have to consider when choosing a domain name and what weight do they have for your company?
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Business-related name
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Keyword-containing name
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Availability
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Brevity
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Sound and easy readability
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Simplicity
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Expressiveness
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Position in the alphabet
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Expandability
Business-related name
It depends on whether your company name is already a brand name and is known to your target group. Then of course you should choose an appropriate name.
If the first criterion does not apply, ask yourself whether your company has a clear business purpose. If you sell televisions, www.tvstoreonline.com is definitely worth considering.
For some search engines, such a procedure is actually quite good. Because the first results often contain the search term in a domain name.
Keyword-containing name
Sometimes the term is too abstract for the business purpose of a company or is not sought in this form by customers. But in general, a keyword-containing website name makes perfect sense for an average business. E.g., a marketing agency with the domain name www.themarketingagency.co makes business purpose very clear for customers.
Availability
What use is the most beautiful name when it’s already taken! What can you do now? In theory, you have five options:
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Plural formation (www.coffeecup.com becomes www.coffeecups.com)
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Writing variant (www.coffee-cup.com)
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Addition (thecoffeecup.com)
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Other top-level domain (.net, .biz, .etc instead of .com)
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Other terminology (www.coffeemug.de)
However, if possible, you should discard all domains as the main address that could be confused with that of your competition. If your competitor has forgotten to secure the .com domain, you can use it for yourself. But none of you will be really happy with it.
If you want to win customers in the long term, then only a unique domain name is of use to you. This leaves you with the addition of a domain name or another terminology.
Brevity
The shorter the name, the easier it is to type in the name in the browser. And of course, the possibility of typing errors is also reduced if the letter combination does not preprogram classic typing errors. Instead of a name like search-engine-optimization.com, something like toprank.com or webpromo.com is much handier.
With the name, also remember that you want to communicate it on your letterhead, for example. A short name is less of a problem for a layout, especially when it comes to e-mail addresses.
An email address like [email protected] is therefore not necessarily desirable. (Still, there was more to be said for the domain name than there were exclusion criteria.)
Sound and easy readability
The sound of a name contributes to how easy it is to remember. The following factors have to be taken into account: Vowel quality, possible alliterations or the rhythm.
Against the background that many terms have already been used by other companies, companies come up with the idea of forging bogus words that are guaranteed to be individual, but hardly noticeable.
A reader must recognize the context quickly and clearly because we remember names not only through meaningful syllables but also through sound.
You can easily find out: read a book by a Chinese writer (in English). If you have no idea what the names Zhang Xiu Ying, Zhang Min or Zhang Jing sound like, you will find it difficult to remember them permanently.
Simplicity
If you are not currently using your proper name for your domain, you can also influence which spellings your name allows.
If you don’t want to do without a certain name but have to expect misspellings, you should definitely reserve these domains and automatically redirect to the correct website.
Expressiveness
You should beware of using speech bubbles and hype on your behalf. Terms such as solutions are in some industries as. With us, the customer has become an absolutely meaningless empty phrase.
Position in the alphabet
Is your offer one of a large number of the same offers and you cannot distinguish yourself from the competition through a clear positioning? Then it can make sense to make sure when giving your name that you are as close to the front of the alphabet as possible.
Before the A in the alphabet, names with numbers at the beginning will come first in many catalogs. Needless to say, 1A in a name is not recommended for every business.
But a coffee equipment company www.1st-line.com, which is based in Freehold NJ, or an online bank, which is based in the USA with www.1stsource.com, would be perfectly acceptable.
Expandability
Extensibility is an important criterion in two directions. On the one hand: does your name offer enough space for your business areas to be expanded? For example, a company operating under the smatphones.com domain has a communication problem if it wants to sell other consumer electronics.
Anyone who is now building up a sound carrier distribution should consider carefully whether CD for Compact Disc is a wise choice in the name. It would certainly be better to choose a name that is independent of the sound carrier. Unless, for example, you see yourself as a specialist supplier of shellac or vinyl records. On the other hand, the expandability of the actual name is a possible criterion.
Conclusion
When choosing a name, various criteria must be weighed against each other so that a name can last for a long time.
This is important for two reasons: On the one hand, the existence of a domain on the Internet also seems to be a ranking criterion, albeit a minor one. On the other hand, a possible name change means additional communication costs.
