Domains
Choosing your domain name
Choosing a domain name for your site is a very important step. Make sure you consider all the options before purchasing and more importantly before you start to promote your site.
Use your brand name: if your company name is available buy it. Customers looking for your site will start with that as a first option. E.g. creativekitchens.co.uk
If you haven’t got a memorable brand or your brand doesn’t include a description of your product or service, you can use an easy to remember phrase. Company’s with big marketing budgets can get away with this easier than others www.monster.com or www.elephant.com are good examples.
Consider using a number or letter infront of or behind your domain name. www.A1kitchens.co.uk will get your site at the beginning of Yellow Pages and higher ratings in search engines than a site that didn’t include the word kitchens.
Incorporating a short description of what you do helps with the search engines. Kenjones.co.uk is less likely to pick up additonal traffic than kenjonesplumbers.co.uk.
Be wary of long names or the use of hyphens. There’s nothing more frustrating than customers trying to remember the exact spelling of your site’s address.
Choose an appropriate domain extension. If you are uk based then co.uk is a good start. Alternatively .com can give a broader appeal, .net or .info can work as a last resort. Be wary about using another countries domain extension e.g. .de – this can give the impression that you are based somewhere else which may work against you.
Purchasing multiple domain names all redirecting to your one site can help with people searching for your services www.officesupplies.com can forward customers to www.officesupply365.co.uk
Ring fence your brand. If your brand is madmusic.co.uk there are benefits in also purchasing madmusic.com particularly if you are trading internationally. Again automatically divert the traffic to your core site.