How to choose the right domain name

Keep it short

The best domain names should be short and easy to remember when they see it on the side of a van or on an advertising board. If your company name is long is there a way of shortening it to create a good domain name?

Avoid using hyphens

Having hyphens in your domain name is hard to communicate on a telephone and looks unprofessional. Choose www.theredprintingshop.co.uk rather than www.the-red-printing-shop.co.uk.

Avoid plurals

Be careful with this as this can be confusing. www.sunnygift.co.uk can be confused with www.sunnygifts.co.uk . The best way around the problem is to purchase both domains. This doesnÔÇÖt mean you need to have two websites. A redirect can easily be setup between one to the other.

Avoid spelling short cuts

Another confusing one for the telephone. Having spelling shortcuts in your company name can cause problems in your domain name. You donÔÇÖt want to have to explain that ÔÇ£Flowers 4 uÔÇØ is www.flowers4(the number) u (the letter on its own).co.uk. It will drive you mad I promise you.

 .com or .co.uk?

If your company is based in the UK and you have no attention of expanding world wide then purchasing a .co.uk is enough. However if you plan to go global then consider a .com domain name. Whether you purchase other domain names (.uk .net .info) itÔÇÖs up to you but it will guarantee that they are not taken by anyone else.

Check similar domains

Check to see if there are any domains that are similar that you wouldn’t want to be mistaken for. You could also lose business easily if a customer confused your domain name and ended up on website for a different company.

Check your domain

Before you make that final decision and purchase that domain check to see if your domain has recently changed from registered to unregistered status. It could be that the domain was previously connected to a website that was considered adult content and you would not want your company to be associated with this.