Got a Small Business Choose the Right Domain Name – Domain Name
Got a Small Business Choose the Right Domain Name
Blake Kritzberg
Choosing a domain name can be daunting. Research the subject after all, youre the type of marketer who researches, right and youll be hit with a landslide of opinions, most contradictory. There is, however, two points that everyone agrees on:
Pick your domain before you launch your business.
This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan.
Dont wait too long if you like a domain.
While youre researching, youll likely come across a couple of domains that attract you. You might be tempted to wait, since you havent finalized or refined your business plan. Dont. A handful of domains isnt going to cost you much at an affordable registrar like GoDaddy, and once theyre gone, theyre gone. Chances are you can even resell the rejects at cost, if not a profit. Or "develop" them with unique content and point them to your main site for extra traffic.
Now that we have the easy part of the way, lets wade into murkier waters.
Q. Which TLD top-level domain is best
A. If youre a juggernaut in the business world with a giant ad budget, the answer is dot-com .com. If youre a smalltime business struggling for search engine positioning, the answer is still dot-com.
People do disagree on the value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in the search engines, which may be true.
However, the fact is, if you havent yet seared your brand on the collective brow of the planet, dot-com makes you easier to remember. If you eschew dot-coms, then in some deep dark place inside, people will remember you as "that hard-to-remember URL with the ending that isnt dot-com." Whats worse, if you pick an otherwise memorable domain ending in dot-net, -us, or God forbid -tv, some of your traffic will end up at that competitor who snagged the dot-com version of your domain.