Criteria for choosing an ideal domain name

Choosing an ideal domain name is one of the most important elements of any website. It is the key identifier of the website and it can contribute to the website exposure and popularity. It is recommended that entrepreneurs choose short, memorable, relevant, and simple domain names. However most of short and simple domain names have been taken so options remain buying them from their owners or choosing a different domain type such as “.biz” or “.info”.

Choosing a short and memorable domain names increase the chance of exposure and visit.  Short names/URLs are easier to remember therefore costumers can recall them easier, but being short is not enough. The domain name has to be memorable. For example a company’s initial might be short but it may not necessarily be memorable. Amazon.com and Pandora.com are two good examples of short memorable domain names.

       An effective domain name must indicate company’s business or business name. The best domain name for a company’s website is perhaps its business name which can be easily recognized by customers; for example Walmart.com. Also an online business must choose a name that affiliates the most to the business type; for example bodybuilding.com which sales verity of bodybuilding supplies.    

In order to avoid customers to go to wrong websites, it is recommended that we choose a simple domain name which is easy to spell. It is also recommended to buy several variations of correct spelling in case costumers misspell the name. For example gogle.com and gooogle.com have been purchase by Google Corp in order to redirect them to the main website (google.com)

Choosing an effective domain name is not the end of the line. The chosen name might have been taken and the early bird might have gotten the worm. In fact 98 percent of the words in Webster’s English Dictionary have been registered already. So in this case the entrepreneur must look for a different combination of words or enter into negotiations with the domain’s owner. Another alternative is to take advantage of new top-level domain names such as .aero(airlines), .biz( any business site), .coop(business cooperatives), and .info(any site).

               

           

Resource:

Scarborough M. Norman, Wilson L. Douglas, Zimmerer W. Thomas; Effective Small Business Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River New Jersey: 9^th Edition.