Your domain name is your virtual business card: it is often the first impression that your customers will have of your business, and they will use it to find you again and again. You must therefore ensure that you make an appropriate choice of domain name.

First and foremost, your domain name must be recognisably related to your business. If you are an already established business, try to make sure that your company name is included in your domain name, and avoid abbreviating it unless that is how your customers know you. You may wish to ask friends, family, colleagues and customers what they would expect your domain name to be, and act accordingly. Once you’ve registered your domain name, make sure that it quickly becomes associated with your business: include it on all your promotional material, including stationery and business cards, and also incorporate it into your logo.

Short is, generally speaking, best for a domain name, because this reduces chances of your customers mistyping or forgetting it. However, Domain Names of only a few letters or a single word are in extremely short supply. On the whole, it is better to be clear than to abbreviate. Choose CheapCarDeals.com rather than ccd.com. If you are running several words together in this way, make sure that removing capitals doesn’t make the meaning of your domain name ambiguous. A famous example is ExpertsExchange.com.

If the name you want is not available, you could try contacting the owner via the Whois directory and asking if they are interested in selling. If this is impossible or not cost-effective, you could try thinking of alternative names, which can sometimes turn out to be better than your original idea. You could add "e" to the beginning, indicating that this is the internet portion of your business, or put "online" at the end of the domain. Prefixes such as "my" or your local area name (e.g. "London") might also be useful. Another alternative is to use a metaphor relating to your business, rather than something descriptive. This is especially useful if you are a new business and in a position to choose a name for your company as well as a domain name. You can then build a brand around your new name.

You might also want to try using a different TLD if the .com is not available. If you are trading only within your own country, a ccTLD could be appropriate, such as .co.uk or .us. However, it is worth bearing in mind that some of your traffic is likely to go to the .com owner – great for them, but you will be losing customers.

Be aware of possible errors surrounding your domain name. It should be easy to pronounce, and preferably also easy to spell. You do not want to have to explain unusual spellings to your customers over the phone. It would also be wise to register common misspellings of your domain name, so that they can be redirected to your own website. Also consider registering the hyphenated (or non-hyphenated) version of your domain name, expanded versions of initials, and versions with different TLDs. Finally, registering the names of products which you sell, especially if you have your own branded products, could also help you to gain type-in traffic and hook a few more customers.

When choosing your domain name, make sure that you are not infringing any copyright laws by using or emulating someone else’s trademark. This is very important, as copyright infringement or brand dilution can result in litigation.

Author: Natalie Catchpole