Tips on choosing a domain name
It is probably a good idea to think about your domain name before starting or registering your business. Below are a few other suggestions you may want to consider when determining your domain name.
- Your domain name does not have to be the same as you ABN or Registered Business Name
- You do have to have an ABN before purchasing a .com.au domain name. You can register for an ABN instantly at www.abr.gov.au
- This next point I feel quite strongly about, do you want a keyword name like www.mikesantennaerepairs.com.au, or a domain name that you can brand and people will remember eg www.uphighmike.com.au. I know I would prefer the latter. Some search engine optimisation theorists suggest that using your keywords in your domain name help, but I ask you this; if you type into google.com “books” , amazon.com will appear in the top few searches, yet there is no reference to books in their domain name.
- Don’t pick a hard word to spell or a word that is spelt differently in other countries. For example jewellery or jewelry. Jewellery is very in vogue to sell online at the moment, the only catch is that it is hard for some people to spell and can be spelt in a number of ways.
- Keep away from hyphens. For example there is a sale on CD players for 99 cents at JB-HiFi, we don’t say to each other “check out the sale that is on at JBhyphenHiFi”. So a good rule of thumb if we don’t speak it, don’t put it in.
- Make the domain name the same name as your website. I feel violated when I type in a domain name and I end up somewhere totally different, it will confuse and annoy your customers
- We often suggest to people that they use the thesaurus for ideas or suggestions
- And above all keep it SHORT, keep it simple.