Does your domain name suck?

Ok, perhaps the title is a little confronting but it is straight to the point!

Domain names are nothing new, more and more businesses have at least one, the rate of growth is still astounding. In Australia alone our registry (ie domains that end in .au) grows at about 24% per year*

That means that there is still a large number of people registering a new domain name, so this article is for them – a few tips to observe when choosing a name. Of course if you already have a name its probably worth a quick read, perhaps see if you have made a good decision.

If you’re using your domain name to promote a business, product, service or other information it should be able to stack up against a couple of key points.

Run your potential domain names against this quick test.

1) Easily communicate the name

Ok this may sound silly but read on before you think I’ve over simplified this.

[Customer on telephone] What’s your web site address?

[you] renov8.com.au

[Customer on telephone] Hmm I entered that – it doesn’t work

This is a really common mistake. Try to avoid unusual spellings and funky ways of creating a word that does not exist. You will confuse your customers and they won’t be able to find your site. Listen to the radio and I guarantee you that you will hear one of these examples each day, where the domain name is mentioned in the radio ad but its not obvious what the address actually is.

If you have a company / product / brand name that is spelt like this, try and also register the common accepted spelling as well, and point that domain name to your web site.

2) Buy other versions of the domain

Commonly in Australia, businesses use domains ending in com.au or just .com (other countries all have country codes like co.nz for New Zealand etc.. ) so when you are looking to secure a domain try and get other versions of the name that users may inadvertently try to find you on.

For example: If you register JohnsRemovals.com.au try also to register JohnsRemovals.com – you’d be surprised how many people will just naturally type in your address with just the .com ending.

A similar story can be found within name spaces as well. Once again, in Australia we have two common commercial name spaces; domains that end in .com.au and in .net.au.

I’ve seen many an example where a business has their name in net.au but they have not also bought the com.au version of the name. Again for the same reason buying the com.au version will pick up more traffic as its ingrained in peoples mind that a web site ends in com.au

3) Be creative with your domain

In many cases the name that you want is not available. With so many domain names already registered it is hard to get what you want first time around. So perhaps it does not always need to be the name of your company. Sometimes something a little different will stick in people’s minds as well.

So if you operate a gym in Sydney you may be tempted to register SydneyGymnasium.com.au, which would be fine but possibly not available. Why not a name that describes what you do like GetFit.com.au.

What else to consider?

There are many other things that can be taken into consideration:-

• Rather than just the com.au and com version, if your business intends to reach users in other countries, consider securing international domain names as well
• Misspellings. If there are common misspellings of your name register those as well
• Consider contact an expert to have your ideas put through a more ridged processes: Our staff at The DMA have many years experience in managing corporate domain portfolios and can advise on many other topics (Intellectual property concerns, trademark infringement etc.. )

* Source Ausregistry Statistic