What's In A Name?

Important Note: - This tutorial is not intended to be an exhaustive work on the subject of choosing a domain name. It's simply a quick guide to get you thinking about the basics.

Whether you have a domain name or not, it's a good idea to review this information on selecting domain names. It's both an art and a science.

I know you're eager to get your website up and running, and you'll be there soon! But first, since you're going to have your domain name for a while, I want to encourage you to take ample time in selecting that name. To consider what you want that name to represent. In other words, what's in a name, anyway?

Your domain name is your online identity. Think of it as the name of a store (if your website is associated with a business), or a café or club (if your site will be more personally oriented.)

For instance, suppose you were Humphrey Bogart's character in the movie Casablanca. Would you choose ricks.com? You could, but the name wouldn't tell a prospective visitor anything about what they might find. "Ricks" might sell fine men's clothing, laundry soap or be an occasional blog.

You might, as Rick did, name your site rickscafeamericain.com, but that's a lot of words for a visitor to remember (in the right order!) and to type. No wonder, in the movie, that the café was referred to simply as "Rick's." (It may be, in time that you will have that kind of name recognition, but most likely you're not there yet.) If it had been Sam's place, he might have called it "Sam's Piano Bar." You get the idea -- it conjures up a whole different feeling.

In the movie, the name "Rick's Café Americain" makes sense. In Morocco, during the war, it would have been important to distinguish a café by its presiding nationality. How do you want to distinguish your business or website?

What will your domain name say about you and the purpose of your site?

Identify your purpose first. Take the opportunity seriously as you develop your name, and consider your online presence. You know why you want a website. Take a few moments to write down all the reasons. Also write down the reasons you feel passionate about your work or your art or your family -- whatever your site is going to focus on.

Why do you want people to visit your site? What will they find there? What will your domain name lead them to expect?

Here are some examples:

My friend Teena loves Paris. Her passion is sharing what she knows about her favorite city. Her domain name, "A-Night-In-Paris.com" conjures up more than the average tourist romp down the Champs-Elysees. It suggests that the site owner has knowledge of out-of-the-way, unusual and intimate places -- which Teena does!

"GardeningOnEarth.com" beautifully describes my friend Pamela's passion for growing vegetables and living a sustainable lifestyle. The name has a warmth and gentleness to it, which reflects her nurturing quality.

The name, China-Manufacturers-USA.com" is direct and business-like, and perfect for my client, Ron Meyers, who specializes in Chinese manufacturing sources for American companies.

Can you use your own name as part of the domain name? Of course! It depends on the tone you want to set, and whether the familiarity of using your name will attract or turn off potential visitors. Which brings me to the next point:

Know who your audience is. In the examples above and countless others, the domain names reflect an awareness of who the site owners are talking to. This is important!

When you know what your audience is truly interested in you possess the ability to attract them to your site and satisfy a need, whether for information, products, humor, advice -- whatever your calling is. For instance, there is a good reason why Pamela's site is not named "SlashAndBurn.com." And why Teena did not choose "WhoNeedsTheFrench.com." Silly examples, but you get the idea.

What words would you use to find a website like yours? No, this isn't a trick question. This is essential in deciding on a great domain name.

For example, if your audience is "new car buyers," then it will help to find some combination of words that convey that effectively -- maybe "New-Cars-Online.com." But how do you know if those keywords are important to your audience? You simply perform a "keyword" search using one of many free keyword tools. One of the best is Google's, which you can access at:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Simply enter your keyword idea such as "new car buyers," and you'll get back a list of related words and the number of times people search for each keyword within month. You want to find a keyword phrase that gets a good number of monthly searches, but low competition from other related websites.

Should I use hyphens? You can, but I personally find it annoying to have to take that extra step. However, search spiders that index and rank your pages can more easily interpret your market with a hyphenated domain.

You want to keep your domain name brief if possible. -- under 15 characters if possible, including hyphens. Domain names aren't case sensitive, so to make a domain name more clear, you can do what Pamela did: her domain name is "gardeningonearth," but on her business cards and other materials, she prints "GardeningOnEarth," to make it easier for people to see the individual words. Teena went with hyphens, and that seems to be working for her. (Also "anightinparis" without hyphens was already owned by someone else. Which brings me to the next point:

How do you know if a particular keyword phrase is already a registered domain? Once you have a clear picture of your audience, the terms they use to search, and what keyword phrase, you'll want to enter combinations of those terms -- your domain name creation -- into a free domain name search tool. One of my favorites is --

http://www.nameboy.com/

Nameboy.com has a helpful interface that splits the words into two fields and generates several suggestions based on your query, and you instantly can see if the ".com" extension is available or not, along with whether other extensions are available.

CAUTION: When researching possible domains, you'll be tempted to register the names right then. PLEASE WAIT! If you register a name, youll later have to transfer it if you want all the billing related to your website to be centralized with your hosting. That's one of the reasons I set up this process -- to make it easy for you to keep it all simple and avoid major hassles later on.

Don't over-think your choice. Listen to your intuition. Take time to consider your domain name options. However, I caution you against turning this into a procrastination marathon. For many folks, the process and decision of selecting a good domain will be easy and clear.

Should I get a ".com" extension? Yes. The ".com" extension is preferable. Our recommendation is always ".com" first. My typical approach is ordering the ".net" and ".org" versions as well as the ".com," but not everyone does that. Some buy all extensions, which probably is unnecessary for most cases.

A memorable identity for your domain name is helpful in guiding your choice. While it is very good marketing advice, it's not the final arbiter, either. I mean, hey, we had to be educated that Google meant "search engine," right?

So what do I mean? Using our example of "new car buyers" you might discover "kwik car invoice" is available. And, since the keyword "invoice car prices" has nearly 10,000 monthly searches and lower competition than other keywords, it might be a good choice. You accomplish two things with the domain. One, you include a highly searched phrase ("car invoice") in your domain, and you add a word that may generate a "memorable" identity ("kwik"), depending on how you spin your marketing.

Finally, please select a name that you like, and that you think you will be happy with for at least several years. It's a good idea when you begin your domain name search to have several variations available in case one combination is already registered.