What's in a name?

What’s in a (Domain) Name?

Frugally Blonde. The Onion. Both are great sites. But one is properly named. The other, not so much.

Domain names are big business. The right name can drive traffic—and thus customers—to your site in droves. That’s why domain sites are making so much money buying, selling and trading names. Now that so much commerce is online, your URL is your brand.

So how to choose that domain?

Most experts agree on the following three guidelines:

• Research keywords that are germane to your business to help search engines find you easily—and direct potential customers there when they’re looking for a product or service you provide.
• Choose a domain that reflects the name of your website as well as the product or service you ofer.
• Choose a domain that’s easy to remember.

Is More Than One Domain Better?

According to James Ussery, President of software development company Machus Corp., the more the merrier.

“If your marketing plan relies heavily on type-in traffic, it may be to your benefit to have more than one domain,” he says. “Having more domains allows for misspellings, hyphens, being regional and offers protection. It also benefits your branding efforts. The more ways your name is out there, the better.”

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate…your domain.

If attracting surf traffic is important to you, then use hyphens in between each word in your URL. The hyphens make it easier for search engines to read your keywords and direct traffic to your site. If most of your customers are found in face-to-face situations or word of mouth, you may want to bypass the hyphens to avoid confusing the customer who remembers the name, types it into the Google bar and then can’t find you because he or she didn’t use hyphens.

(dot) Extensions

The same rule for hyphens basically holds true for extensions, too. If you believe most of your customers hear the name and going home to surf it, then use the old standard .com. But if separating yourself from the cyber pack is important, try using an extension like, .net, .pro or .biz. Our fave is .ME. It’s unique and pretty much says it all.

Check out this short list approved by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) that pretty much explains each one of your options:

• .biz Used mainly for small businesses
• .com Means commercial.
• .pro Means professional. Used exclusively by licensed business professionals.
• .tel is for telecommunications. Allows you to manage contact information directly on the Internet and enables you to contact them from any Internet-enabled device.
• .tv is commonly used by the entertainment or media industry for media files.
• .org is primarily used by non-profits
• .net is most commonly used by Internet service providers, Web-hosting companies or other businesses that work with Internet workings.
• .name Specifically designed for personal use.
• .mobi Stands for mobile and is used by sites configured to be read easily on mobile devices
• .me is the country code for the country of Montenegro It is also used for a personalized Web address.
• .info Stands for information and means the site is a credible resource for info.

Making It Local

If most of your business is local and your customer base is located in your own backyard, you may want to take advantage of a country-specific extension, such as .us (United States), .uk (United Kingdom) or .ca (Canada).

There are countless ways to make your business stand out on the Internet. The trick is, finding the combination of words and extensions to create the right one. You can go the traditional route, but why not take a chance and place your business name between www. and .ME? After all, who’s ever heard of Montenegro?