Selecting an effective domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make with regard to branding online.
These three factors
can help unleash the true potential of your online presence.
Often times people will click on your link online and be taken directly to your website, which is great! But when you are verbally communicating your domain or a previous viewer is trying to recall the site, these factors are essential. If you are telling someone your domain make sure it’s easy to understand and spell. For example: www.BeginHomeCareer.com is what I consider an effective domain and easy to say, versus www.OnlineSucceedingMoms.com You would undoubtedly get many misspellings with the word succeeding and some may leave out the ‘s‘ on Moms.
It’s important to create a website address that incorporates your brand, company name or type of product in some fashion. However, I am very aware that many effective domain names are not available and some searching is required. For example, there is no way www.bestbusiness.com is available or www.leadership.com. It’s likely that your first choice will be unavailable. If your business name or personal name is taken, I would highly recommend looking into who has that domain. There are many cases of poor planning and your marketing could be directing people to a competitor or even worse a negative website that you would not want to be associated with, even by mistake.
Keep in mind, an effective domain name that clearly indicates what you do or a problem that you solve, will give your target market a clear indication of what to expect on your website and encourage them to take a look. I recommend, making a list of keywords that someone might use to find you online. This list could include your industry, your target market, a problem your target market has, or a solution that you can offer.
If you are just starting out with a blog and you are trying to brand your name, it is a good idea to purchase at least two domains. The first one, should be your name, www.HeatherCalhoun.com or if that is taken www.HeatherCalhounOnline.com. The second domain should include a keyword that describes your blog content. That way when people search they may connect with your blog even if they don’t know you….yet.
I have personally found it a fun challenge to find available effective domain names that fit the following criteria. They are out there, now it’s time to…
Start your Search to find an effective domain!
I typically use www.GoDaddy.com to search and register my domains, but there are other domain registrars available. The cost is as little as $10/year. I just start plugging in the names that come to mind until I come up with 3 or 4 that are available.
Here are my best tips!
- Keep it short.
- Easy to pronounce and spell.
- Relevant to content.
- Include a Keyword for search engine optimization (SEO), for example: If you are branding yourself, use your name www.HeatherCalhoun.com If you are promoting a clothing line, use a word such as “Clothing” “Fashion” “Style”
- Don’t use play-on-words, creative misspellings and numbers. For instance “biz”,or “B at Home 4 Kids”
- Don’t use hyphens or special characters.
- Buy .COM version. The .net, .biz, .org endings will be overlooked and you will lose traffic. For example. if your website is www.HeatherCalhoun.BIZ, odds are people will still search for www.HeatherCalhoun.COM out of habit.
Put some thought into choosing an effective domain name that you are proud of and will serve you well in the years to come. It is a rewarding tool for helping you grow your brand and business online.
Leave me your domain and the reason you chose it! Hopefully an explanation will not be needed as to why you chose your effective domain 
Great insight on choosing a domain name. Mine is happyhomefront.com. I am a military wife, and wanted to give other military spouses the chance to provide a “Happy Homefront” for their families… in hopes to catch their eyes with “homefront”.
I’m glad you mentioned the misspelled cute-like names, because I think a lot of people think doing that will help them stand out, when actually it will hurt their chances of being found in a search!
Kimberly recently posted..Tips for Facebook Timeline
Thanks for sharing Kimberly. It’s great for people to see domains and thought behind them during their search. I believe your domain will really connect with the military market.
AWESOME advice Heather….thanks so much for this Blog Post…I am sharing it for sure..great for people who are just getting started with internet marketing….the domain name is KEY
Micki Lessard recently posted..how to do your best work
I always to try post lessons I’ve learned in hopes of helping others
Heather Calhoun recently posted..How to choose an effective domain for your blog or business website
Thanks yet again Heather, picking a domain name is one of the most important steps when starting with internet marketing. I picked http://www.workinghappyathome.com for mine, because I work from home and am happy doing it
Thanks for commenting Ginger!
Heather Calhoun recently posted..How to choose an effective domain for your blog or business website
Great article, Heather! I chose http://www.greenMOMteam.com because the company I work with has safer, more natural products and they pride themselves on being “GREEN” long before it was popular. I am also a mom, and work mainly with moms, and we have a fantastic team that helps people who have no online marketing experience learn the ins and outs of working from home on their computer.
When I meet someone out and about, I will tell them my webpage is “GREEN, like the color, MOM like me, and TEAM as in Together Everyone Achieves More” – and people usually remember it.
Thanks for sharing, Heather!
Laila Moysey recently posted..Words Matter – Try or Do, it’s Up to You.
Great reasoning behind your choice. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Heather Calhoun recently posted..How to choose an effective domain for your blog or business website
Hi Heather – great info here. I chose the domain name http://onlinemlmbusinessblog.com/ – and I’m raking on the first page for online mlm business – working on getting it listed higher up this year. That’s great that your name was available as a .com! A lot of names are already taken – I know mine is!
Tara Walker recently posted..The tough balancing act of working from home