Tips for Choosing a Domain Name

Theare are a few things to consider when choosing a domain name for your site.

Your Site Name

Your domain name should almost always be the name of your site. When people think of a website, they think of the domain name. So if you're website is called 'Joe's Flowers' your domain name should probably be something like www.joesflowers.co.uk.

The Shorter the Better...

The shorter your domain name, the better. Most people don't have the best of memories and shorter, punchier domain names are far more likely to be remembered than long winded ones, no matter how creative or original!

.com or .co.uk?

Do you get a .com or .co.uk? Well, that all depends on what type of business you're in. If you're a local flower shop for instance, you'd probably want a .co.uk to let people know that they're dealing with a local company. If however you're setting up a global flower delivery service, delivering bouquets across the globe, you might want to think about a .com. As a general rule of thumb, .co.uk is for businesses who deal locally, whereas .com domains are either US or global in their reach.

Somebody has my name!

Don't panic... take a deep breath. If your name is taken you could always look at different domain extensions such as .uk.com or .org.uk, or you could add a few words to your domain name. If Joe's Flowers was looking for a domain name but joesflowers.co.uk was already taken, Joe's Flowers could add another word to the name. For example, joesflowershop.co.uk or joesflowerslowestoft.co.uk or even joes-flowers.co.uk. The disadvantage with this approach is that longer more complex names are more difficult to remember and could lead to your customers going to the wrong site!

Consider Your Brand

Branding is important for any business and a web site is about as important a branding tool these days as anything else. Although generic names such as flowershop.co.uk may sound like a good idea, unless people associate your business with this name, any advantage will be lost. It's more important for your domain name to reflect your brand image. That way, if anyone ever looks you up on the internet they stand a far better chance of finding your site.