The Ancient Romans used to have a proverb which claimed that one’s destiny could be seen through their name (“Nomen est omen”). Given that a company’s name has such a large impact on its overall marketing, this proverb isn’t that far from the truth in the context of the modern business world. However, nowadays the choice of the right company name isn’t everything. Due to the fact that a lot of companies conduct their business mostly in the digital environment, their domain name proves to be an even more relevant factor. Bearing this in mind, here are a few reasons why choosing the right domain name is so important.
Aim for memorability
At this very moment, there are about 1.3 billion active websites online, and counting. This is also why it is very likely that the first several names that cross your mind might be unavailable. In fact, seeing as how long it might take to come up with something that both suits one’s needs and is available, a lot of people end up making the mistake of settling for availability over memorability. Needless to say, this is a fatal mistake.
If a person only hears about your website and doesn’t look it up right away, they might completely forget about your domain name by the time they get home. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses in your niche use similar keywords, so if your domain name is generic, there is an incredibly low likelihood of your website ever being discovered. For this reason, you need to make your domain name simple, unique and easy to remember.
Get another opinion
Another major mistake that a lot of people make when deciding on their domain name is forgetting about the spaces between the words. They only see their domain name as it is supposed to be pronounced, disregarding interpretations that other people may have of it. The greatest problem that can arise from this is demonstrated by a number of unintentionally inappropriate domain names that appeared over the course of time. This is how Speed of Art became speedofart.com and how Therapist in the Box became therapistinthebox.com.
Even though it is more than clear that all of these examples were mishaps, one such misunderstanding is often enough for people to get the wrong impression of your company. You may believe this to be unjustified, but consider whether you would feel comfortable entrusting your resources to a company that made such a huge oversight in their very domain name. Luckily, preventing this problem is very simple. All you need to do is have someone else (preferably an outsider) read your domain name.
Think about SEO
Earlier on, domain names containing certain industry-specific keywords were mentioned. The primary reason behind their importance is SEO. Adding the right keyword to your domain name will make it much easier for people to find your website by coincidence, as well as for your regular customers to come back. This is yet another vital reason why you should invest a lot of careful consideration when you eventually decide to go ahead and buy a domain name for your business.
Make it impossible to misspell
While potential customers forgetting the name of your website is unfortunate, misspelling or failing to remember the exact spelling of your domain is quite bad as well. Missing a letter isn’t that big of a deal, but what about failing to recall whether the number three in your domain name was written in letters or numerals? In fact, this is why most guides on this topic suggest avoiding numbers altogether. The problem is not just the failure to recollect the whole sequence, but also the frustration that such a lapse of memory may cause for your potential customers. This feeling is definitely not what you want your brand to be associated with.
Another similar problem can happen due to the use of hyphens. Although some may argue that it is quite straightforward where this symbol should go in a phrase, the major confusion stems from the fact that people might not be able to remember whether there was a hyphen at all. Finally, keep in mind that people will automatically assume your website to have “.com” extension, and using any other extension might cause a slight misunderstanding.
Conclusion
From all the above-mentioned reasons, it becomes clear that choosing the right domain name for your company isn’t a simple matter. What justifies all this effort is the fact that this is something you have to do only once, at the launch. Later on, however, your domain name will become the name of your company in the digital world and it might even find its way onto all the promotional materials you eventually decide to use. This is why the importance of making the right choice at the beginning simply cannot be stressed enough.
This guest post is courtesy of Raul. He is a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he's not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on technivorz.com and bizzmarkblog.com