Choosing a domain name can be daunting. Research
subject (after all, you're type of marketer who researches, right?) and you'll be hit with a landslide of opinions, most contradictory. There are, however, two points that everyone agrees on:- Pick your domain before you launch your business.
This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan.
- Don't wait too long if you like a domain.
While you're researching, you'll likely come across a couple of domains that attract you. You might be tempted to wait, since you haven't finalized or refined your business plan. Don't. A handful of domains isn't going to cost you much at an affordable registrar like GoDaddy, and once they're gone, they're gone. Chances are you can even resell rejects at cost, if not a profit. Or "develop" them with unique content and point them to your main site for extra traffic.
Now that we have easy part of way, let's wade into murkier waters.
Q. Which TLD (top-level domain) is best?
A. If you're a juggernaut in business world with a giant ad budget, answer is dot-com (.com). If you're a smalltime business struggling for search engine positioning, answer is still dot-com.
People do disagree on value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in search engines, which may be true.
However, fact is, if you haven't yet seared your brand on collective brow of planet, dot-com makes you easier to remember. If you eschew dot-coms, then in some deep dark place inside, people will remember you as "that hard-to-remember URL with ending that isn't dot-com." What's worse, if you pick an otherwise memorable domain ending in dot-net, -us, or (God forbid) -tv, some of your traffic will end up at that competitor who snagged dot-com version of your domain. Okay, that's settled. Now for controversial stuff. Which is best: "keyword" domain, or "creative-genius, snappy and brandable" domain?
- Keyword Name vs. Creative-Genius Brandable Name
A Keyword Name is boring, workhorse kind of domain. You seem them everywhere. They bristle with hyphens: "best-anchovy-pizza-in-siberia.com." Or "super-labrador-accessories-and-golfballs.biz." On face of it, they're hard to brand. They're hard to fit on business cards. They're really hard to explain over phone to Aunt Martha.
On other hand, a Creative-Genius Brandable Name is sexy kind of domain. The successes are sparkling: Yahoo!, Google, Amazon.com. You can shout these URLs across room and other guy will probably get it right. But note: dot-com road is littered with hip, snappy business who failed to brand their product successfully, or get listed high in search engines. Now their URLs all point to same page: "server not found …"
The debate rages on, but first question you must ask yourself is:
How will people find YOU?
It was recently reported that "direct navigation" web traffic has started to outnumber search engine traffic. In other words, more people visit sites by typing in URL directly than they do by combing search engines for results. So more gurus are recommending ‘brandable' domains.
But think about this. As a small business owner, how will people find you? Word of mouth? Billboards on I-95? "Corporate sponsorships" on hockey arenas? Probably not: they'll find you through search engines. They'll type in "cheap purple widgets," and as a smart marketer, you will offer them a website optimized for keywords "cheap purple widgets."
Still, this doesn't imply you should automatically pick a keyword domain. There are pros and cons to both types.
