So this might seem a little backwards for traditional business, but in the online business space a great domain with a decent business name is worth more than a great business name with a poor domain name.
What do I mean by this? Well, say for instance you want to sell hiking and travel gear specifically catered for the Amazonian environment. If you choose a URL that is ANYTHING like Amazon.com, no one will find your site organically (through search results), and you will never possibly outrank Amazon on any search engine. But what you can do is change your business name to junglehiking.com or something else that won’t conflict with big players. The point is, before you choose a business name, make sure a good, catchy URL – preferably a .com.au – is available. Why a .com.au? If you plan to sell domestically, which you should initially for the ease of shipping, you will get the best results from choosing a domain extension that fits your locality. For example, if you want to sell in Australia, buy a .com.au. If you are in the UK, get a .co.uk etc. If you can grab the .com version of your site grab that too and redirect it to your original site (you might want to expand internationally later!).
Buying domains is very straightforward. To purchase a .com.au you must have an ABN, which are also quite easy to obtain. There are plenty of domain retailers out but I found the easiest, quickest and most competitive was GoDaddy.com.
Top Tips to Remember when choosing a domain name
- Make it memorable
A simple, one word website is great, but if that isn’t possible try to keep it as short and memorable as possible. People just won’t type your url directly if it is too long, so consider abbreviating. A good example is The Internet Movie DataBase, or imdb.com (much better!).
- Try to avoid numbers
Imagine you want to name your website twentytwo.com. Here are a number of ways people might try to spell it:
Twentytwo.com
22.com
two-two.com
twenty2.com
20-2.com
You get the point. Avoid having to explain this altogether and leave out the numbers if possible. - Avoid confusing words or terms
Find out the Top Most Misspelt Words and try to avoid them! - No Trademarks
The last thing you want is to build a site and end up with a cease and desist letter from a large company. - Keywords can help!
I get a lot of traffic to my site Melbournebeardoil.com.au simply because people search “beard oil Melbourne” and boom…there I am! This wasn’t by mistake, and it can definitely help you online!