Claim Your Domain Name Carefully 1st to Achieve Top Success

Claim Your Domain Name Carefully 1st – Then Build Yourself a Great Website

Claim your domain name carefully before you do anything else.  Your domain name is like a virtual identification card. It’s a way for people to verify your online presence. A lot of would-be online entrepreneurs incorrectly and unfortunately believe having a bad domain name is better than not having one at all.  That’s just not true.

Having a bad domain name can actually work against you and cause you to lose customers. A bad domain name can make you look unprofessional while on the other hand, a good domain name leaves a positive impression and fosters a feeling of trust within your clients.

A well-chosen domain name will also help your website to rank higher in the search engine results, which in turn makes it possible for your site to be seen by even more people. Considering that your domain name will be (or should be) on your letterhead, business cards, and more if you choose to take the business offline as well, you’ll want to  claim a domain name carefully that is reflective of your business.

Now that you understand the importance of a domain name, it’s time to make a list of carefully crafted potential domain names for your website.

You don’t need to restrict yourself to only using your company name. Sometimes it’s better not to if your company name is long or difficult to spell.

One company had a name that was pretty hard to remember, so it launched a website with a domain named after its most popular product and they discovered that their customers were able to easily remember that domain name. This resulted in higher conversions and better search engine rankings because more customers were searching for the product than the company.

Sometimes the face of the brand is its owner.  If that’s you, you might consider choosing your own name for your domain name.  Two examples of people who are the faces of their respective businesses are Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. If that’s the case for you, then you’ll want to use your name as the domain name. But it’s generally best to use a keyword from your particular niche.

Once you’ve come up with a list of potential domain names, get rid of any that are excessively long. Once you get above twenty characters your domain name starts to become harder to remember.

Cross out anything that might seem a little negative. If you’re using multiple words, which is almost always they way it is nowadays, write them out as a single unit without any spaces to make sure that your domain name doesn’t have any strings of letters that might appear offensive.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list a little, start ranking them in order of your favorite to to your least favorite. Then you can go online and find out which domain names are available.  You may not get your favorite, but don’t give up.

Remember, it’s worth all the time it takes to get the best possible domain name for your business.  It’s really important to claim your domain name carefully, because that is going to be how your business is remembered – hopefully – for a long and very successful time.

You can do this part of your research through a popular domain registry like Bluehost, Godaddy or NameCheap. Once you find a domain name that’s available, be sure to look it up on Google and Bing before buying it. Make sure nobody else is using a name that is similar for something crooked, offensive or with a poor reputation for bad business practices like the use of spam marketing.

This might seem like a lot of extra work, but you don’t want your site to get confused with a website with a very similar domain name that uses ethical or offensive business practices.

Planning carefully is critically important when you start any business, including one you run from home.  Claim your domain name carefully and reap the benefits of your good choice for many years to come!