Choosing a Catchy Domain Name
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A crucial building block in setting up a website is the choice of a domain name. Whether you are a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, or if you want to start up a website to advertise your garage band, the entire endeavor begins with the registration of a domain name.
Next you might ask- “What constitutes the best choice of domain name?”. Well, what type of website are you planning on publishing? What I mean by that is if your site is just going to be devoted to family photos and events, domain name choice isn’t as important as it might be otherwise. Why? Most likely in that case you’re not looking for tons of traffic, friends and family are your target audience, to keep them informed. In a case like this, it does not matter whatsoever if you find a domain name like “mybabiesphotos.com” or not, since most likely you will only be giving out the domain name to a few friends and family and maybe some coworkers.
The point is that in a case like this, there is no real concern with getting a lot of visitors to the website other than friends and family and coworkers, so there is no real harm in naming the website ANYTHING, because you will be giving out the website address to a select few people. BUT……
What if you are looking to attract customers? And to get as much traffic coming to your site as possible?
The simple answer is, it can bring huge dividends to have a domain name that drives traffic to your site or business. Depending on the type of business, an electrical contractor for example, would people look for your electrical contracting business online if your website had an obscure name like “bills-business.com? The best strategy is to find a domain name that directly relates to your business, whether it is the business name itself or related to the category of business. For example, an antiques website should have a domain name like antiques.com or bobsantiques.com, something that immediately associates the domain name with the theme of the site. It’s all about branding, and making a lasting impression on the target audience or customers.
The WhoIs database contains all domain names registered, and when you are searching it will show whether or not your desired name is already registered. I have conveniently placed a domain name search engine on StartYourWebsiteToday.com for this very purpose. When searching for the domain name, you will instantly know whether or not the domain name is available, and if so, give you the option to immediately register it. If it’s not available, several alternative domain names will be proposed, to help you fine tune your search, or possibly giving you an acceptable alternative domain name to register instead.