
The following fimportant factors must be considered in choosing a
domain name:
1.
Branding-Your
domain name must preferably brand well with your business name. If your business trades as Brown Motors, you
should consider domain names like brownmotors.com, brownmotors.co.zw,
brownmotors.net, etc.You may be asking what if my domain name has already
been taken? You have 2 options here:
a.
Find out
who registered the domain name you want and contact them to negotiate that
you can repurchase the domain name from them, normally at a higher price of
course.
b.
Tweak you
domain name to make it different. For example if tanaka.co.zw was
registered by someone else, you could make yours tanakaonline.co.zw or
tanakabricks.co.zw if your company sold bricks.
2.
Easy to
remember or spell out- A domain name must be easy to remember and also easy
to spell. If your domain name is difficult to spell you are likely to lose web
visitors as they misspell the domain name and are redirected to some other web
site. So you must avoid commonly misspelt words. Such words like accommodation,wheather and others commonly confused because of their ambiguity e.g. legalise in
British English and legalize in American English. The Americans will type your
domain name with a “z” whilst the british use an “s”.
3.
Avoid
hyphens-Yes this is important. Avoid domain names with some hyphens “-“ like afri-com.net. People have a tendency to
forget the “-“. Going to www.afri-com.net
will take you to a different location whilst www.africom.net
will take you elsewhere. However sometimes businesses have no choice if the
domain name has already been taken, they either resort to putting the hyphen or
having to negotiate to buy the registered domain name from its owner which usually
will be quite expensive. You could end
up buying a domain name you could have registered at $15.00 per anumn for $2500.00
4.
Local or
International-This is where I have found the greatest confusion amongst
people. I have often come across people
asking me what domain extension is best for us? .com, .net, .org, .biz, .co.zw
or what?
a.
A country specific domain like example.co.zw is
referred to as a local domain. This domain brands your business as Zimbabwean
and is most likely to be highly trusted amongst locals.
b.
International domains (.com, .net, .biz, .org,
etc) brands your business as
international
Thus your choice of a local or international domain should be
based on whether your major online audience is local or international. If your
audience is both local and international, then go international.
A note about domain
names
Domain names usually run out very quickly! It’s now very
hard to find a good .com domain and very soon good .co.zw domains will become
harder to find, especially with the introduction of online domain registration facilities
like name.co.zw which save people time going to ZISPA offices.
Good luck in your domain search.
Informative article
ReplyDeleteInformative blog really helpful for those who are in need to choose domain name for their website ..I followed the tips which you specified here and choose a suitable domain name for my professional website and got it registered through online domain vendors like Thewebpole.com for affordable cost ...
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