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Your site's up and running, so you don't
need to worry about your domain name,
right?
Think again. A few simple rules can help
you get more value out of your site's
address.
For most of us, the domain naming
process is an exercise in frustration.
With most of the
good domain names already taken, finding
a name that works for your company can
be a
tedious trial-and-error process. If
you've ever spent an hour drilling
through names at a
registration site, like WhoIs.net, you
know how bad the process can be. As a
result, many
Webmasters are happy to grab the first
name vaguely like their company's name.
That's too bad, because it leads to a
proliferation of bad domain names. For
example,
suppose you're the Webmaster for a
company called Three Letter Acronym,
Inc. You'd
like to register the name "tla.com" but,
like all the three-letter combinations,
it's
already registered. Hmmm...Aha! It looks
like "tla-inc.com" is available, so you
grab it.
Too bad, you just registered a truly
awful domain name. With a little more
work, you
might have registered something better.
Before we look at what's wrong with a
name like "tla-inc.com," it's
worth asking whether your domain name
matters at all. In our
experience during nearly six years
online is that, yes, it definitely
matters, but in ways that you may not
expect. The real value of a
domain name isn't helping people find
your site the first time;
it's helping them find it the second
time, after they forgot to
bookmark it.
Odds are that most visitors come to your
site from another Web site, either by
clicking on
a banner, following a link on someone
else's site, or drilling through results
in a search
engine. If they like your site, that's
great; maybe they'll bookmark it. Then
again, maybe
they won't. Lots of people bookmark
sites until their list of favorites
becomes an
unwieldy mess, then they stop
bookmarking. To find your site again,
these people have to
remember how they found it the first
time. In a situation like this, a good
domain is worth
a lot.
In fact, it may be worth more than you
realize. The hard part about domain name
problems is that you can't tell when you
have them. You can't look in your server
logs
and see the domain misspellings and
mistakes that keep people from finding
your site. As
a result, it's hard to put a value on
the business lost due to a bad domain
name.
So what exactly is wrong with "tla-inc.com?"
Well, about the only thing that's right
about
it is that it's available. In nearly
every other way, it breaks these basic
rules of a good
domain name:
1. Don't be cryptic. Use the name by
which people know your company. In
practice that
usually means don't abbreviate, unless
the abbreviation is your company's
trademark.
Since many hi-techcompanies are better
known by their three-letter
abbreviation, most of
them are forced to register an alternate
domain. That's the case with our
mythical
company TLA, Inc.
If that's the case, it's better to
register "threeletteracronym.com,"
instead something like
"tla-inc.com," or "threeletterac.com."
At least visitors have a chance of
correctly guessing
your domain name if it spells out the
company's name. If you're not sure what
people
might guess, take a poll: ask your
co-workers what domain name they'd
expect your
company to have; ask your customers; ask
your friends; ask everyone you can.
Also, keep in mind that domain names can
now be 67 characters long, instead of
the old
26 character limit, so you should be
able to get your full company's name.
Typing a long
domain name may seem undesirable, but if
your company name requires that extra
space,
it's worth considering.
The easiest way to follow this rule may
be this: consider how your domain name
sounds
when you have to read it over the phone
to a customer. If you have to explain
special
characters, abbreviations, or spelling,
then you've got a problem.
2. Avoid dashes. With the number of good
domain names dwindling, dashes will
eventually become commonplace, but at
the moment they're anything but that.
People
simply don't know that domain names can
include dashes.
Wal-Mart, the big American retailer,
learned that lesson the hard way. The
company first
launched its e-commerce site as "wal-mart.com,"
the company's official name. They lost
millions in sales before registering "walmart.com."
Now both domain names take you to
the same Web site.
3. Register multiple versions of your
name. When you poll your customers and
friends
about your domain name, don't let the
majority decide your domain name.
Instead, try to
register every name that's mentioned.
Someone, somewhere will use that name to
find
you. It can cost as little as $12.00 to register a
domain name, and that's not much of an
expense
to
avoid losing a customer.
If your company's name is hard to spell,
register every common misspelling of its
name.
Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, a domain
speculator has already registered "wallmart.com."
Too bad, since that's the way many
people spell the company's name.
Register every domain people might use
to find your company. That includes
products
and services your company offers. Then
point all these domains to your home
page. It's
easy to do. Several companies, like
mydomain.com offers URL
forwarding services that will tie
additional domain
names to your Web site for no additional
charge. Just register the new domain
through
their
service; visitors will be automatically
redirected to your home page.
Finally, no matter what your name is or
how many domains you've registered, it's
a good
idea to support the domain name.
Reinforce it by incorporating it into
your site's logo.
In addition, put your domain name on all
company collateral materials, like your
business
cards and stationary. That last part is
an easy step, yet it's surprising how
many
companies forget to do it.
In a digital
age, your company's Web site is its
electronic
business card.
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