How To Choose Your Perfect Domain Name? Part 1

The issue of a domain name can bed dealt with in anything from seconds to months, depending on how you go about it. The success of that domain name can vary wildly, too. Do you really need the .com ?
Read on to find out….

Lots of people get confused about which TLD they should choose. TLD is short for TOP LEVEL DOMAIN which to most regular people means the bit after the dot in your domain name.

The main players in the TLD game are : .com .org .net .me .ly

Of course, if we’re talking China then we have to include .cn (we’ll cover more on the niche value of .cn in part 2 of this article).

Buy Dot Com Right Now?
This is often the big question when you are starting a project, and it’s not as simple to answer as people might think. Let’s start at the start…

Are you buying this domain name for a company you already own, or a project you are yet to start? The issue here is your level of commitment. If you’re 2+ years into a business, then you are already pretty committed to what you are doing, so buying your .com around the business you are doing would make sense. If you are still in the earlier planning stages, or even initial ideas, then you may want to think twice about your TLD. Buying a .com can be expensive, as hordes of them have been bought up buy speculators, waiting to resell for a bug margin.

Ideas for the direction of your project may change. In addition, you should be careful to choose a name that is appropriate. There are two main ways to go on your branding with domain names:

1. an “exact match domain”  e.g WEBUYANYCAR.COM
2. a more generally named brand e.g. MOTORISTA.COM

WEBUYANYCAR is great for one thing – buying cars. It’s not so good for trying to offer car repair services or sell cars at a later date.

MOTORISTA is a more general name that could be used for anything to do with the motor industry, so if your operation is currently offering one service in that area, but may want to add more, then this kind of general name means that your brand is not tied to just one thing.

Sometimes the .com for your chosen name may be available, if so – lucky you!! hit that buy now button and be done with it. If not, then you need to think carefully about how you go about dealing with naming your online presence.

In most cases, the most simple answer is “.com or bust”. The reason internet marketers in general default to this, is that globally, most people will default to a .com if they forget a TLD.

We’ve all been in a situation where you type in  the domain name you expected, only to find a completely unexpected web site – not good!

When Not To Buy a .Com

The most popular TLD is not always the best option for you. Look at www.eggplantdigital.cn for example. What does Eggplant do? Build websites, yes – but more specifically it specialises in dealing with marketing businesses online who are marketing to a PRC audience. Because of that, having a .cn TLD makes sense, as it reminds you that Eggplant are specialiasts as “ China website and online  guys” every time you type the domain name.

Personal Branding

For personal brands and websites .me has become a popular tool. Often you might find that (shock horror!) there is someone else out there with your name and your .com ! The .me TLD is actually for Montenegro, but is often included on major domain registration websites due to it’s popularity. It naturally leans itself towards talking  about “me” so your name  + .me is worth snapping up if you are considering doing anything in the personal brand space in the future or having a personal blog.

Buy Up Alternative TLD’s

It’s critical for your business to maximise the attention that you get from our audience. Losing visitors due to them typing the wrong TLD is a sad way to lose a customer. Some TLDs such as .co and country specific ones are often on sale with domain name registrars so can often be cheap to acquire.
In addition, If you grow a strong brand, what you don’t want is copycats throwing up a similar site with your name + another TLD for unsuspecting visitors.

Combat this by buying up the other TLDs for your name online. Next, forward the traffic to your site, so that anyone getting confused automatically ends up hitting your website. This is a quick and easy job for your website management team.

Did you find this article helpful? If you want some more information, head to the second part of this piece:  How To Choose Your Perfect Domain Name? Part 2.
If you thought something in the article was useful, please let us know with comment. If there is something on this topic you’d like to know more about, drop us an e-mail with a question. It only takes 2 minutes…