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What Makes a Good Domain Name

Your website name is your Brand. Your brand name may be the same as your company name, but it doesn't have to be.

You will use your domain name in all your advertising so take your time when making a decision.

1) Keep it short so that people are more likely to remember it and type it in correctly.

2) Try to avoid words that people are likely to misspell.

3) Consider using your company name or existing brand name to ensure people associate the website with your existing business.

4) Try to use a combination of words that cannot be easily confused with competitors, e.g. If your competitor runs parts4cars.co.uk, don't use partsForCars.co.uk.

5) Ensure that your domain name cannot be easily misinterpreted, e.g. expertsexchange.co.uk, could be read as expertsexchange.co.uk or expertsexchange.co.uk.

6) Check to see who owns the .com, .net, .biz etc. versions of your name. If someone visits those sites by accident, do they find your competitor or a site with offensive material? Either case would not be good for you.

7) Be unique. If you call your website TheShop.co.uk, and search for the shop on Google, you will find loads of websites using that phrase. This would make it hard for you to rank near the top of search results for your own brand name (a bad thing!). Try searching for contrast web solutions. We come at the top! They are all very common words, but few people use them together in a phrase.

8) Try to incorporate words in your domain name that people may search for when looking for the product or service you provide. For example, we run EquineCompare.co.uk (an equestrian comparison site) and come at the top when people search for equine compare on Google. Our domain name helps improve our ranking for those words.

9) Avoid using hypens (-) in your domain name. People will forget to type it and end up on your competitors website. Also, this makes the domain name look old fashioned.

Is My Domain Name Available

Try searching for your chosen domain name on nominet to see if it is available.

Many good website names have already been bought up by people who try to resell the name for a vast profit. If you find that your domain name is taken by someone who says it is for sale, you can expect them to want a 4 figure sum! Ask them by all means, but personally I would always look for something more unique. It's important to get a good domain name, but your content is more important so don't pay over the odds for one.