When you’re starting a new business, one important issue to consider is the right domain name for your website. If you choose well, your domain name will help brand your site and bring you traffic. If you choose poorly, on the other hand, you can turn off potential customers and make them think poorly of your site.
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid when choosing a domain name for your business:
Too Long – An overly long domain name is frustrating for many people. It feels like too much trouble to type, and can make a prospective customer less inclined to visit your site.
There’s also a greater chance of misspelling it, or of making a typo, and this will harm your web traffic. Sometimes there are websites set up to take advantage of this, and they will direct people who mis-type your domain name to a domain that isn’t yours.
Confusing – Your domain name is part of the branding of your business. You don’t want to be mysterious here, or overly clever to the point of being unclear. The domain name should tell someone what they are likely to find at the site. If you sell women’s clothing, you would do far better with a domain name like ‘dressesunlimited’ than with ‘wowsopretty.’
With domain names, someone should hear your name and have a pretty accurate idea of what is found there. If you sell shoes online, the domain name ‘wowgreatshoes’ would be a nice bet. The domain name ’shinyshinyshiny’ might be interesting or cute, but it does not say “we sell shoes.” Be clear, stay away from inside jokes, and don’t be clever at the expense of common sense.
Dashes – Don’t use a domain name that has dashes. If you have a business that is solely online, you can bend this rule if you must, but for a more traditional business dashes are a bad bet.
When people talk about businesses via word of mouth, they often won’t verbalize a dash and your potential customer will likely type out the domain wrong if yours uses dashes. Your competitors may set up sites that don’t have dashes, to skim off your potential customers who make the error of leaving them out. If your business is conducted solely online this is less of a problem, because people tend to copy and paste domain names – dashes and all – when browsing.
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