Your domain name is the nucleus of your identity on the web.

What should you take into consideration when choosing your web identity?

Good Practise

• Keep it short.
• Make sure it is easy to spell.
• Make sure it is easy to pronounce on the phone.
• Use simple and plain English.
• Use real words from the dictionary.
• Use search engine keywords.
• Keep it descriptive! Use words which describe exactly what you do.
• Keep it simple and don't confuse your audience. What is this? www.tunapiano.com Is it 'Tuna Piano' or 'Tune a piano'?
• Cover your options and buy more than one domain if you need to.
• Only index one domain per website on search engines, if you wish to avoid diluting your search engine ranking.
• Choose the right domain provider. They are not all the same and many have hidden charges.
• Use a popular and mainstream domain extension.
• Choose the right domain extension for your market or country. For example .COM for International; .CO.UK for UK; .CA for Canada; .COM.AU for Australia.
• And finally, check your spelling before you buy and register online.

Domain Name & Business Name & Brand & Company Name !

Ideally you will have one business name and it will be the same name for your domain, your business brand and your business name.
However you will find that all of the short and identifiable domain names are not available.

So....assuming you are based in Manchester, your business is called 'Northern Plumbing Limited' and you run a home plumbing business. Then you should register two or more domains:

www.manchesterplumbers.com
Or:
www.manchesterplumbers.co.uk

And:

www.northernplumbing.com
Or:
www.northernplumbing.co.uk


With this in mind, you should ideally print www.northernplumbing.com on your business stationery (business cards, letterheads etc) and you index www.manchesterplumbers.com on search engines as it contains search engine keywords and more importantly, it says exactly what you do.

When you have settled on several available name choices, see what your friends and clients have to say. A name that may make perfect sense to you may be too hard for other people to remember. Is your domain easy to say? Is it hard to spell? Do you have to explain why you chose the name?