First things first! You have decided on designing/creating a new website for your dental practice – have you thought of a ‘good’ domain name for you website? Although the idea of choosing a domain name for your website seems pretty straight forward, have you taken the time to really look into this? It can be harder than you think! Firstly, is your desired name available? How will the domain name be formatted, for example will you make use of hyphens, e.g. www.dental-design-products.co.uk? Do you want .co.uk, .com, .net etc? In summery your domain name should be as much to the point and as clear as possible. The following article explains this further…
Domain names are a key component of every website. Establishing a domain name is one of the first tasks completed when setting up a new site. Making a memorable, effective domain name is easier than you may think. Because this is such an important gateway to your business, here are a few suggestions for picking a domain name.
The best way to narrow down a list of potential names is to determine if the name you want is available. Don’t worry if the exact name you want is already taken because there are a variety of ways to adjust a domain name to fit your business. Use www.SiteReserve.com to search for available domain names anytime. For example, if you own a carpet cleaning business and run a SiteReserve search for “carpet cleaning”, you can view a list of all closely associated names (.com, .net, .org, .us, and .info) and determine which domain names are already taken and which are available. Brainstorm some key words, ideas, and phrases that relate to your business. This will open up more options for domain names. Taking keywords and phrases and implementing them for your domain is one strategy for making a unique and effective domain name. Sometimes in your search you will discover more than one domain name – grab them all up and point them to the same website!
Just like a catchy nickname, creating a domain name that is short and sweet will help attract more people to your website. Not only is succinct domain name easier to remember, it is also more visually attractive. The average website domain is 2-5 syllables long. The shorter and more unique a name is, the more likely a person will remember and revisit your website. Using acronyms is one way to create a compact and customized domain name. Always remember that a domain name should not be a long description of your business; save that information for your webpage. An effective domain name identifies your business brand or product but leaves the rest to the website.
Unless you’re Amazon or Google, the best and most effective domains are clear and brief. Take WEBii.net (as well as WEBii.com, by the way) – judging by our domain name, you would be right to assume that we do things involving the Internet, web design, and development. From the address, customers easily understand that our business deals with the World Wide Web in some fashion. WEBii.net is an easy-to-remember, concise domain name that gives insight into what the company does. We could have chosen “TheBestInWebDesignAndDevelopment.net,” but that is an obviously a bulky and ineffective domain.
It is important to understand that with the growth of the Internet, it has become more challenging to find domain names, especially short ones. Most of the words less than 6 characters have already been long registered. So don’t be discouraged if your ideal word or short acronym is not available. You do sometimes need to be creative and paraphrase the name you use for your website, while keeping it closely related to your other business marketing.