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How To Choose The Best Name For Your Website

You’ve probably noticed by now the use of the words domain, url and website name.  They all mean the same thing.  What are people going to type into their internet browser to go to your website.  Mine is DesignItDigital.com.  (Note:  I typed it with capital letters at the beginning of each word, but that is just for easy readability.  When you type it into your browser, it doesn’t matter if you type it that way or type it with all lower case letters.)

However, it is important to choose a good domain name for your website business.  Following are my tips to help you out.

Research It

Make sure the business name you’ve selected isn’t trademarked, copyrighted or being used by another company. If so, it could cause you a big legal problem that could cost you a fortune, as well as make you lose your domain!

You can check available domain names by typing them into your web browser or your Google search bar.  But to be absolutely sure, I like to go to MyDomain.com and type in names to see if they are available as domain names and/or what extensions are already taken.

Brainstorm 5 Top Keywords

What words would people use to search for your business, products or services?  Maybe you can use those in your website name.  That’s how I came up with my domain name.  Two of my key words were design and digital.  There were other variations that were already taken, so I ended up with DesignItDigital.com.

Extensions and What They Mean

Here are some top domain name extensions and how they’re often used:

• .com : for company, commerce, and community
• .co : an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community.
• .info : informational sites.
• .net : technical, Internet infrastructure sites.
• .org : non-commercial organizations and nonprofits.
• .biz : business or commercial use, like e-commerce sites.
• .me : blogs, resumes or personal sites.

Try To Use .com If You Can

First choice would be to check out if the actual name of your business is available as a domain name.  Here are business names of some of my clients:

My very first choice and recommendation is to try to get a domain name with .com at the end of it.  However, there are some circumstances where that just isn’t available.  Here are business names of some of my clients and in the tips below I’ve shown what domains names they ended up with.

• Alpine Capital Management
• Nails 21
• Hidden Garden Benefit Tour
• Essential Homemaker
• Risa Lynch

Make It Easy to Type

For most people, the thought of typing a long domain name would discourage them from going there altogether.

Alpine Capital Management:  Using the whole name Alpine Capital Management is quite long to type. Shortened to Alpine Capital is a good choice.  However, AlpineCapital.com was taken.  So this company chose AlpineCapital.net.

Hidden Garden Benefit Tour:  Once again, the whole name is a lot to type so they decided to shorten it to Hidden Garden.  Whether or not HiddenGarden.com was taken, they chose to use HiddenGarden.org because they are a non-profit organization and wanted to reflect that rather than using .com as a company.

On the other hand, sometimes you might want to use a name that is a little long because you like it and because everything else you can think of it already taken.  Most people will go to sites by just clicking on links or copy and paste.  So don’t worry….sometimes it’s okay to break the rules.  🙂

What To Do If .com Is Already Taken

Nails 21:  This local nail salon located in Utah found that there are other nail salons in other states with the same name and, of course, Nails21.com was taken.  So they chose to use the name Nails21Utah.com.

You can be creative and add something to your business name to make it work for you.

Essential Homemaker:  Jenn found that EssentialHomemaker.com was taken.  She still wanted the .com so she chose to go with TheEssentialHomemaker.com and branded the name with “The” into her logo.

Is the Name Too Specific?  Can You Expand?

Can you still use your name if you expand your line of products or add to your business offerings?  For example, if you are Susan’s Homemade Pies, what if later you want to include other desserts, or you want to expand to entrees?  Something like Susan’s Homemade or Susan’s Homemade Delights might be a better choice.

Originally, I had an online business where I created digital scrapbook designs.  I wanted the words digital and design in my name.  Those words were very popular and used in a variety of ways, but I did find the name DesignItDigital.com available.

After that my business evolved to a Digital Scrapbook Design Boutique where I had other designers selling their work as well.  Eventually, when I decided I really loved creating websites, the name still worked for me and I now use it for my web design business.

Use Your Own Name

Risa Lynch:  Risa is a health coach and wanted to brand her business with her name.  Luckily her name was available.

Using your name can be a great choice.  It works well if you are branding your business around you as an expert in your field.  But another advantage is that you have the option of switching between different businesses without worrying about the name.  It will still be you in the business, just you doing something different.

Another consideration is if you should ever want to sell your business.  If it is branded around your name, it would be difficult to sell.  But if you had named it something else, it would be easier to transfer to another owner.

Then again, if your name is hard to spell or pronounce, it might not be a good choice.  My husband uses MarkWyckoff.com because he is branding himself as a speaker/consultant.  But our last name is always misspelled, so we chose to also purchase MarkWycoff.com and MarkWykoff.com – just in case they spell it wrong.  Then I have those domains just forward to the correct domain name of MarkWyckoff.com.

How It Appears

One other thought on spelling is how the words look together.  Sometimes I have looked at a domain name, but wasn’t sure which letters went with which part of the words.

Also, if you used wyckofffinancial.com – you may not notice that there are 3 f’s in that name.  Or, I’m just making this up, how about princesssally.com –  3 s’s there.  But would you look at that and think it was princess ally or princess sally?  Something to consider.

Unique Names

You might consider a name that doesn’t describe your business, but may have a story behind it that makes it dear to your heart.  This works best if your business doesn’t already have a name.  For example, there is a company that sells unique and creative camera bags for the style-conscious photographer.  Their name is Cheeky Lime and domain name is CheekyLime.com, which doesn’t tell you anything about what it is, but I certainly remember it and I LOVE their bags!

Another is ThreeBirdNest.com.  With names like this, you can have fun with your branding.  On her about page, she shows a family photo with her 3 kids which she calls her three birds.  And when you join her list, she says, “Join The Flock”. She descibes her business with “Think warm knits, pretty laces, things that sparkle, and a touch of leather. Think patterns and textures you’d expect would clash but instead mesh perfectly…even when we touch upon a trend, we carry it somewhere new.”  Doesn’t that sound like a bird nest that is layered but cozy and comfy for little chicks?

Availability in Social Media

You may also want to check to see if your name is available at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube or whichever social media platform you also want to use.  It’s nice if you can use the same name with all.  It’s not always possible, so you may just have to be creative with those other platforms.

This is another reason why it’s good to keep your name shorter because there are limitations on length when choosing your usernames.  For example Twitter limits it to 15 characters.  Since DesignItDigital is 15 characters, I just make it, so I was able to use twitter.com/designitdigital.

Avoid Hyphens and Numbers

How are you going to tell people what your website is?  You are going to get tired of spelling it and explaining numbers versus spelling them or making sure they add the hyphen.  Try to avoid them if you can.

Final Thoughts

Most of all, after you consider all the above tips, choose the name that resonates the most with you, one that you will enjoy telling others about.

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