What Does Your Domain Name Say?

We found a fascinating and hilarious article at Business Insider about wildly inappropriate domain names…of course, unintentionally-arrived-at inappropriate domain names. My favorite is speedofart.com — for art enthusiasts, not flatulent swimmers, whose creators obviously did not notice the double entendre of their domain name. I think that arriving at a domain name might be one of the more challenging aspects to project management, particularly when clients have a good amount of competition in terms of availability. As these rather inappropriate examples demonstrate, domain names should reflect both an understanding of the English language’s complexities as well as an understanding of the marketplace. 

What Does Your Domain Name Say About You? 
If you are a roofer in Naples, Florida, and you are starting a website from the ground up, I can guarantee you that roofing.com is not available. However, arriving at a domain name that reflects your brand name, image, location, etc. may be possible. If at all possible, your domain name should reflect your exact business name. For examples, RT Design Group’s domain name is rtdesigngroup.com. Domain names should be:

• Easy for clients to remember. Help clients reinforce their positive image of you by sending them to your website for information. Making sure your domain name is easy for them to remember will help in the process of gaining referral business from existing clients.
• Easy for potential clients to remember. If you are speaking about your business, you should talk about some of the helpful features of your website. Pointing potential clients to your website might include explaining your blog, suggesting they view client success stories or photos of your previous work, etc. Your domain name should be easy to remember so that potential clients will visit your site, hopefully converting from a potential client to an existing client.
• Grammatically correct (including correct spelling). As you can see from all of the inappropriate examples that Business Insider published, make sure to get several opinions from your team before deciding upon a domain name. Someone may see something you have missed. It is difficult to look at projects objectively when you are in them day in and day out — make sure that your domain name won’t be a point of contention for years to come.
• Intentional. Your domain name is something that you will need to market. Be intentional with the way in which you are selecting the name. Practice typing it in. Practice saying it to others. See how it looks written out. Think through the ways in which you will market your website and attract visitors. The selection process must reflect who you are in terms of your branding.

I hope these tips help those of you in the process of selecting a domain name. Contact us with any questions.