How to register the best Domain Name for your business
Registering the best domain name for your business is probably one of the most important decisions you’re likely to make and really increase your chances of being found in the Search Engines quickly by the right clients.
Domain Registration Checklist
Below is a useful guide of Top Tips before making that step and registering your domain name:
- How can I find out if a domain name is already taken? – Brainstorm as many domain names that relate to you industry | business and use our domain check tool to find out if they’re available.
- Should I register a .co.uk or .com? – Generally speaking, if your business is based in the UK and is unlikely to trade overseas, a .co.uk TLD (Top Level Domain) is your best bet. Also make sure that you register it with a host with data-centers in the UK or Europe
- What about other TLDS (like .net, .tv, .eu) – .co.uk and .com domains generally carry the most wait and from our experience are easier to get faster results in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). They are also achieve higher trust with internet users.
- Should I have a hyphen in my domain name? - For the best chance of getting higher rankings, it is advisable to avoid hyphens. However, this is always a hotly depated issue! Search Engines like Google definitely prefer domains with the words immediately next to each other. Just try different combinations – as long as you include keywords that people will relate to your industry it often will have stronger weight than hyphenated domains.
- Does size matter? – Generally, YES! The shorter and simpler a domain name, the more memorable it will be and the easier to appear in search results and for users to type in to the address bar of their browser. Remember, hyphens make it more difficult for the user and increase the chances of typing errors!
- Should I register my company name or a keyword based domain? – Ah! This is a tricky one. It is probably best to do both. If your company name is available, first register that. Then think of at most a 3 word phrase that sums up your industry and see whether that’s available too. That way, you’ll have both ends covered. You’ll notice that many companies use two website names to get leads – one under their company name and the other using keywords. This way you can you use one to drive leads and traffic to the other but make sure you don’t use duplicate content which is a big “no, no” with most search engines.
- Is there any value in buying a recently expired domain name? – This has limited value, even if the domain is still holding on to it’s links and PR (Page Rank). Google soon become aware that the domain has changed owners, especially with the content changing and will reset the domain in the listings.
- Should I buy domain name from an auction – We would say “not unless you absolutely have to”! Buying domains by auction can become incredibly expensive and yield . Only follow this path if you really have exhausted all possible name variations. It’s a bit of a ‘catch 22′ because some of the better domain names can posses high traffic already however this will increase the premium on these domains meaning the high price will outweigh the high traffic.
Got a domain name in mind? Why not try our handy domain check tool or if you have already selected one and its available, Contact Us and we’ll help you get setup with hosting and a new website!
