What is a website without a domain? It is just some code living somewhere on a computer. People do not put a tonne of thought into their domain, just buy it whenever they start a business and forget. This is understandable given the cost of a domain versus designing a website. It is very important however that you buy the domain that best represents your business, read on to see how to do just that.
Understand What Domain Extension Works For You
What is an extension? An extension is simply the part that comes after your websites name. It comes in common forms like .com, .ie, .co.uk and hundreds of others. If you don’t know what will work best for your business, .com is a safe bet. An Irish based company means .ie is also a very solid option.
There are another few reasons why you would go with a .ie or any other location specific extension. A location specific domain helps build trust with customers. It helps with SEO too, boosting your rankings in the online world.
What Is The Best Domain For You?
Of course there are a number of factors at play here. The most important one is to have a name that is easy to remember and write. This means avoiding something too long or with symbols in the name. This, and having a name that is relevant to your business is a must. A website that talks about selling handbags would probably be misleading if it sold scooters.
Adding in a character like a dash or a number will throw the title off completely, meaning missed traffic and customers.
How The Correct Domain Can Power Your SEO
A simple thing to do is to use a domain with a keyword you plan to target in the domain. It may not work in all regions/niche but can be worthwhile. Anything to help you in the SERPs is worthwhile. A location specific domain can help you a lot with simple location based searches.
What is The Ideal Length?
The shorter the better is you aim here. Keep it below 20 letters, ideally it’ll be your businesses name only.
Keep Your Name
Once you get your ideal name you have to make sure you keep it. Someone may try and buy your domain if it expires. They may try and sell it back to you or if the site has some quality links, they will redirect it to their website. This can be easily avoided by keeping your domain on auto renew.
If you are starting out new, we would recommend buying from hostingireland.ie. They offer reasonable prices and auto renew services. If you want to build a website today, get in contact with us at Yellow Dot Design, we can build whatever you need.