If your business is exclusively online, its presence and naming on the Internet deserve special attention through choosing a suitable domain name. Whether you're starting a new business or expanding into new markets, it's essential to consider the internet as a means of expanding it, even if the activity isn't based online. The online space is an efficient medium for promoting products or services and has the ability to reach more consumers than any other medium.
The pointers below can help you choose your web domain name from the perspective of your business presence on the Internet
- on the internet, you have the ability to reach potential customers from all over the world, so you will need to check business names from multiple geographic regions to avoid any potential confusion and infringement of trademark rights belonging to another company;
- once you have a few ideas for names, consider how these could translate into a web domain name. The closer it is to the name of your business, products, or services, the easier it will be for customers to find you;
- while using the official name of your business or variations of it as a domain name may attract existing customers or potential clients who have heard of your business, using a descriptive word that represents your product or service, such as "windowcleaning.com," as a domain name can be more effective in attracting new potential clients through the domain;
- the name of any domain is registered using the services of an accredited registrar;
- you could consider registering both the name of your business and the name of a product as a domain name, in order to attract as many visitors to your site as possible;
- the title of any domain name cannot have more than one person or business as its owner, so if someone has already registered your idea, you'll have to think of another one;
- you should take into account spelling errors that potential customers may make when entering the web address. If it's likely that the name will be misspelled, you could consider a simplified version or registering multiple names so that when a common spelling mistake is made, the user still ends up on your site;
- although domain names are available with multiple suffixes—the letters following the dot after the chosen domain name—the most common one for most people is ".com." Therefore, it can be useful to use these rather than the next usual alternative, ".net," to attract as many visitors as possible;
- the ".com" suffix can be used for both commercial and personal websites, ".net" is recommended for companies involved in Internet infrastructure, and ".org" is recommended for non-profit organizations;
- for all these suffixes, only letters, numbers, and hyphens can make up the domain name. Additionally, the domain name cannot start or end with a hyphen. Regardless of the chosen suffix, it's important to note that the domain name is limited to 63 characters, excluding the suffix. However, some web browsers, email programs, or other applications may not accept more than 26 characters.
Domain names must follow the same rules as company names.
