|
One of the first steps in website design is the selection of a domain name that will properly suite your business. How do you go about selecting the proper domain name for your business? In this article we will examine some of the consideration for choosing a great domain name for your business or organization. Our examples with apply to the legal profession, specifically a law firm the practice family law but the principles can be applied to just about any business. The first step in selecting a strong domain name is understanding that there are a limited number of strong domain names per city or market. These domain names are normally a combination of Area + Keyword. In the case of our family law firm the Keyword would be an area of practice. This keyword should be a term that is frequently searched for. We recommend consulting with a website development firm with experience in Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing experience. Below are some examples of the domain names we recommended to the family law firm based on our analysis of keyword searches in the legal industry. One thing that should be considered is the majority of geographic related searches use a major city or major metropolitan area. This means that chances are very high that an indiviual residing in Corona, California will use Orange County, Los Angeles or San Diego
When searching for a domain name look for:
Names that can easily spread by word of mouth and can be memorized with a rhythm. For example, city + DivorceAttorny.com (Ex: CoronaDivorceAttorny.com) Memorable: Your domain name should be easy to remember and to the point. CharlesSmithEQSCoronaCaliforniaLawyer.com is wordy and hard to remember. Easily Identifiable: Your domain should identify your business. If you practice Family Law, tell prospective clients this in your domain name for example by identifying this in your name with CharlestonFamilyLawyer.com. Variations of the domain name: Domain names are vary cheap and to protect your domain name it is strongly suggested you purchase variations of the domain name you choose. If your domain name contains a word that can be easily changed to or from the plural, purchase both. For instance if you plan to use the domain name of CoronaLawyer.com also obtain CoronaLawyers.com This holds true for domain names that contain numbers or the use of easily misspelled words. See the examples below relating to domain names containing numbers or easily misspelled words. When Searching for Domain Names There You Should Avoid:
Use of hyphens (except for Geographic strategies): Avoid hyphen usage in your primary domain name. Hyphens are difficult to remember which means your run the risk of potential customers ending up at the equivelent non-hyphened website, which is often your competition.Hyphened domains are only advantageous when marketing for search engine placement. Search engine read hyphens as space in your domain name. Domain names are the first logical statement (identifier) read by the search engines. Use of numbers: The use of numbers in a domain name can also create problems similar to the use of hyphens. Potential customers may not be clear whether the domain uses the numeric character or the number is spelled. This problem becomes compounded when using the number 2 or 4. An example of the issues is help4builders.com which could also be entered as helpfourbuilders.com or even helpforbuilders.com. If people can misspell something, they will. The longer and more complex your domain name, the harder it is for your customers to type it in correctly. Many of them can't type well to start with, so to type in a long name may lose you lots of business. At the low price of domain names, it may pay you to purchase the misspellings of a domain name, too. This way you'll get the traffic intended for your site and discourage poachers from buying up the variants. Use of easily misspelled words: If it is possible for a potential customer to misspell a word in you domain name, they will. The longer and more coplex your domain name the more likely someone will misspell the domain name. Remember or example helpforbuilders.com which could also be helpfourbuilders.com The owner of the domain name help4builders.com actually has registered 10 variations of the domain name.Easily misspelled domain names may lose you business. Mix personality with business: You should avoid domain names that reflect your personality. For example if you are a family lawyer named Mark and enjoying surfing in San Digeo it would seem cool to register SurfingLawyerSanDiego.com. While this name is easy to remember the domain name would mostly be of little value if you tried to sell your practice at a later date. An example were such an approach might be effective is a Harley rider that is also a personal injury lawyer. A domain name like BikerLawyerRiverside.com would make a great marketing tool, particularly if you were advertising in local biker magazines. We however recommend you strategize it to feed to your main site. Extensions other than .com, .net, .cc, .info, or .us: We recommend these as the top domain extensions available today. Start your domain name search here! |
|
|
Mkad : Offers website design and website development services in Riverside, Orange County, Irvine and San Diego.
Mkad : Website Design firm offering website development services in Riverside, Irvine and Orange County.
