When considering your Domain Name
and the ability for your business to be found easily online
you need to consider your marketing and branding.

AS Your Domain Name is your
Businesses Worldwide/Local
Online Identity.

There are three pathways that one can take when naming a Domain, or indeed any businesses.

• First Path – The Brand Approach eg – https://littlebigoleme.com
• Second Path – The What I Do Approach ie – Solution/Location
  eg – nigelsspiderwebremovalservicenorthsydney.com.au
  
• Third Approach – Product Name – eg – viddyoze.com

Now note that the second path names contains, certainly for a professional or service based business, keywords that help that address and service to be found with the Google and Bing Search Engines.

Ideally if you are creating a domain for your service or product
the Domain Name should encompass a solution for a problem, desire, need or must have.

So if you named your business http://maitlandflowerdelivery.com it will rank
(assuming you setup your sites SEO properly)
higher for a local area search than a URL such as flowerpower.com.au
unless of course that the flowerpower site is a popular brand
like Microsoft™ or Nike™.
As popularity is one of the factors that drives search engine ranking.

What is your USP – Unique Selling Proposition?
Are these Target Market Keywords included in your Domain Name?

Your Domain Name should ideally be simple to remember,
easy to type and spell correctly, and ideally state what you do.

If you are targeting a country then you should register a country domain so
.com.au or .com.gb etc…

If it is international domain you require it should be
a .com .co .biz .or any other of the more than
1000 other domain prefixes available.

You are in many ways trying to connect your domain
directly with your customer,
so they do a search and find exactly
what they are looking for at your Domain.

How does your proposed domain name speak to them?
Ask your friends and people outside your industry,
even your family as they are often brutally honest.

Share your most popular domain names ideas with your friends.
Search on Google to see what the most popular searches 
(long tail keyword searches)
that your tribe of potential followers would look for.

Now remember you can always have multiple domains that lead to your website.
ie – brand.com,
brandproduct.com,
locationservice.com
and these just should lead to specific landing pages
that are targeting and speaking
directly to a group of customers
with specific pain points or must haves that you can solve.

Things you Must Check About Your Proposed Name

1.Trademarks

When considering your business/domain name you are wise to check if there is a Trademark™ on that name.

I had a situation where I had to cease trading where the Business Name and the Domain Name I was using was Trademarked in the US. That can be a very expensive mistake.

To Check for Australian Trademarks

https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/trade-marks/applying-for-a-trade-mark/searching-trade-marks

To Check for US Trademarks
https://www.uspto.gov/trademark

2. Business Name

In Australia you need to check if the business name is registered and if not register it yourself.

https://asic.gov.au/for-business/registering-a-business-name/steps-to-register-your-business-name/

Now Don’t register this name yet as there is no point unless the Domain Name is also available

So we go to our internet browser and type in our ideal Domain Name
you’ll either end up with a website or a a error message.
If the second happens then that Domain Name may be available.

Now that you’ve done that please create 2 or more alternative domain names.

Chances are the domain name you’d like is not available,
and again check for trademarks and registered business names.

Do not do a domain name search for any name in a DNS registry search
unless you are prepared to buy it then and there.

There are many places you can get a Domain Name from. Some will even give you a free Domain Name for 12 months if you buy you website and email hosting with it and then charge you like a wounded camel after the 12 months is up….

Now I always recommend that you…

Register your Domain Name at a different company to where you host your website at.

This way if the website host stops trading or has issues with you or vice versa, your domain can easily be pointed to another hosting company and you can start again. If the domain name is registered with the same company that you host your website at you can be locked out of your account and to get your domain back can be a long winded and expensive process.

So if you register your Domain separately so you won’t loose you websites domain name
AND
you have total access and control over it.

There are many stories about Internet Service Providers being quite nasty or simply not being helpful if you want to move your site to another provider at a later time. You would usually do this when your business outgrows the provider you are with or you wish to go to a different platform to market your wares.

It’s all about having your name protected and the options available that you need.

I believe some people call this building in redundancy with backup and restore options.

Something every business should have.

Domain Name Facts

You never own your Domain Name you just rent it but no-one can take that away unless you let it expire. Don’t miss your renewal as if you loose your name it can be quite expensive to get it back.

It is your name after all.

Sometimes popular Domain Names are watched for their expiry dates
 and if you leave it too long after it expires someone else will grab it.

Now you rent your Domain Name for minimum for 12 months
 but you can pay for it in advance for up to 5 years or more.

Each Domain has a Domain Name Status Registry often referred to as an DNS registry.
 This is a document that links the World Wide Web to your Domain Name.
This way your website is found just by typing in your name.

DNS registration is done at businesses called Registrars and these are overseen by ICANN.

As Wikipedia states “The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the Internet, ensuring the network’s stable and secure operation”

So I started my own Registry

Sometime known as spreading the love CanDoWeb has partnered with leading companies
thoughout our Websites Training and Offerings and then moulded these
 into something that does one thing and one thing really well.

So in order to support businesses we have created resources
 and we trust to deliver to you a registry you can rely on.

Before you go to buy your Domain Name

Download and complete the Checklist below

AND
Be prepared to buy the Domain Right Then
if your Dream Domain Name is available.

The CanDoWeb Domain Name Checklist Download’s
PDF, DocX, Pages

Once your ideal name is sorted and you’ve filled in the checklist
Go and Get your Domain at
https://www.businessnamedomains.com/