In many situations our clients already have an established website name. In most cases if the website name, better known as a domain name, has been around for while it will be retained. However new businesses or start-ups can benefit from choosing a good website name. Many companies launch additional websites based on new products, sales campaigns or blogs, that will all benefit from a good website name. The most important factors, which produce the best results, are keywords in the domain, domain name extension and their readability.

Here are some tips for choosing a good website name.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is an essential part of all search engine optimisation campaigns, however choosing the correct keyword for your domain name can offer a huge advantage over your competition. Establishing the terms relating to your products and services, which are typed into the search engines the most, is the first step in finding the right domain name. Care must be taken into deciding which keyword should be used, as some keywords may not be suitable from a branding point of view. In the end choosing a domain name is a one-time decision and therefore must not be taken lightly.

Domain Name Extension

The second most important factor, which will influence the effectiveness of your domain, comes down to the domain name extension. In Australia the major search engine is google.com.au with over 85% of the search market. First choice for google.com.au would be the .com.au extension followed by the .com. Surprisingly the .net.au’s tend to perform poorly and even .net and .org’s seem to outperform .net.au’s. Without a doubt a .com.au will provide a huge boost in the rankings for exact match keyword domain names.

Make it User Friendly

Unique names can be beneficial, such as “google”, “bing”, “youtube”, “facebook” and the list goes on, but all of these sites are backed by something unique or are outstanding at what they do (or are free services). We recommend not going down this track but to be creative with your keywords and come up with a memorable name that will stick in people’s minds. Try to stay away from unusually long domain names and avoid hyphens and numerals, although they may make your name more readable. Also make sure the name will accurately identify what your core business products and services are. Although many search engine users will deny reading the domain name in the search results subconsciously most people will glance at the URL.

Summary

• Choose high volume exact match keyword if possible.
• Use .com.au to target Australian based users.
• Make it memorable.
• Keep it as short as possible.
• Don’t make up an obscure or unique name.