When I had
set about to register my domain name in 1998, I was so excited that I did not
plan carefully in picking the right one. I did not have the experience to tell
me the do's and
don'ts of domain names. But as it would turn out, I did not pick a "bad"
domain name,
although I could have picked a better one.
These days,
the most popular web sites are known by their domain names. The most successful
sites have associated their content with their domain name. For example, if
you want to buy a book,
you think of Amazon.com. If you want to browse some auctions, you think of Ebay.com.
Successful
domain name association happens as a result of an excellent marketing strategy.
The selection of
a good domain name is a part of this strategy.
Here are my suggestions to those struggling for ideas on a domain name:
PICK
A DOMAIN NAME THAT WILL FOSTER IDENTITY
The most important part about a domain name is its ability to create an identity.
If your domain
name is too similar to another, people will have difficulty remembering it.
A domain name is also
a brand name. Create a unique brand identity.
People tend
to pick domain names that reflect the theme of their site. But it's not necessary.
In
fact, the most successful web sites today use domain names that have nothing
to do with the
content. For example, Amazon.com is a bookstore, Monster.com is an employment
service,
and Yahoo.com is a web portal.
If Amazon.com
had used the word "book" in their domain name, they would have had
to contend
with hundreds of other sites that also have "book" in their domain
name.
Fogdog.com
is an online reseller of sports equipment. They used to be known as Sportsite.com.
The problem with "sportsite" is that there were other sites with the
word "sports" in it. People could
not remember "sportsite" from "sportstore" from "sportstime".
Fogdog.com is absolutely unique,
and now their sales are going through the roof.
PICK
A DOMAIN NAME THAT CAN NOT BE MISSPELLED
The best form of advertising is by word of mouth. Thus, make sure your domain
name is easy to
spell. There are lots of people who are poor spellers, so make it easy for them.
Choose names that
are spelled phonetically. Going back to the domain names we looked at before:
Fogdog, Amazon,
Ebay, Monster, Yahoo!. These are all easy to spell, and they are all spelled
phonetically.
When someone
tells a friend about a really cool site, chances are they are not going to spell
it out
to them. If you heard "Fogdog" for the first time, how do you think
you spell it? Even though it is a
corny name, 99 people out of 100 will spell it correctly on the first try.
DON'T
USE ALTERNATIVE SPELLINGS
You may have seen some domain names that spell common words in different ways.
For example,
"corner" is often spelled as "korner". "Love"
is often spelled as "luv". When people hear the word "corner",
their natural inclination is to spell it with a "c". They would never
know to spell it with a "k". Always use
the correct spelling of a word.
STAY AWAY
FROM HOMONYMS
Homonyms are two or more words that sound exactly the same, but are spelled
differently. For example:
"seller" and "cellar". If you were going to create a web
site about designing a wine cellar, don't use the
domain name of "winecellars.com", because some people will spell it
as "winesellers.com".
As you come
up with ideas for domain names, think of all the possible homonyms. Domain names
that
have no homonyms are the best. Alan Cooper has a great web site for identifying
homonyms:
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym.html
MAKE
IT MEMORABLE
Short and simple domain names are easier to spell and easier to remember. You
do not have to limit yourself
to a specific number of characters (though NetworkSolutions will limit you to
26 characters). Rather, pick a
domain name that is concise and easy to remember.
When people
visit the most popular web sites in the world, they tend to type the address
in by hand. They
don't bother bookmarking the site, because they have the domain name memorized.
Choose a domain
name that lends itself to being memorized.
A popular
way to create highly memorable domain names is to combine two short words that
rhyme:
"topstop", "faceplace", "queenbean", etc. Just
make sure the two words are easy to spell, and do
not have homonyms.
DON'T
MODIFY EXISTING DOMAIN NAMES
Some people, frustrated after learning that the domain name they envisioned
is already taken, have
resorted to modifying the domain name. Modifications are done by either inserting
a dash, rearranging
words, using alternative spellings, using abbreviations, or using different
forms of a word. For example,
you might have wanted to register "skindiving.com", but since it was
taken, you resorted to
"skindivers.com".
The problem
with this is that it does not create a unique identity. People won't be able
to remember one
domain name over the other. If the domain name you wanted is taken, find something
else that is totally
unique. Remember that the most important part about a domain name is it's ability
to create a unique identity.
NEVER
USE A DASH IN THE DOMAIN NAME
For some reason or another, you might have chosen a domain name that includes
a dash, and you may
have good reason to use it. But in most cases, it is better to leave the dash
out.
The biggest
problem with dashes is that they are silent. When you verbally pronounce a domain
name,
the dash is not sounded. "Big-deal" for example, sounds the same as
"Bigdeal". A web surfer, upon
hearing the name, would not know to enter the dash, and would up end going to
someone else's site.
That's no way create an identity!
Here is
an example of an actual domain name: "h-o-m-e-p-a-g-e.com". If someone
wanted you to visit this
site, they would have to go through the trouble of reminding you to insert dashes
between each letter.
If your
business name has a dash in it, and your business existed long before the Internet,
you might want
to register both domain names, with and without the dash. The domain name without
the dash can just
redirect to the other.
GET A DOT
COM
Get a name with a ".com" extension. Sure, ".net" and ".org"
are high level extensions, but the reality is
that ".com" is what people think about first.
In fact, the term "dotcom" has the entered the English language to mean a "web-based business".
If you have
picked a unique name, people will remember the name, and assume that there is
a ".com"
at the end. Have you ever typed in a domain name you heard from word-of-mouth
and stopped to wonder
if it should have a ".com", ".org", or ".net"
at the end? If you have, chances are you tried ".com" first.
Here's a
neat trick: enter "ethosonline" into your web browser without the
"www" and without the ".com".
You will still be taken to that site. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer will assume
there should be a ".com" at the end.
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Steve Paul Johnson is the creator of Cemetery Records on the Internet (http://www.interment.net)
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