Choose the right domain!
IMAGE
Your name should match the image you want your company to have. Choosing an appropriate name matching your firm's image is a similar process to choosing a name and image for your offline brand. Short names are usually more effective than long ones.
The most effective domain names have obviously been already registered, and, if they haven't been taken yet, they are usually too expensive compared to the business their relevant website might generate. In that case, the best thing to do is to "be creative without exaggerating".
Try to choose at least 10 (short) adjectives that well describe your business. Associate them to the name of the product or service that best represents you. Try to put these two elements together and see what you come up with!
MEMORABILITY
This element should be seriously taken into account, especially by small and medium businesses having limited marketing budgets at their disposal and not particularly popular and well known services (of course nobody has got any problems remembering names like Coca Cola or Pepsi).
Here are a few suggestions on what to avoid:
- do not use acronyms or initials
- do not use excessively long names (three words are harder to remember than two :-)
- do not choose names that may be hard to spell
- try to avoid numbers. They are very hard to remember and can be written in at least two ways (100per100.it 100percent.it hundredper100.it hundredpercent.it).
LEGALITY
There are at least two legal aspects you should always keep in mind whenever registering a domain name. First of all, can you protect the domain you have chosen from illegal uses someone might make of it? Second of all, could a firm or company claim damages because of the domain name you are using? The difference between an offline and an online brand, is that every online brand is exposed to international visibility, therefore brand disputes have no geographical borders.
EXTENSION
The extension can refer to the territory where your business is usually generated, or to the kind of website you have.
In the first case you can register a .spa, the Spanish geographic extension, or a .eu, the new European tld.
If you want to choose an extension that better reflects the nature of your website, you can choose for instance a .biz, the business extension, a .info, particularly recommended for gathering information on a special event, or a .name, for your personal site.
Should you need further information please visit our dedicated section at mark protection or write to our experts.
Online Brand Protection
You did not find the extension you were looking for?
With Online Brand Protection your name is registered in every available extension, protected and promoted all over the Web
Domain Appraisal
The domain you are after has already been registered?
See how much it is really worth and if you can recover it!