How to Choose the Right Domain Name for your Business

Posted by Mary Gammel on June 22, 2010 under Organic SEO | Be the First to Comment

People come up to me often and tell me they’ve registered 10 additional domain names for their business, expecting their web site traffic to increase when they point these new URLs at their web site. However, they’re disappointed when the traffic doesn’t increase. That’s because there’s more to the domain name game than that.

This article provides some tips on choosing domain name URLs. You can find more information in my previous article: Tips on Registering Domain Names for SEO FAQ.

Guidelines for Choosing a Website Address

There are some basic rules to follow when choosing a web site address (Domain Name URL) for your business:

• The domain name should be easy to remember and create an association in people’s mind with your business, product, and/or service.
• The domain name should be easy to pronounce as you’ll want to tell it to people. This helps with online videos, radio, and TV ads, too.
• The domain name should be easy to spell from it’s pronunciation. Spell out the words. Avoid using abbreviations.
• If you have two or three words in your domain name, you can separate them with dashes. Do not use underscores or other punctuation. Dashes are good for search engine optimization but not good for pronunciation and spelling. Too  many dashes can be considered spamming.
• Use keywords in your domain name to specify what you do and where you’re located. For example, a business law firm named XYZ and Associates in Chicago, may choose xyzlawchicago.com or chicago-business-lawyers.com. To perform keyword research on a domain name, use Wordtracker’s free online tool at: www.wordtracker.com.

Remember that the web site address you choose is registered as a domain name. You own the rights to this name just like your business name so give it careful consideration.

Primary vs. Forwarded Domain Names

The files for your website reside on a web server, most likely at a hosting company. A domain URL is associated with this location. That is the primary domain name. All other domains you register point to the web server location for your primary domain via forwarding. This is usually done with a 301 Redirect. This means when you type a forwarded domain into your browser, the Internet servers need to do extra work to determine where the web site files are located. The extra work slows down the loading of web pages making it take longer to load your site. Here’s a simple diagram showing this process:

Search engines now include site loading speed in their calculations for page ranking. So, since the primary domain loads faster than a forwarded domain, use the primary domain  on your business cards, letterhead, store window, and in all your marketing. Keep this in mind when choosing your main website address.

Selecting Additional Domain Names for your Business

There’s no limit on the number of domain names you can register to point to your web site. Each registration has an annual cost associated with it, so you’ll want to budget for the forwarded domains.  At a minimum, I’d recommend you register the following domain names and point them at your primary domain URL:

• Your primary website address with different extensions such as .org, .net, .info, .biz
• Your personal name, e.g.  johndoe.com
• Variations of your business name
• Localized versions using cities and towns along with your product, service, or business name
• Any domain name that you don’t want your competitors to get.

Registering your competitor’s names, company names, brand names, or personal names of others is frowned upon and can get you into trouble legally. Use the Guidelines for picking a Website Address listed above when choosing your forwarded domains.

Internet and Search Traffic from Forwarded Domains

Now, back to the original problem in this article where businesses are registering multiple domain names for their web site. Just registering a domain and pointing it at your web site, won’t increase your traffic. The search engines, other web sites, and people looking for you need to know the new domain names to index, link to, and search for. The forwarded domain is just a name. You may get some traffic if someone types in thatexact name in their browser or searches for the exact words in the domain name. But without promoting the new web address, you won’t see a traffic increase.

Avoid Duplicate Content

Don’t make a copy of your web site files and host them in a separate location than the primary web site. You may be tempted to do this to make your forwarded domains more effective, but this practice of creating duplicate content can yield severe penalties in the search engine rankings. Your web sites addresses may even be removed from Google’s index! Read the Google Article on Duplicate Content.

Implications of Changing your Primary Web Site Address

Companies sometimes change their web site addresses to something different. This should be avoided if at all possible. It takes time to build an online reputation around your primary domain name. Google and the other search engines give URLs that have been around a long time a higher ranking than new ones. People will remember your URL. Other web sites may link to your site. You have the web site address printed on your business cards, signs, and marketing materials.

That’s a lot of reputation to change. So, unless there’s a good reason, keep your primary URL active and pointing to your site even if you don’t like it or feel the urge to change it. If you must change your primary web site address due to things such as business name changes, a merger, or buyout, then keep the domain name registered and make it a forwarded domain not the primary one.

Additional Resources

• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• How To Choose Domain Names For SEO Article
• SEO Tutorial – Domain Name Optimization

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Mary Gammel is the owner and principal consultant of Quality Web Site Testing, LLC. Mary specializes in organic search engine optimization and website testing. Her education includes bachelors and masters degrees in computer science. She’s worked over 25 years in the computing industry with experience in internet consulting, software development, software quality assurance, computer networking, and project management. Mary can be contacted at 630-767-9859 or info@qualitywebsitetesting.com.