A domain name  is a web address to your website.  It’s how people find your business online.

It’s important to claim a domain name for your business before others do because if they claim it first, they then own that name and you won’t be able to use that name.

Here’s how to create the right domain name for your business that increases the chances your business gets found online:

1. Add keyword(s) to your business domain name

Chances are your business domain name will be the same name as your business name.  You should also add keyword(s) that describes your business to it (e.g.  smithpainters.com, smithdentists.com, smithhairdressers.com or smithhairdressing.com, etc.).  Adding a keyword to your name increases the chances your website  will show up high in the search rankings when people search on that keyword (or variations of it).

2. End your domain name with a dot com extension

Your business domain name should ideally also end in dot com as most people assume your website name ends that way.  Since you’ve  added a keyword to your business name, you’ll likely be able to get your business domain name to end in dot com.  But if that’s not possible, choose a business domain name that ends in dot net or the country code where most of your customers are in (i.e.  yourname.net, yourname.ca) as these are the next popular extensions.

3. Consider registering your domain name on the other popular extensions, too

As domain name registration only costs $10 to $20 per year per extension, consider registering your business domain name in dot com, dot net, and your country code extensions.  Many businesses now register the same domain name with these extensions  in order to protect their business name on these popular extensions and have these names redirect to one web address, usually the dot com one.  We will show you how to do this redirection in a future article.

4. Optional: Add a location keyword to your domain name

Search engines now automatically display local business listings closest to where people are, and more people now search for local business on their mobile devices while out and about (Source: Google Insights).  If your business only serves a local area, like a landscaping business, consider adding the name of the area your business primarily serves (i.e. vancouversmithdentist.com, vancouverjonesplumbers.com, etc.)   This also increases the chances that your website  will show up high in the search results when people in your area search for your type of business.

5. Keep your domain name as short as possible

Finally, make your business domain name as short as possible so that it’s easy to type.  This means you may have to shorten your business domain name if it’s very long once you added keyword(s) and location to it.  If that’s the case, drop the location from your name as we will show you how to optimize your website for local search  in a future article, regardless of whether you add a location to your business domain name.

Creating the right domain name for your business increases the chances that  your business website gets found online—but there are also many other ways that will do this, too.   In future articles, we’ll talk about each of these ways that when put together, will significantly get your website found and noticed online.  In the meantime feel free to comment or ask any questions on this article below and we will be happy to answer them.

Related blog articles that you may be interested in:  How to find keywords for your website and social media pages.