Finding the perfect brandable domain name for your business is very important because it will become a huge part of your overall business brand.
Choose the wrong domain name for one of your startup company names and your potential customers might never find you or even worse, they may find your competitor’s before even getting the chance to see what you have to offer them.
Branding a business begins with looking for suitable brandable domain names that are easily recognized by your customers.
You’ll want your target audience to think of you whenever they see your domain name so be clear on what it is you are offering them. Don’t even try to promote a domain name called “flowersforever.com and have the content on your website reflect a business that is selling dog vests.
It’s really just a matter of using common sense when picking your domain name, especially if you are wanting to brand your business online so that your customers can easily find you.
Have a look at these examples below and tell me which domain name you think would be the most recognizable to a targeted audience of customers, given the following scenario.
What would be the best domain name for a local flower shop that only sells flowers locally to a targeted audience of customers in a city of over 500,000 people. The city is located in Australia.
Example: whatsuphenry.com
Example: stemstopick.org
Example: rolloverrover.com.au
Example: blueorchids.com.au
Example: blueorchids.shop
Example: blueorchids.florist
Example: blueorchids.flowers
Example: blueorchids.biz
In my opinion, and likely there will be others who think otherwise, the best pick for a domain name for this particular business, especially if they want to brand themselves throughout the internet spcace, would be the “blueorchids.com.au” domain name.
Here’s why I chose this domain url as a brandable domain name, especially if developing an online marketing plan.
1. It’s the top level country code url for Australia which is easily recognizable by other countries they may be doing business with online and offline.
2. It’s easy to brand this domain name throughout all the social media websites.
3. It’s easier to recognize when doing “business to business marketing” because other businesses will likely have the same url extension in Australia.
4. It’s easier to recognize when doing “business to customer marketing” because people are used to using this url extension in Australia.
5. It’s potentially a more valuable domain name when selling the business.
OK some of those domain names above for the flower shop were just plain crazy…you and I both know it…but you’d be very surprised at how many people actually pick a domain name for their business that has absolutely nothing to do with their products or services. In my opinion from a marketing perspective this is wrong!
The top 3 domain names above are useless from an overall business branding perspective.
The bottom 4 domain names are cute domain name extentions that clearly relect the business type but may have limitations.
From a branding point of view in my opinion it would be much harder to promote those domain extentions online and internationally.
If the local business above had no intention of ever promoting internationally, developing their online presence or dealing with international suppliers, then perhaps the local market space of 500,000 people would easily adapt to the . shop .florist .flowers or .biz domain name extensions.
In picking a domain name for your business you also have to think of the longevity of the name as it pertain to the domain value. In the beginning you are not thinking of ever selling your business, but what happens down the road after you have fully developed a successful business and you are wanting an exit strategy.
When selling your business the importance of having the best recognizable domain name that has increased in value is key.
Over the last few years the domain registration possibilities have grown so much. Just have a look at this infographic listing all the domain extensions to date and you can see that there is no shortage of available domain name extensions.
My thoughts on owning a brandable domain name.
Yes there are other domain name extensions that work, such as .org and .net that I have purchased myself, but really if I can get the domain name with a .com extension I much prefer that one over the others. I would also get my countries domain extension if I had a local business that I wanted to promote.
You can see a listing of all the available top level domain extensions and their restrictions here.
When looking for the best website names and/or the best blog names try to go for short brandable domain names rather than long domain names. It’s easier for people to remember a shorter name, therefore making it much easier to become a part of your business brand. .
If you are in need of purchasing a brandable domain name yourself I recommend Namecheap because I have been using them for years without any problems.
