Choose the right Domain Name for your website

The importance of the right Domain Name – When you are starting a business or expanding to new markets, it is essential to do so with the Internet in mind, even if the business is not web-based. The Web can serve as a very effective advertising medium for your products/services and has the potential to reach more consumers than any other medium. If your business is entirely web-based, its presence, and therefore its name, on the Internet are of the highest importance. These guidelines can help you to choose a business name with an Internet presence in mind.

How to choose a Domain Name for your business

• On the web you have the ability to reach potential clients all over the world, so you’ll need to compare business names in a much greater geographic area to avoid the potential for confusion and trademark infringement.
• Once you come up with a few ideas for business names, consider what your domain name could be. The closer it is to the actual name of your business, products, or services, the more likely your customers will find you.
• Although using your actual business name or some variation thereof will attract existing customers or potential customers who have already heard about your business, using a product or service descriptor, like JoesPlumbing.com.au, may more effectively attract new or potential customers.
• Domain names must be registered using an on-line accredited registration service.
• Domain names cannot be issued to more than one person or business, so if someone else has already registered your idea, you will have to come up with a new one.
• If possible, consider registering both your business name and a product type designation to attract as many people as possible to the site.
• Consider possible mistakes that potential customers could make when typing in your web address. If mistakes are likely, consider simplifying the name, or perhaps registering multiple names so that even if a common mistake is made, the user will get to your website.
• Although domain names are available with a variety of suffixes – the letters that follow the period after your chosen name – the one that most people are used to is “.com.au,” so it may be best to use those letters, rather than an alternative like “.net.au,” to attract as many visitors as possible.
• The newest domain suffix to be released is “.au”. Australia is releasing this suffix in 2022.  It is expected to become the preferred TLD over the “.com.au” TLD in the future
• The “.com” and “.com.au” (and the new .”.au”) suffix can be used for commercial and personal sites; “.net” is recommended for companies involved in Internet infrastructure; and “.org” is recommended for non-profit companies. An ABN is required for a “.com.au” domain.
• For all of those suffixes, only letters, numbers, and hyphens can be part of the domain name, but the name cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
• Using any of those three suffixes, the name is limited to sixty-three characters not including the suffix, but some web browsers, email programs, and other applications may not support anything over twenty-six characters in length, so it may be best to keep the name short.
• Domain names should follow the same general rules as business names in general.
• Google may penalise website rankings with Exact Match Domains (EMD) such as PlumbingAdelaide.com.au. See Matt Cutts from Google talk about domain names

Protect Your Business and Domain by Registering its other TLD Alternatives

Whether you have an existing domain name or you are registering a new one, you should consider protecting your domain by registering the other TLD options for your domain.

For example, if you’re registering a domain with a .com.au TLD, you should also consider registering the same domain but with other TLDs including .com, .net.au, .net,  etc.An espexially important – also register the “.au”.

This will help protect your brand by ensuring competing companies or websites can’t register your domain name, because you already own many of the alternatives.

This will also prevent someone from scooping up the alternative TLDs to try to sell them to you at a higher price.Or setting up buiness in opposition to you, using your business or domain name.

Additionally, it could help you improve the usability of your site by ensuring your visitors can access your site if they do in fact type in a different TLD.

To find your perfect domain name – please visit our Living Host Domain Registrar.