Choosing a domain name
The first step in getting a business website is choosing an appropriate domain. Many businesses purchase a domain based on their trading name. If you brand is established and local people already know your brand this makes sense. If you are a new business it might be a good idea to purchase a couple keyword rich domains other than your trading name.
Let us say you are a locksmith in Auckland – your domains could be:-
www.jamesjones.co.nz – means nothing to people who have not used your services
www.ponsonbylocksmith.co.nz or www.auckalndlocksmith.co.nz – means a lot to a searcher from Auckland in Google
The above domain means everything to a searcher from Ponsonby. He or she will pick up the phone and ring for your services after researching your website for things like hours of service costs out of hours costs etc. How powerful is that?
So it pays to buy 2-3 domains that are keyword rich for your product or service and point it to your website. Use keywords that will be used by your target market to find your service. So if you are a physiotherapist in wellington – a domain like www.tawaphysiotherapy.co.nz, www.tawaphysio.co.nz Will help you get more customers through your website. If those domains are gone it is still worthwhile getting domains with those keywords with hyphens between the words. www.tawa-physio.co.nz will still matter in Google.
The other matter I am coming across a lot is businesses do not know who registered their domain and who owns the domain.
Please make sure your business owns the domain and you have control over the domain. In the future if you plan to sell your business all the digital components will be part of the sale – like the website, the domain etc. At that point it will become a problem if you do not own the domain.
These days your website and domain are like a piece of online real estate. If you run an online only business, the website can command a very high price depending on your traffic stats and income from the website. ( We are talking tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands) So please always make sure you own the domain.
The technical contact or admin contact can be your web designer or IT person. The owner should always be the business owner. The way to check who the owner is go to the website below and type in your web address. All the details will come up. If you are not the owner contact the person who registered the domain and make sure the domain is transferred to you – the business owner.
