In today’s world, every business needs to have a website and you cannot have a website without a URL (uniform resource locator—in case you were curious what that meant).
However, as the world wide web is flooded with URLs, you need to have a catchy and/or easy domain name in your URL in order for customers to easily find and get onto your website.
In this article, we discuss some best practices to consider when selecting a domain name for a small business.
Why should small businesses care about their URL?
Benefits of a good URL
The most important benefit of a good domain name is that your customers will find your website. Not all businesses are heavily dependent on sales via their website. For example, you may be a handyman and your business leads are primarily through word of mouth or referrals.
One may think that the website name or URL doesn’t matter for a primarily non-online business, but it absolutely does. Your customers may want to go to your website to see recommendations or read your blog, so they need a URL that they can easily remember or type. And, voila! You have a new customer who now knows that you are an industry expert.
What can happen if you pick the wrong URL?
The effect of having a bad URL is straightforward—your business will suffer. If your website address is hard to find or is too long, or contains typos, then your customers won’t bother trying to type or find it. If you have no customers going to your website, your revenue will suffer.
While it is true that many consumers now click on ads via social media sites and do not even know the URL they are clicking on, should they want to go back to that site later on but cannot figure it out, then they are unlikely to return.
The worst effect is for those businesses that are eCommerce in nature. Their business is completely dependent on their website functioning and being findable. Lesson learned—don’t pick the wrong URL.
Factors to consider when choosing your domain name
Does your domain name need to match your business name?
The short answer is no. In an ideal world, yes, your URL would be your company name. But that may not always be possible or not make sense. For example, if your business name is something general like “Amazon,” you would not be able to have the URL www.amazon.com, as that already exists.
Alternatively, your business name may be a law group which is usually a list of names. Having a list of names as a URL won’t work either. However, if you do have a business name that can be a domain name and it makes sense—do it.
How to choose a domain name extension
A domain extension is the suffix that is at the tail end of your URL. Examples include .org, .gov, .edu, and of course .com domain. You may think that the obvious choice is .com, as it is the most ubiquitous and commonly known one, with 37% of websites[1] with that suffix. But depending on your business, you may want to consider other options.
Do you want your URL to reflect your industry? If so, options include .tv, .app, .blog, .movi, .shop or .store. Do you have a large company that can expand globally? You may want to invest in URL extensions that reflect the country, specifically to help your international SEO.
For example, if you have a website for German customers, the extension would be .de. Finally, should the ideal domain and extension be taken, you can use another extension[2] so that your original URL still works.
Whatever extension you choose, be strategic and do not overthink it. If .com seems like the right option and is available, use it.
Do’s and don’ts of business URLs
Do’s
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- Do keep it short and simple: Have you ever experienced a long URL as a consumer? If you have, then you know how frustrating they are. You may even decide to not bother typing the URL in because the time spent getting it corrected could be used finding a company that made it easier for you to get to their website. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think of the user experience. Ideally, the best URL is between 6-12 characters in length[4]. For example, www.upcity.com is six characters—easy right?
- Do align it with your brand: Depending on your industry, your website is likely the way that most of your customers will recognize and use your brand. So, your URL should be a reflection of your brand name. Referring to the law group example above, you may not want the URL to be a list of names, but you could do something such as www.realtylawyer.com. It explains exactly what your business does without using your name. Potential customers can find you that way without necessarily using a search engine too.
- Do make it easy to type and pronounce: Similar to keeping it short and simple, it is important that the URL is easy to type and pronounce. Using characters, numbers and letters mixed together is annoying to type on a mobile device. It should also be something easy to pronounce so that when someone says it out loud, the listener can type it right away without wondering about spelling or characters. And while hyphens may make it easier to read between words, avoid using them if you can.
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Don’ts
Don’t forget about SEO: Search Engine Optimization is an important element of every part of your website, including your URL. When choosing your website, you can use keywords that you already use for the content of your website and help your search rankings even more! However, if it just doesn’t fit to do that, do not worry about it. The most important thing is that customers get to your website. If using keywords won’t do that via your URL, skip that idea. If you do, however, find keywords that work, use low to medium competition as that will give you a leg up.
Don’t be generic: Being simple, short, easy to type and pronounce does not mean being forgettable. If you go too simply or choose something that is not unique, then there will be no need to remember your URL and customers won’t return. In fact, if it is so generic, they may remember the URL as something slightly different and go to a different website the next time.
Don’t forget to be strategic: By this point, if you read this article and agree with the bullets shared, then you are already being strategic. However, it is important to do more than just read this article before deciding on the best domain name. Do you research your competitors, look at your business plan and pinpoint the areas that will help you decide which URL works for you.
Tools and resources for choosing a good URL
What are domain name generators?
As a small business owner, you likely have to worry about all facets of your business and may feel stuck coming up with the perfect domain name. Well do not fret!
Domain name generators help you brainstorm some ideas. These tools use keywords you generate with popular terms that are related.
Be careful with domain name generators, as there are some out there that will hold your domain name for ransom – come up with a name, then buy it, forcing you to buy it from them.
Choosing an appropriate domain name license company
As a small business owner, you are likely using a website builder to create your website. Perhaps something like WordPress or GoDaddy which in addition to hosting sites, also have templates for creating your site.
Thankfully, most of these sites are now one-stop shops for all your website needs, as a web hosting provider. Some may be better at some parts than others, but if you do your research and find it easier to use one company for everything, it is an option.
You can do it!
This article discussed a lot of technical ideas related to your website, specifically the first point of entry—your URL. If after all of this, you feel a little dizzy, consider connecting with an experienced digital marketing agency or web design company to help you out.
This article was originally published August 19, 2021 and has since been updated.
Sources
- Domain name registration’s statistics, Domain Name Stat
- What are the most common domain extensions? GoDaddy
- What is the best domain name length? Domain Registration