Choosing a good domain name is vital for the success of your business. Your website is the virtual shop front for your business, so it’s essential that it’s easy for your potential customers to find. Choosing a domain name may seem simple – it’s just the name of your company, right? – but there are still a number of pitfalls for your company to fall into if you’re not careful! Here are our top 5 domain name fails:
1. Unintentional humour
Before you finalise your domain name choice, read your full URL and make sure that it’s not a) offensive or b) unintentionally hilarious. There’s a stationary provider called Pen Island. You can only imagine how their domain name turned out.
2. Similarity to bigger brands
Even if you haven’t heard of them yet, there’s always a possibility that there’s a brand out there with a similar name to yours. It’s worth running a Google search of your potential choices before committing – if there’s a bigger brand with a name that’s almost identical, you run the risk of losing a lot of your traffic to them.
3. Missing out on other suffixes
You may have the .co.uk domain name secured, but what about .com and .net? Potential clients who know the name of your business may search for the website and arrive on one of these sites instead, so it’s worth purchasing as many variations of your domain name as possible to make sure all of your rightful visitors arrive at your door.
4. Spelling mistakes
This one almost seemed too basic to include, but there really are websites out there with misspelled domains – particularly when it comes to words like ‘restaurant’. Before you go ahead and purchase, proof read! Having a misspelled domain name is one of the quickest ways to lose custom.
5. Going random!
We couldn’t tell you why, but some businesses are still choosing domain names that don’t match their brands. We don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but please – make sure your domain name and brand name correspond!