Website Domain Names – All you need to know and a little extra

Matching Business and Website Domain Names

Choosing names has always been important for us people because we feel an attachment to what that name stands for and what it gets associated with. 

Whether you name your child, pet, or your own business, you consider multiple factors so that the name does not misrepresent you and your beliefs.  

In business, names establish brands and attract customers, so choosing your domain name is no easy task, especially since the entire Internet is your marketplace and the competition is everywhere.  

With e-commerce steadily increasing its percentage compared to retail purchasing in the past years, it should be obvious that your business needs a website. 

Choosing the right business name is difficult, even more so if you do business in a big city and you are required to avoid duplicating and existing businesses’ names. 

Now imagine having to choose your own unique domain name to match your brand, and someone else has taken it already. What are your options? Is there something you can do? Well, let us get you started with the basics first. 

Websites & Domains – Explained

As the Internet is your marketplace, you can consider your website your digital storefront. This is what people see once they end up with you at your address, and your domain name is that address. Way back in the days, domains were all IP addresses, and since it got so crowded, people could only remember so many strings of numbers – domains had to become words. Something we can easily remember.   

Many people spend a lot of energy deciding on their business name and miss checking if that name is available for purchase as a domain name for their website. Even if it is for sale, they might end up spending a lot because they did not think ahead. 

How Are Domain Names Structured

Technically, domain names consist of three main elements separated by dots. As we all (should) know, the first part stands for World Wide Web, and the second and third are what your domain name is. They are called Top Level Domain (or TLD) and Second Level Domain (or SLD).  

For example, take our domain name, the TLD is the .com, and the SLD is the word domainer.   

Domain names are subject to regulations, just like almost everything else, and are governed by the Domain Name System – DNS for short.

From guidelines to procedure and registration rules – the system regulates them. Registering domains is a service performed by authorized registrars, so if you purchase a Second-Level Domain name, it should be registered so it is officially reserved and cannot be used by anyone else besides yourself.  

In case your desired domain name is already registered by someone else, and they are unwilling to sell or just demand a price beyond your financial reach, there are other TLDs to choose from, which can be paired with the SLD you initially wanted.  

In other words – if you wanted YourBusiness.com and it is already taken, you can choose from YourBusiness.org to YourBusiness.net that could otherwise be up for grabs.

An important piece of advice when you are considering both your business and domain names would be to use the Radio Test. It stands for a simple listening-comprehensive experiment: When people hear your domain name on the radio and have never seen it written down, will they be able to spell it correctly and find your website?  

Other important factors to consider are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Traffic. Because in a vast market like the Internet, you also expect to be found by clients only looking for keywords matching your specific business industry and region.  

Domains and domain names are crucial to your online success; however, they can only help bring people to you. It is up to your website to make them stay and become your clients. High-value domain names can also be an investment, and there is a lot of strategy and brainstorming involved to make sure you play the domain game as a winner.