Choosing A Domain Name To Attract Targeted Customers

by Theo McLanahan

The quickest way to getting eyeballs on your business these days is by establishing an on the internet presence and central to establishing a powerful on the internet presence is choosing a domain name that’ll attract the right customers.

Somehow, there hasn’t been enough emphasis put on choosing a domain name that attracts the right customers, so allow me to expound on this subject with some tips you can put to immediate use for your next website or blog.

1. Make Sure Your Domain Describes Your Business

Your domain name should make it clear to your visitors what your website is about, even before they land on the site. Do not make them guess what you are offering.

eg. If your name is Lisa Barstow and you run a hair salon, get a domain like lisashairsalon.com instead of lisabarstow.com. Unless you already famous, or want to become famous, your own name is not the best option.

Keep it as short as possible as well. It’s easier for your customers to remember and they are less apt to make typing errors when they enter it in their web browser.

2. Select A Keyword-Rich Domain Name

Most websites rely on Google, Yahoo and other search engines for some (or most) of their traffic. If your business’s keywords are included in your domain, you are more likely to rank higher in the results.

If you’d done the research and used these customer-specific keyword phrases in your domain name, more than likely your website will be listed on the very first page of the search engines, outranking your competitors because you had exercised due diligence where keyword-rich domain names were concerned.

Of course, there are other SEO tactics to implement for better rankings, but getting a keyword-rich domain name is the first step towards ensuring your website will be search engine friendly. Avoid using any weird characters like apostrophes and even hyphens in your domain name as this will eventually affect rankings.

3. Must A Domain Name End With .com?

Yes and no. You could use other extensions like .net, .biz or .info but it’s not the best choice. Everybody knows .com but if your site uses something else, you are going to have to market it a lot harder to get the correct extension in people’s minds. And if someone else already has the .com version, they will probably get a lot of traffic from people looking for you.

Another reason is when emailing, customers automatically assume every company ends with a .com extension and this can be devastating to your business if your customers’ emails keep ending up in your competitors’ database.

Unless you are intentionally targeting to brand your business as, let’s say, a nonprofit organization, in which case the .org extension is highly recommended, then sticking to the instantly recognizable .com extension is the best way to go.

So don’t rush into picking your domain name. Research your market and find the keyword phrases that people are searching for. There are quite a few websites that let you research this information, such as Wordtracker.com and GoodKeywords.com. Putting the effort in up front will pay off in the long run.

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