I don’t know how many people I’ve said this to, but it’s amazing how many keep making the same mistakes. In this online age, if your business has a web component, you should be making your decisions with the realities of the web in mind.
At its most basic, let’s assume you’re a widget maker. It makes sense to give your widget making business a trading name that reflects what you do – and make sure the domain name is available for it.
Calling your business Alpaca Ltd is not going to help. It might have done when your customers found you by referring to the phone book, but the web doesn’t order things alphabetically – and Alpaca Ltd isn’t something your customers would search for if they don’t know who you are.
Call your business Widgets, if widgets.com is available. Call it Bestwidgets if Widgets.com is taken. Or SpringfieldWidgets if you happen to be in Springfield.
Remember, there is a certain amount of leeway, as long as you make sure that your decisions reflect the type of business you have.
For example, if your marketing budget is strong, you might come up with a less intuitive domain name that reflects your widget brand. Let’s assume your widgets are little heaters designed to keep people warm under their clothes. You could get the domain name Cozy.com, but only if you can do sufficient brand awareness advertising that people will associate Cozy with you.
If your company has weight, you can invent a word and make it into a brand. iPod is an obvious example. Before the iPod existed, no-one would have searched for it, and so it never would have been found. Apple, though, has a strong brand presence. They’re big enough – and cool enough – that they can create a buzz about a product, and have everyone talking about it by the time it goes live.
It’s all about branding – and I’m talking about more than just logo design. The stronger your brand, the greater the liberties you can take on the web.
Note: yes, I know I should have followed my own advice when choosing the domain name for this blog. However, this site is mostly for me to jot down my thoughts. Recently, those thoughts have been about the web, and this is only natural because it’s what I do for a job. But there are many other topics clamoring for attention, and pretty soon it won’t be so clear what the primary topic of this blog actually is. So I’m happy with what I’ve called it.
That is a great tip, about the name.