Choosing a Domain Name for your Home-Based Business 

As you probably know by now, how you use the internet can make or break your work-from-home business. When a business fails to draw a significant amount of traffic or doesn’t give users what they want, it usually doesn’t do very well. On the other hand, when a business has a well-designed website that is clear, engaging, and helpful to potential customers, this can turn a small business into a real success story.

Creating a strong web presence starts with a domain name. This is not to be taken lightly, as it is how customers are going to find, remember, and describe your site. So even if you’re in a rush to get started, make sure you take some time to really think your domain name through.

Then, you have to go through the sometimes laborious process of researching names that are actually available. That’s why it’s a good idea, as you’re brainstorming domain names, to keep a registration website open. This way, every time you come up with an idea, you can type it into the website to see if it’s available. In fact, you’ll find that this makes the process much easier, as most of your ideas will be immediately taken off the table due to lack of availability.

When brainstorming names, keep these things in mind:

Your domain name should indicate what you do or sell. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule. Amazon.com, for instance, isn’t called BigCompanyThatSellsStuff. But these cases are rare. If you look around the internet, you’ll notice that most website domain names give some indication as to what the site is about. So, for example, if you sell used books, at the very least you should have the word “books” in your domain.

Your domain name should be memorable. What makes a memorable domain name? It’s really hard to say. There’s an art to it, and not everyone can come up with the best names. But the most important thing is for your domain name to be short and sweet.

Don’t neglect your extension. Going with the used books example again, it’s just a basic fact of the internet that a .com website will inevitably get more traffic than .net, .org website. However, as the number of extensions continues to expand, .com is going to become less important. So, if you can’t get the .com domain name, don’t fret. Instead, choose the extension that’s most applicable to your company. Do you sell web-based services? Use the .net extension. And of course, there’s nothing wrong with using the extension associated with your country.

Make it easy to spell. This should go without saying, but if you want people to get to your site, they have to be able to successfully type your domain name into their browsers. So, if your last name is difficult to spell, then don’t include it in your domain. Or if any element of your company name is an often misspelled word, leave it out of the address. We may not like this, but it just makes good business sense.