Your startup’s domain name lays the foundation for the future success of your business. Choosing the right domain name extension is equally important because it will be the online gateway through which people will reach your site.
The right domain extension can greatly boost how memorable your brand will be, or how quickly a visitor can understand what your site is about. Therefore, startup domain extensions are an important thing to consider when building up your business.
Be precise with your domain extension choice, as it provides focus. The selection of the right extension also points to all your activities in a precise direction. Let’s go over some top tips for domain name extensions for startups.
Startup Domain Extensions Reflect Brand Personality
I always advise clients that their business success is directly linked with their brand personality. It makes your brand memorable, enabling easy recognition by potential customers.
Niche extensions further add to brand personality with well thought out choices that tell your customers, “I’ve arrived”. As the first point of identification, your extension speaks about your brand by telling the customer about your specialty area. Choose your brand name extension wisely.
Get Help With Your Choices
Selecting a precise domain extension can be intuitive, or it can be overwhelming. To conveniently help find the right name and extension for your startup, this website explains and gives all information you should know, but, for now, let’s move forward.
Additionally, the site offers a domain checker tool that lets you scope out if your chosen domains are available or not.
You can conduct a check through the free domain checker to find out what domain extensions are available, that will best reflect your brand identity.
Once you have chosen a brand name you have a strong foundation for figuring out which extension fits it best. The Miles Web blog has a great article breaking down what the different domain extensions imply.
Startup Domain Extensions – Things to Consider
Ask yourself several questions when deciding on a brand name:
- Does it capture the essence of your start-up?
- Is the name meaningful, or completely off track?
- If you say the name aloud, is it easy to identify?
This and other considerations are vital when choosing a domain name and extension because most searches are done via mobile phone, according to Statista.
More importantly, voice searches are becoming increasingly popular. Having an easily pronounceable name is going to help you take advantage of this trend.
Keep Your Brand Name Short and Expressive
The more your domain, or brand name, reflects the type of start-up that you wish to develop, the more credible it will look.
For example, naming your coffee business, “Let’s talk it over”, may sound catchy, but does it immediately tell your potential customer what you’re all about? No, it doesn’t.
Rather explore short names like “beandrinking.coffee”, “strongbean.coffee”, or something along these lines.
Remember that your domain name and extension should tell your customer who you are and what you do.
Keep your website name short, and relevant so it adds meaning to your vision and your customer.
Do the Voice Test
The quickest way to tell if your business name and extension highlight what you do, is to say the name out loud. This is also called a radio test.
Roll the words over your tongue; hear how they sound. Will a voice search pick up on your name easily, or will it get lost in the noise of the million competitor websites?
Ask friends and family members for their input, because your excitement may cloud your perception.
Image source: canva.com
Tell a Brand Story
“Beandrinking.coffee”, or “procoach.consulting” immediately tells the story of what your business is about. People like stories because they’re easy to remember. Incorporating a story into your domain extension is focused, on point, and memorable.
For a real-life example, we can look at the Black Rifle Coffee Company. As the name hints this coffee retailer is close to the military – to be specific, it’s started by ex-military personnel, creating jobs for veterans.
Good stories also help build brand personality, which is what you should aim for with your startup. Personality building and brand reputation take loads of work and advertising, so put your best foot forward from the beginning.
Avoid Numbers and Hyphens
Adding a number or hyphens to your domain name together with text is confusing. Avoid this rookie error, because it will complicate searches for your business.
If customers struggle to find you online, your visibility is affected, and you lose traffic. Keep your name simple, and easy to remember.
Always Check for Availability
Just because your domain checker says the website name is available in a certain top-level domain, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been snatched up on social media, or already has an established brand behind it under that different TLD.
I’ve seen this scenario quite often, where someone wants to use a domain, find that it’s available, only to discover that someone on social media has used the same name.
You want consistency across your website name and social media platforms, so do proper checks.
Follow these simple tips to pick from the best domain extensions for startups when establishing your startup. Your business success is founded on a promising start.
Conclusion
There isn’t a single right choice for a startup’s perfect domain extension. However, there are some practices that can help you pick a name that will shine through and help you stand out from the competition. Don’t afraid to use the free tools for domain search – domain checkers and I hope my all tips will help you find the perfect domain to start and boost your business.
