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I’m not a search engine optimization expert by any means, but I have learned a few things about domain names. Yes, I did my homework before registering my first domain name… but I still ran into a few hiccups along the way. You’d think that a business name like “Betsy’s Photography” would be pretty self explanatory, right? Well, not exactly. Over the years since registering “betsysphotography.com” I have had numerous people try to access my website via:
- betsyphotography.com (note the missing “s”)
- betsy’sphotography.com (domain names don’t accept apostrophes)
Not too cool, huh. So, here are a few tips to help you avoid registering a domain name you might regret later. The key thing, though is to keep it simple!
Don’t Use Numbers – Because domain names accept both numbers and letters, you might be tempted to regsiter something with a number. Avoid the tempation though, or else you will spend time explaining to clients “that’s three as in the word, not the number 3.” Additionally, if you only register yourdomain3.com — you might have visitors who are unable to find your website (i.e. they are trying to load yourdomainthree.com)
Avoid Hyphens – Initially, hyphens might sound like a good idea because you can get a domain name similar to the one you want (e.g. “goodphotography.com” is taken, so you pick “good-photography.com”). Again, you’ll have people trying to visit you at the URL without the hypen.
Avoid Singular/Plural Confusion – This is the problem I’ve encountered. When you have an “s” — sometimes people don’t hear it in your domain name. If you can, just go with the singular domain name (e.g. benphoto.com). If you really want “bensphoto.com” then you might as well register both and set one of them up to redirect to your main domain.
Avoid Wordplay – Puns and double-entendre’s are fun, yes, but leave them out of your domain name. Say you want to register “writerightalbums.com” …do you really want to explain over the phone “that’s write as in write a letter, followed by right to turn right”?
The Shorter the Better – Yes, I know that almost all the good short domain names are already taken. But, I know from experience that “betsysphotography.com” is kind of long to type in, despite the fact that it’s not *too* long. I would definitely recommend staying away from something like “betsyisthebestphotographerinthestateofmichigan.com” — that is too hard to type, let alone read. Imagine getting emails from betsy@… Ok, you get the point, right?
