Living your entrepreneurial dream means a lot of work! The first step towards making your startup really successful is choosing a domain name for it. The name that you choose shall represent your products and services globally. The right name can significantly impact the success of your startup as according to a recent survey, nearly 77% of customers are largely influenced by the brand name. So connecting with your customers is extremely important.
Are you thinking of naming your startup after yourself, think twice! A correct domain name for your startup is extremely crucial.
Before you start racking your brains too hard, read on to find 9 successful tips for choosing a domain name for your startup, right here.
1. Choose a name that reflects your enterprise
The domain name should be an image of your startup enterprise. This is the name that will represent your products or services on the international scale. Hence, while choosing a domain name, select one that distinguishes your products from the rest as well as makes it easy to identify.
2. Keep it short and simple
While choosing a domain name, make sure that’s it simple, short and easy to remember. Company names like Apple, Amul, Chanel and Southwest can never make you fumble. An obscure domain name is difficult to pronounce and remember, it can in no ways help to promote your startup enterprise.
3. Brainstorm your options and experiment
Once you have made a few selections, it’s time to brainstorm them separately. Work with your team and discuss the name that describes your services in the best possible way. Choose a name that sets you apart from your competitors and also conveys about your products or services. Experts also suggest that you must look up for Latin and Greek translations for those names to come up with new ideas. Remember ‘Haagen Dazs’, the company name is a Danish word whereas the makers were in New York.
4. Avoid names that are hard to spell
When building your brand, you don’t want customers to get up with the spelling of your domain name. if your domain name is complex and long, the risk of customers actually misspelling or mistyping it is quite high. Just like this American venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, named after its founders. How many of us can type it correctly in a go? Not me for sure.
5. Keep away from geographic names
Using geographic names in your domain name is not really advisable. While it’s good to name your enterprise on its place of origin, this can cause you a problem when the business starts to grow. One example is New York & Co, an established American apparels and accessories enterprise. The company had to change its name to RTW Retailwinds when the business began to grow globally, beyond the state of America.
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6. Avoid numbers and hyphens
Using numbers and hyphens in your domain name can be tricky. Numbers in a domain name can be spelt or even used as a numeral, so if you hear someone mentioning a domain name with a number, you do not know if it’s a numeral or letters. For example, 24HoursCars.com can even be confused being TwentyfourHoursCars.com. Hence, it’s best to avoid them and if you must add a number, use a number that’s significant for your business and also acquire all variations at the time of registering.
7. Do not follow trends blindly
You might have come across instances when company names included numerals in their domain name or sometimes most of them ended with the word –ly. Such companies could have been successful, but definitely not all of them. Trends keep on evolving and there’s no specific pattern that you can follow.
When choosing a domain name, you should avoid following the current trend and select something that’s more relevant. Remember AI (Artificial Intelligence), when this trend caught up, startups were only using ‘AI’ in their names such as Argo AI, Aidoc, Ainovo and Rulai to name a few.
8. Take feedbacks on your chosen name
It’s always a good idea to get feedback from your friends, families and even customers when choosing a domain name for your startup. Pick up a small group of people who understand your business and ask their genuine feedback on the chosen domain name. There are also some risks when you get feedback from outside, as some set of people might get upset if you do not shortlist the name they presumed to be perfect for your startup.
9. Select a proper extension for your domain name
Choosing a domain name isn’t just enough. You must also select an appropriate extension for your business. The .com domain name has been the most popular and widely used and hence it can be tough to find a memorable domain name with .com that has not yet been taken. Look out for newer, generic domain extensions like .guru, .biz, .org, .nyc and many more. Research well before fixing a good and relevant one for your startup enterprise.
These tips on choosing a domain name will surely help you figure out a winning name for your dream startup. Following this, register your domain name quickly before it’s already taken!
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