Choosing a business domain name

Choosing your domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make. It informs your customers what you do, sets the tone for your branding and should be easy enough to keep your name top of mind when people want to book your services.

Your business name and domain name should be one and the same, so picking a great name will also mean it should work as a domain.

So how do you pick the perfect domain name for your business?

Here are a few rules we follow:

1. When choosing a domain name, keep it simple

Your name should be memorable, readable and easy to pronounce. It shouldn’t have multiple numbers or dashes or anything that will be confusing when typing out.

2. Don’t try to get fancy

Don’t try to use some fancy spelling of a simple name. Most likely it will get misspelled and you will miss out on a ton of traffic.

3. Try to be unique in picking your domain name

As stated above, don’t be too unique but do try to make your name stand out. If there are a million Maids of [enter your city name] consider being a bit more creative or else you will be competing with other companies when it comes to name recognition.

4. Brandable is nice but make sure people know what you do

We love names like Google or Oscar, but if you didn’t know what they were, you would have no clue what they did. Now, this works for companies that have millions of dollars to hammer their branding into your head, but starting off on a slim budget, using a name that clearly states what your business does in the title, will keep your branding and educational costs lower.

5. Check for the domain name’s availability

You don’t want to choose a name only to find out the domain name is gone and then you have to choose something obscure like “maidcleaningservicessw.com” because your preferred simple name is already taken. Make sure your name is available before you make a final business name decision. Go to GoDaddy to research what’s available. 

And pro tip- don’t post your domain in a group. Someone will purchase it if it’s great before you can just to see if they can potentially sell it back to you at a higher price.

6. Don’t use a fancy, strange extensions

Try to use .com every single time. People are used to .com and will type it 9 times out of 10. If you don’t have the .com, your traffic will go to a different website.

7. Don’t get stuck in the naming phase 

While these rules may lead you to get analysis paralysis on the name of your business, don’t get stuck. Come up with a few ideas, check the availability, ask a few friends in your target market and then move forward with your decision.

Ready to pick your business name and domain name? Have some tips of your own? Share them!