Have you ever heard of famous people having to buy their own names to have a website? Happens all the time. As soon as an aspiring celebrity is noticed, some enterprising person will buy all the domain names that could be associated with that person’s name. Then, when that celebrity wants to have her own website, she has to buy the name from her, usually at an inflated cost.

YOU ARE FAMOUS?
Now, this only works if you’re famous. For example, if you type “General Motors”, one of the best results will be the official GM website. If you type “Barack Obama” or “Mitt Romney,” one of the first sites you’ll see listed is the official one.

However, if you’re not famous, there’s no point in using your name, or your company’s name, as your domain name. That’s because no one will look for you, it’s just a fact. If you WANT your own domain name for fun, that’s one thing. However, most people who build a website do so to make money, and that means customers have to find it. That means you have to get a domain name that people search for.

WHAT DO YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT?
What do you sell? If you sell services, what are the most trafficked keywords for those services? THOSE are the domain names you need to look for. So if you are an exterminator in the San Francisco Bay Area, search for domain names using keywords based on that service: San Francisco Bay Area Pest Control, San Francisco Bay Area Exterminators, Pest Control of the San Francisco Bay, tec. Most likely, most of them have been purchased. However, if you go to an online domain auction, you can often find the domain names you want. Domain registries will have many domains that are inactive. After a period of time, if the owner does nothing with the domain, the registrar will auction off the name.

You may have to pay a little more for an auctioned domain, but it will make a world of difference to your traffic.

CONSIDER MULTIPLE
Is there commonly a plural and a singular of your service? For example: San Francisco Bay exterminator, San Francisco Bay exterminators. You may want to have more than one domain name and link them all to your website. You can really get caught up in this, so don’t stress about it. But, you might also want to get a domain name in your business name, just to make sure that when someone DOES type in your business name, they get your website. So when they type “XYZ Terminators,” or San Francisco Bay Terminators, they go to the same place.

CONSIDER MULTIPLE EXTENSIONS
You may also want all three international extensions: “.com”, “.net”, and “.org”. If yours is a strictly commercial site, this may not be necessary. Most people automatically enter the “.com” extension, however if your site will have a “.net” or “.org” development, you should be prepared for that.

Taking care with your domain names is vital to successful web design. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money on this one.