{"id":102,"date":"2017-12-20T09:49:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T02:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cheapdomainregistration.com\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2019-08-20T08:05:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T01:05:01","slug":"how-to-secure-the-right-domain-for-your-new-digital-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapdomainregistration.com\/blog\/how-to-secure-the-right-domain-for-your-new-digital-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Every digital business starts with one thing in common: a domain name. Without a domain name, you do not have an address for your business where customers can find you.\u00a0 It\u2019s like having a business without having a physical address. How can you market that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, to secure the right domain for your\u00a0new digital business, you need to know that not all domain names are created equal.\u00a0 There are quite a few factors that you need to think about when securing the best domain name for your new digital business.<\/p>\n

As a digital business broker, I have helped sell countless businesses and have seen firsthand the role that a domain name plays in the value of a business.<\/p>\n

Whether you realize it, the domain name that you choose plays a critical role in\u00a0how valuable your business will be\u00a0— both while you own it, and for an investor should you ever decide to sell.<\/p>\n

Here are 11 lessons that I\u2019ve learned about what domain names mean to a business over the long haul.\u00a0 Consider each of them when you\u2019re securing the right domain name for your new digital business.<\/p>\n

#1 –\u00a0Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Start early in the process.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

If you have already\u00a0named your business, you may not have started thinking about your domain name early enough.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunate, but many business owners register their business name, only to find out later that the domain name they wanted for their business has already been taken. You can try to get the registered owner to sell it, but often they want a crazy amount of money for it.<\/p>\n

Some investors will monitor which businesses get registered and buy the\u00a0related domain names\u00a0as a \u201csquatting\u201d strategy. These domain brokers are known for controlling domains that business owners would typically want to use.<\/p>\n

To avoid this hassle, you\u2019ll want to make sure the domain is available before you register your business.\u00a0 It will save you a ton of headaches (and money) down the road.<\/p>\n

If the domain name you want isn\u2019t available, it may be worth reconsidering your business name.\u00a0 This can also help you avoid\u00a0potential copyright issues\u00a0that you couldn\u2019t foresee before you started.<\/p>\n

#2 –\u00a0Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Consider your branding.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

If there\u2019s one factor that billion-dollar digital businesses have in common, it\u2019s that their domain name is easy to remember and it speaks directly to their branding.<\/p>\n

Branding refers to the messaging that your company will use. The personality you\u2019ll give the company, and the type of feeling that you want your customers to get when they think about your business.<\/p>\n

Word of mouth and organic marketing are incredibly powerful. They only work if your visitors are able to get your domain name out of their mouth without having to explain how to spell it.<\/p>\n

Once your business reaches the point where your customers are talking about your products and services, having a unique and memorable domain name will work hand-in-hand with your\u00a0organic marketing.<\/p>\n

#3 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Remember, .com stands for commercial.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with registering your business to extensions other than .com, as you\u2019ll see in just a second. Even so, you do want to think about the fact that .com stands for commercial and refers to business domain names.<\/p>\n

On top of that, most people inherently understand that\u00a0a .com domain\u00a0is the first type of domain they should visit when they\u2019re looking for a business.<\/p>\n

If someone mentions your business name to one of their friends or family, they are immediately going to assume that your website should be located at your business name with a .com extension.<\/p>\n

Again, doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t register other extensions, too, but the .com extension is currently one of the most important that you can\u00a0register for your business.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to my next point…<\/p>\n

#4 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Consider registering multiple extensions.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Just because a .com extension is the most important and most memorable, you shouldn\u2019t necessarily neglect other extensions, either.<\/p>\n

Other extensions, like .net, .org, and even some of the more boutique extensions, should all be considered. The goal for registering them should be to protect your brand and your business from potential squatters and\u00a0scammers.<\/p>\n

Scammers have duplicated a company\u2019s website and rebuilt it on a separate extension. They then attempt to scam unsuspecting visitors into believing that they are indeed the actual company.<\/p>\n

This can create a\u00a0public relations\u00a0nightmare for your business. On top of that, if someone does register a separate extension for your business you will need to go through the courts to have their domain name taken down.<\/p>\n

Save yourself a headache. Once you have decided on the domain name you want, think about picking up other extensions that are available for it, too.<\/p>\n

#5 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Follow the domain name best practices.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

When it comes to registering a domain name for your business, there are a few generally unspoken rules that you\u2019ll need to follow.<\/p>\n

The perfect domain name is going to support your business, but it will also:<\/p>\n

\u25cf Be short and to the point.
\n\u25cf Contain minimum words that are easy to spell.
\n\u25cf Be unique and easy to remember.
\n\u25cf Be friendly to your SEO marketing campaign.
\n\u25cf Relevant to your business, products, or services.<\/p>\n

It may not always be possible to find a domain name that fits into each of these criteria. Yet, this\u00a0checklist\u00a0is a good starting point for the different areas you want to address. It will help you get started brainstorming a list of potential domain names that you can register for your business.<\/p>\n

#6 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Think about search engine optimization.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

I just touched on making sure that your domain name is friendly to your SEO marketing strategy. But let\u2019s dive deeper into it — in case you\u2019re\u00a0unfamiliar with SEO.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re starting a local-based business, it\u2019s worth it to include your location in the domain name.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re starting a nationwide business, think about the keywords that your visitors would type into the search engines if they were looking for your website.<\/p>\n

Now, this tip comes with a bit of a caveat.\u00a0 While you want to make sure you\u2019re\u00a0thinking about SEO\u00a0when you buy your domain name, you do not want to start stuffing keywords into the domain name itself.<\/p>\n

At a later date, you can create new pages on the website that have these keywords in them, if you want to stick primarily to registering the domain name as your business\u2019 name.<\/p>\n

#7 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Register your name as the owner.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Some business owners will assign the task of buying the domain name and setting up the website to one of their employees.\u00a0 What typically happens, though, is the\u00a0employee\u00a0will register the domain name<\/a> into their own name, without thinking about the consequences.<\/p>\n

If that employee leaves the business, you can no longer make edits to the domain name in the registrar without having them present or having them sign the domain name over to you.<\/p>\n

If the domain name isn\u2019t in your name, it isn\u2019t actually yours.<\/p>\n

If you are concerned about privacy, you can enable WHOIS\u00a0privacy\u00a0on most domain registrars, so that the information you used to register it with is not available to the public.<\/p>\n

#8 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Set up automatic renewal.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

One problem among online business owners is forgetting to renew the domain name they\u2019ve registered for their business.<\/p>\n

While in most cases, this is only a small problem and can be remedied by\u00a0logging into\u00a0the registrar and clicking renew, in some cases it can be a huge issue.<\/p>\n

Many domain name brokers and domainers will wait for business domain names to expire in an effort to quickly buy them up before the business owner realizes their mistake.\u00a0 Once they own the domain name, the real problems begin.<\/p>\n

These domainers will reach out and let the\u00a0business owner\u00a0know that it\u2019s going to cost them to buy the domain name<\/a> back. This fee can be anywhere from $1,000 to upwards of $10,000 or even $100,000 in the case of bigger businesses.<\/p>\n

You can avoid this issue completely by simply turning on auto-renew and registering the domain name<\/a> for 10 years at a time.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small price to pay upfront for long-term security.<\/p>\n

#9 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Don\u2019t use dashes, hyphens, numbers, or abbreviations.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

This tip is a mix of making sure your domain name is brandable and memorable. But this also ensures that it\u2019s easy on your\u00a0SEO campaign\u00a0and even easier for your customers to spread the word about your business.<\/p>\n

If your business has multiple words and that domain name is available, do not start adding hyphens.\u00a0 On the same token, do not start adding numbers unless your business has numbers in the name.<\/p>\n

You also want to avoid using abbreviated words because they do not\u00a0translate\u00a0well when someone is trying to say your domain name in a conversation.\u00a0 People will attempt to type out the entire word instead of the abbreviation.<\/p>\n

#10 –\u00a0Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Look into the domain\u2019s past.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

This tip covers you on two different bases — copyright infringement and SEO.<\/p>\n

If you register a domain name<\/a>, you could be infringing on another company\u2019s copyrights without realizing you\u2019re actually doing it.<\/p>\n

To give you an example, I had a client\u00a0wanting to sell a business.\u00a0 He had owned the domain name for more than 3 years and decided it was time to sell.\u00a0 Except, he couldn\u2019t sell.<\/p>\n

It was brought to my attention that the domain name he registered was actually the same name as a non-profit organization, and they chose not to register the domain name.\u00a0 Upon realizing this, the client had to move his business to a new domain name and could no longer use the name he registered.<\/p>\n

You also want to make sure that shady and blackhat SEOs haven\u2019t used the domain name as part of a backlinking or\u00a0scam operation.\u00a0 If it has, it could be nearly impossible for you to rank in the organic search results.<\/p>\n

#11 – Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Don\u2019t pay too much.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

There are quite a few domain name registrars currently available.\u00a0 Most of them are reasonably priced, but some will gouge domain names that they consider to be\u00a0\u201cpremium\u201d.<\/p>\n

For a typical registrar, a .com domain name should cost between $7 and $15. This depends on what add-ons you get, whether they charge for privacy, and any other fees they may decide to add.<\/p>\n

For some registrars, if their algorithm believes that the domain name you\u2019re trying to register is \u201cpremium\u201d, they could tell you that it will cost $1,000 or even more just to register it.<\/p>\n

When that happens, you can go to another registrar and pick the same domain name and register it for between $7 to $15.\u00a0 You want to avoid paying too much for the domain, especially if you\u2019re going to register\u00a0multiple extensions.<\/p>\n

Secure the Right Domain for Your New Digital Business – Your Domain Name is Your Storefront.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Buying the domain name for your new business is critical because your domain name is literally your\u00a0business\u2019 address.\u00a0 It\u2019s the storefront where your customers are going to find you, and tell their friends and family members where to find you.<\/p>\n

As long as you follow the 11 different tips I\u2019ve given you here, coming to a decision on the domain you want to use in your business becomes significantly easier to do.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Jock Purtle is the CEO of\u00a0Digital Exits, LLC,\u00a0a company focused on helping entrepreneurs buy and sell businesses. He is considered an industry leader and expert on valuations of high growth internet\u00a0companies, website valuations, and website brokerage. He has been featured and quoted in publications such as Forbes,\u00a0CNBC,\u00a0Business Insider,\u00a0Inc.com,\u00a0Wired,\u00a0CBS News, and more.<\/p>\n

About this post<\/strong><\/h6>\n

We do believe that this post is very useful information for our customers\/ visitors so that we would like to repost it. Bellowing is the original source of this great post:<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.businessopportunity.com\/Blog\/secure-the-right-domain-for-your-new-digital-business\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

We would like to say thank Business Opportunity for\u00a0allowing us to repost it on our website.<\/em><\/p>\n

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