There are a number of important factors to consider when choosing to register a domain name.
- What is your main Product?
- What is your main Market (or Target Market)?
- What words will your target market type in to Google to find your main product (or service)?
Lets illustrate this with a pretend scenario. You are a Plumber and your name is McNeal. So your Business name may already be “McNeal Plumbing”. Lets pretend that you are an Australian Plumbing business, or more specifically, that you are from Ringwood in Victoria.
There are several domain names that could be used. ie:
www.mcnealplumbing.com
www.mcnealplumbing.com.au
www.mcnealplumbers.com
www.mcnealplumbers.com.au
Either of the above options are “acceptable” but if you want your domain name to perform well in the search engines (Google) for local Australian searches, then it is best to use a .com.au domain name. I usually advise my clients to purchase several domain names. Not because it is another sale for me but because it protects them and their online business.
Domain names that end in .com are becoming more difficult to find because like all real estate, it goes up in price as less and less becomes available.
If you are providing a local service (within Australia), then it is best to store your website on a .com.au because it will return better search results for local users.
It isn’t difficult to score “Number 1 on Google” for your own business name. It is much harder to rank number one on Google for industry keywords. So, for the above illustration, I would advise a client to register the domain name www.mcnealplumbing.com.au but make the main url (domain name) something that contains keywords that your target market will search for. ie: PlumberRingwood.com.au and then get the domain name www.mcnealplumbing.com.au redirected (parked) to the PlumberRingwood.com.au
You can still have the publicly advertised website address as www.mcnealplumbing.com.au but for online search purposes use a domain name that will achieve the best search engine results. If clients already know your business name, they will do a Google search to find your website and will still find it at number 1 unless your business name is a generic or common business name.
Also, avoid confusing abbreviations like MCNP.com
If you need specific advice regarding what domain name you should register for your business or website, simply contact us and we will research what domain names are available and what domain name will be most likely to be effective.
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