So, you’ve been working on a website and marketing strategy for your business. You have the business name picked out. You’ve hired a professional designer to create graphics for your website, and you have produced marketing material tailored around the new company name – but what about your website name?
When you go to register your domain name – will it be available? Did you check? Some other company could have registered it. Perhaps, you saw that it was available to register just a few week ago – and now it’s no longer available. You may have thought of an alternative and suitable website name under an appropriate Top-Level Domain (TLD) (e.g. .ie .com .co.uk) – but your web design agency tells you that it too has been taken. All your hard work and investment in creating that company brand and logo, and all your marketing collateral, is wasted?
Speed Is of The Essence
When it comes to getting your website domain name of choice, as any good website design agency will tell you, speed is of the essence. If you want your business to be easily recognisable, you need to have a memorable name within the appropriate TLD (like .ie, .com, .co.uk, .fr, .de etc.). Many internet-based organisations in fact rush to get their website names registered as the number one step in establishing their company and online presence. Everything else then follows.
If you are in the process of developing your website design strategy, then here are some facts that you should keep in mind before proceeding any further:
a) If you have an idea that needs a web presence, don't wait too long - Act quickly to get the preferred website name under your chosen TLD.
b) The most effective way to do that is to contact your website builders immediately, to see how you can get an appropriate domain name and website name registered. They can register it for you and register it in your name.
c) A well-known web designing “secret” is brevity of website addresses. Ideally, look for shorter names (they are easy for your audience to remember and use). Murphyengineers.ie is better than danielmurphyengineeringserviceslimited.ie .
d) Look for names that are relevant to your niche - "ShoeRepairs" if you are in the shoe mending business; "KeepingBooks" if you are in the book-keeping/accounting business etc. The more relevant your website name is to the business you are in, the more web traffic you are likely to attract. You can also add in your name here e.g. diamondshoerepairs.ie .
e) When it comes to naming your website, yet another web site design “secret” is to always look for options, if you find that your TLD of first-choice isn’t available. Remember - while short names are prized - they have been largely registered years ago, certainly for the .com TLD ...but there may be exceptions. A good web design company can help you look for alternate names by using powerful search tools like register365.com . If diamondshoerepairs.com is already registered, would you consider diamondshoerepairs.co ?
f) Another critical point to remember is the difference between dot Com ( . com ) names and dot Ie ( .ie ) names. If a .com website name IS AVAILABLE, you can register it as yours, as soon as you see that it is available. That is NOT the case for Irish (.Ie) website names.
Irish law states that you be an Irish company or entity in order to be allowed by the IEDR.ie to register it. That’s where the benefits of working with an experienced web designing agency comes in. They know the rules of the game, and can save you lots of time and money too.
g) Even if your original name of choice is not available, that doesn’t mean your website design efforts should come to a halt. Perhaps there are new TLDs (like .accountant, .cafe, .club, .dentist, .furniture and even .Irish) that can fit within your overall web presence strategy.
Creative Alternate Website Name Strategies
While moving quickly can pay big dividends in your search for a good website name, working with a professional Irish website designing agency can also reap huge rewards. They know how to experiment with your company name and industry keywords and, with their experience, they can propose creative alternate website naming strategies that you might not have thought about.
For instance, if you wanted “dublincafe.ie”, and found that it was gone, they may propose options like “cafedublin.ie”, “dublin.cafe” or even “dublincafe.co”. This introduces much needed flexibility in your web site name approach, which could result in not losing all that time, effort and investment that we spoke about at the start of this post.
Your website agency could also help you with other ways of getting the website name that you want. For instance, if your desired website name is no longer available, and you don't see it being used, it's possible that it is for sale. Your web developers can work with you to help you find the registered owner’s contact details, and then make them an offer for the name.
The bottom line: Acting quickly, and thinking “out of the box” can land you the website names of your choice and save you large amounts of time, effort and money.
If you have any website name questions give us a call on +353-1-6216866 or email info@myit.ie .
