Article:
How To Choose A Great Domain Name For Your Business

Your website domain name is an important element of your business. It can boost or hurt your brand, depending on the decisions you make and the service provider you choose, so it’s crucial to choose a domain name that works for your business.

Here are a few tips designed to help you choose a great domain name for your business:

Decide on the extension

When you choose your domain name extension, “.com” is still considered the best and most popular. Research from DomainNameStat shows that 43% of all domains have the “.com” extension. It is the most familiar and easiest to remember, which will benefit your brand, especially if you are going for global appeal or catering to multiple international markets. If your market is exclusively South Africa, then “co.za” will work well.

Short and easy

The most popular and common websites in the world or locally in South Africa, such as Google, Facebook and News24, are short and easy to spell. Give some serious thought to what your domain name could be, looking for something short and snappy rather than long and difficult to type.

Numbers and hyphens should be avoided

Numbers and hyphens are often misunderstood – people who hear your website address may not know if you’re using a numeral (5) or it’s spelled out (five) or they misplace or forget the hyphen. This can be incredibly confusing and will lead to missed traffic and frustration.

Check that it is not in use

Before you move forward with a specific domain name and try to get it registered, check to see if the name is available on social media sites, online, and whether there are any trademarks already registered to the name. ITSys can carry out a domain name search to see if your preferred domain name is available, and if it is, we register the domain for you, and provide you with a suitable web-hosting solution for your business.