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Have you heard of facebook.com as a social networking website, pagalguy.com as an MBA aspirants hub, naaptol.com as an exclusive deals site on products or naukri.com as a job portal? Did you click on their links when you came across them? Well, their attractive domain names, along with their innovative ideas, were quintessential to establish these startups as today’s market giants.
Domain names are the real estate of the Internet. Just as a good location is vital for selecting your dream home, a good domain name will be the corner stone of your website’s success. In the modern world of the Internet, where people automatically turn to the Web for information, it is highly imperative to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. This will leave your customers or visitors with fewer things to remember as they can always refer your website.
Now why a domain name is so important, especially for a startup?
Marketing and Visibility
What a good domain name can do for your startup is to allow you to enter a market and compete with the big guys. A catchy domain makes it a little easier and sometimes gives your business an edge when you need it most. Yes, they also generate traffic and revenue if they are really good names but what makes them sell for far more than 20x earnings at times is that edge.
Online and Offline Credibility
Using a premium domain for your website and your company’s email addresses helps establish credibility and professionalism, both online and offline. Selecting a memorable domain for your business, and investing in a professional website shows potential customers that you are an established, legitimate business.
Building a Brand
Your domain name should appropriately reflect your business name. Domains are valuable online real estate and are, therefore, in high demand.
Securing more than one domain–adopting a “keyword rich” domain strategy in finding additional domains related to your business–helps protect your brand and increase your reach.
Solid Investment
Similar to real estate, domain names are investments. Domain values increase over time as domain authority grows. Considering that a domain is really an online storefront, it makes sense to invest in the best “location” you can afford.
Move higher up in Google Search
Using the right keywords can help your website to get listed higher up in the mega search engine’s results. This again helps reaching wide array of potential customers.
To own it before its taken
You wouldn’t want naming your business first and then finding that the domain name suiting your business is already taken. A cheaper approach is to buy a suitable domain name first and then naming your business after it. This will avoid unnecessary monetary hassles to acquire rights of the wanted domain from its owner.
To fend off unscrupulous competition
Airtel.com was once owned by Vodafone and Airtel had to shell out millions of dollars to buy the domain. Each time you type Airtel.com, the site would redirect to Vodafone’s website. Imagine the same happening to your business. It’s like losing the market before even capturing it.
Conclusion
Utmost care must be taken to select the right domain name. An ideal domain name should be concise, easy to spell and easy to remember. Also, the name must reflect your business and enhance brand value. Unleashing your creativity and adding zing to it will help making it a mass appeal.
Its better to be wise now, than be fooled later. A good domain name is a must for the startup to flourish and ensure maximum viewership. So, gear up budding entrepreneurs and get your dream domain registered before someone else takes it.
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