Securing The Domain Name of Your Dreams

So it’s time to get yourself a website, and with that comes many decisions.

How many pages? What colours? What pictures? It’s enough to overwhelm anyone, and now we’re here to add another to the list, choosing a domain name.



Don’t despair though, we will at least soften the blow a little by giving you some sound advice on how to go about it.

Make It Memorable

Is that not helpful enough? Alright, let’s dig deeper.

Some names stick in our minds, while others slide right off to be immediately forgotten. We’ve all experienced it, but do you know why? The first step is to avoid the generic wherever possible.

If you’ve already got an unmistakable brand name (Like Google or Bing) and can just use that, then congratulations on finding a shortcut to success. Otherwise it’s time to get thinking.

Bland names like “BusinessFinance.com”, “FinanceForBusiness.com”, or “BusinessOfFinance”, all blend into each other really easily. None of them particularly jumps out at you.

Doing a quick search for business finance yields some more memorable options, “prospa.com.au” and “moula.com.au” being two. They fulfil our need for a unique name, making up words generally does, and they also tick a few other boxes we want to consider.

Keep It Simple

Being boring is a good way to be forgotten, and so is being overly difficult. Keeping your domain name simple is essential if you want it to gain traction, and there are several things to keep in mind as you do this.

The first trick you should pull out of your sleeve is to make your domain easy to spell. Making your domain name supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.com.au, while it may be impossible to mistake, is also impossible to spell.

Even if you can remember the whole word, you’re not going to remember how to spell it, and neither will any of the Customers you’re hoping to attract.

Keep the words in your domain name as simple as possible, and avoid using any strange symbol or number substitutions. You should also as a general rule avoid using numbers and symbols at all, having to explain where in your name the hyphen goes will cause you no end of headaches.

The most obvious trick is of course to keep it short. If we return to our prospa.com.au example, we can see that it’s only six letters long, a single word. This is perfect, the more words in your domain, the more your Customers have to remember. Make it easy on them and you’ll have much more success.

This domain name also offers a great example of how to do spelling right. Despite being a made up word, its simplicity and clear relation to an actual word make it easily memorable.

That similarity also makes it easy to pronounce, which in turn makes it easy to spread via word-of-mouth, the cheapest and most powerful form of advertising you can get.

Circumventing Claimed Names

So say you’ve kept all that in mind, and created the perfect domain name. It’s short, it’s memorable, it’s easy for people to type and share. But then when you go to register it you find someone has beaten you to the punch. What can you do then?

Whatever you do, don’t forget everything we’ve just gone through and make strange alterations to your name. While pr-05-pa.com.au may be similar, it’s not going to get you the same result it would have before it was mutilated.

Instead let’s do some research. It may be claimed, but is your preferred domain name actually in use? If the site occupying it is abandoned, you might be able to purchase the name from its current owner.

If you attempt this however make sure you consider carefully whether it’s worth the money they’re asking. Domain name squatters have been known to purchase names they consider promising in order to extort ghastly sums from those who want to actually use them.

Another thing to look into is whether you can get the same name with a different extension. If yourname.com.au is already taken, do a check of whether it’s available with a .net or .co extension.

Keep in mind as you search whether the owners of the other extensions are direct competitors, or others you don’t want your Customers accidentally landing on. A misplaced extension on the part of your Customers could see you not just losing them, but giving them directly to your competitors.

And with that you’re off, ready to conjure up and claim the domain name of your dreams. I wish you all the best, and once again urge you not to use supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.com.au, even if it is currently available.