Choosing a URL:
It’s a bit like naming a baby....except it really isn’t.
In order to have good SEO, it’s crucial to have your own URL (and not just for SEO reasons—there are many many reason, more than we can list here today)
But URLs aren’t one-size-fits all, and picking one can be complicated. Here’s some things to consider and get you started:
1) Do you have an existing URL sitting vacant? If so, your life is pretty easy. Just use that URL. If you have several URLs, you can forward them all to a single website.
2) Do you have a URL existing with something on it? If so, you may want to make sure the next URL you purchase is not so close to the first one, as to cause confusion. Pick something that is distinctive and unique.
3) Is your company name available? Buy it!!
4) Has your company name already been”taken?”
We were afraid of that. Some ad-hoc research we’ve conducted suggests that many”.COM” URLs for Etsy shop owners are being bought up by domain name squatters. They buy 20-30 of them at 10 bucks a pop, and if even one Etsy seller negotiates to buy their brandname back from the squatter at $200-300 bucks, the squatter broke even. Any more, and they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Are you in this situation? If so, you may want to look at alternative TLD extensions (dot.net is totally fine!....Sadly, dot.biz still suffers under the pall of early 2000’s spam sites and link farms) Also consider one of the hundreds of brand spanking new TLD extensions that came out between 2013 and 2015. Their cheapest prices are about 2x as much, but you’re much more likely to get a TLD that’s close to your actual business name, if the dot.com is already taken. For instance, new BeesWax websites are created on the subdomain BeesWax.Website. We think that looks pretty dang cool, and it hasn’t hurt business any. You can find other new TLDs for different industries you might be in. Sell jewelry? Consider a”.JEWELRY” TLD. And so forth.
Still completely stumped?
Try a handy domain name generator. This one from Name Mesh is particularly good (and free! free is good!). It includes”short-name” TLD hacks (like del.icio.us)
