Monday, 22 October 2012 22:06

Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Business

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When you started your property management company, did you stop and think about if your company name also had a great (and available) internet domain name? Chances are, you probably had a million other things on your mind and an internet domain wasn’t high on the priority list, if it was on the list at all. Just like having great property management website design attracts the right renters, having a great domain name works in similar ways. If you’ve already done a search and found that your company name is not available or doesn’t translate well into a good domain name that is easy to type and remember, don’t fret. There are still many good options that we’ll discuss in this post.

 

Your Domain is Available

You’re in luck! We suggest you register your chosen domain quickly since anyone can purchase it at any time. However, before you register you may want to do some research to make sure it truly is the best domain for your business. Do a Google search and see what comes up when you type in the name to see what you can expect your customers to see when they search for your business. Also, are you including unnecessary words or characters in your domain name, for example does it contain “LLC” or have hyphens or other characters that are difficult to type or remember? If everything is looking good and you’re ready to snap up that domain, the .com address is preferred and will be easier for your customers to remember when entering it into a web browser. Remember, having an excellent domain name is highly important along with having good property management website design.

Options for When Your Domain is Not Available

If your domain name is not available this creates problems, but all may not be lost. Can you shorten the name or choose another extension, for example .biz? Be careful here though so that you choose a name that is different from others who have may register similar names so as to not draw bad traffic to your website. A simple Google search should help you here. You may also do a search through whois.com to determine the contact information for who currently owns the domain and offer to purchase it from them. Do you use any special design features as part of your property management website design, for example do you have a company mascot? This may also be something that can be included as part of your domain as another option to differentiate yourself from others out on the web.

Domains for Search Engine Optimization

If your name isn’t available or if you want to have great Search Engine Optimization, choosing a name like “yourtownapartments.com” may be a good choice, for example the domain chicagoapartments.com. How does this work? Search engines use keywords to match and return websites that are similar to what someone has typed into the search box. For example, a potential renter in Chicago types in to the Google search engine “Chicago Apartments”. Since your domain name chicagoapartments.com matches the two keywords that the renter typed, your website would come up higher in the search results which would bring more traffic to your website. Assuming you had great property management website design, the renter would likely spend time on your website looking at what apartments you had listed for rent.

These are just three options that you may encounter when trying to find a great domain name for your company. When the time comes to get that domain, we’re available to help you every step of the way with making the domain name choice that is right for your business!