A Domain By Any Other Name Would Not Rank As Well

    JULIET: 
        'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; 
        Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. 
        What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, 
        Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part 
        Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! 
        What's in a name? That which we call a rose 
        By any other name would smell as sweet; 
        So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, 
        Retain that dear perfection which he owes 
        Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, 
        And for that name which is no part of thee 
        Take all myself.

I will leave to Juliet any thoughts about how appealing Romeo would be if he had a different name.  But what I can tell you is that your domain name has a big effect on your ranking in Google and other search engines.  Here are some of the reasons to look into buying a premium domain name.

1) Look bigger than you are.  Even a small business can look big on the Internet if you have the right domain name.  If you are a local marketing firm, you look like you know what you are doing if your URL is www. LeadMarketing .com instead of www. MyCambridgeMarketing-Online .net  And, usually a premium domain is far less expensive than many other marketing activities.

2) Get more traffic.  With the right domain name, you can get more traffic to your website in two ways.  First, some people will just type in your domain into the browser address bar and see what happens.  If you own the domain, your website will be what comes up!  Second, if you have good keywords in your domain, it is much easier to get ranked on the first page of search results, driving more traffic to your website.  Google and other search engines assume that if you have keywords for a search in your domain, then that website is a good search result that has relevant content, and that means you get ranked higher.

3) Upstage your competition.  What better way to stand out from your competition than to have a website with the best URL for your industry?  How would you feel if your competitor all a sudden ended up with the perfect domain name?

4) Acquire an asset.  Most marketing expenses are impossible to recover any portion of the cost.  The nice thing about premium domains is that they are an asset you can always sell later.  And recently, most domains have been increasing in value, so you might even end up making money on your investment.  Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Now that we have covered some of the ways that a premium domain can benefit your business, let's discuss how you can evaluate a domain to decide how valuable it will be.  Here are some of the things to think about so you can choose the best name for your company.

1) Generic keywords are good.  Most businesses really can't spend the money to build a brand around their company name, this is especially true for small businesses.  So, if you can buy www. computers .com, you should do it, since it will be better for you than www. gateway .com.

2) Avoid punctuation and extraneous words.  Adding a dash into a URL makes it harder to type and look less professional, so avoid it if possible.  Also, adding generic words like "my" or "best" or "the" or "online" to the start or end of your URL is not a good idea.  They don't add any value.

3) Try to get a .com domain.  Unless you are a nonprofit or outside the US, most people assume your business will have a .com domain extension and will usually have trouble remembering your URL if it ends in .net or something else.  Domains ending in .com have always been in higher demand and command higher prices than any others.

Now that you understand the value in having a premium domain and how to pick a good domain, maybe you should think about buying one?  If you are interested in buying a premium domain, there are a number of services to do so.  At HubSpot we have used BuyDomains.com before and we have found BuyDomains to be a great place to buy a premium domain.

Have you bought a premium domain?  Have you found it to be a useful tool for your business?  Leave a comment below and let me know.