Picking a Domain You Will Not Regret

Where the choice actually gets made

Most people start by typing candidates into a registrar to see what is free. That is the last step, not the first.

The name will appear on a van, on invoices, on a shirt, in a voicemail, and in conversations where somebody is writing it on the back of a receipt.

Which means the constraints are practical rather than aesthetic. Something that looks fine written down can be unusable when spoken.

The test that decides most of it

Say the candidate out loud to somebody who has never seen it and ask them to write it down.

If they hesitate, ask you to repeat it, or get it wrong, that is your answer. It will happen every time you give the name to a customer.

The failures are consistent. Words that sound the same as other words. Names where the ending of one word runs into the start of the next. Anything requiring you to say "with a k" or "no e on the end".

A name you have to spell every time costs you a few seconds each occasion and costs you the customers who did not bother.

The four things to avoid

• Hyphens. Invisible when spoken, forgotten when typed, and they read as the version somebody settled for.
• Numbers. Is it four or the word. Both, usually, which means buying two names.
• Deliberate misspellings. Clever once, then explained forever.
• Very long names. Anything over about twenty characters gets truncated, mistyped and abbreviated by other people.

None of these is fatal on its own. Two together usually is.

Length against clarity

Shorter is better up to a point, and the point arrives sooner than people expect.

Very short names are almost all taken, and what remains is usually an unpronounceable arrangement of letters. A slightly longer name that says what you do beats a short one that says nothing.

Two words is the sweet spot for most small businesses. Your name plus your trade, or your trade plus your town.

Three words works if they are short. Four is a sentence, and a sentence is not an address.

Your name, your trade, or your town

Three approaches, each with a consequence worth thinking about now rather than in five years.

Your own name. Distinctive, personal, and permanent. It also ties the business to you, which is fine until you want to sell it or take on partners.

Your trade. Clear and searchable. The risk is that it boxes you in. A name containing one service is awkward when two thirds of your revenue comes from another.

Your town. Strong locally and limiting if you expand. A business named for one suburb looks out of place quoting three towns over.

The safest combination is usually a distinctive word plus the trade, which is searchable without being a description you might outgrow.

The extension question

In Canada this is a real decision rather than a formality.

The generic extension is what people assume and type by default. It carries no geography, which is neutral rather than a disadvantage.

The Canadian extension signals that you are here, which for a local trade is a genuine advantage. It also has eligibility requirements, which is why it functions as a signal at all.

For a business serving one country, either works. The practical answer for most small Canadian businesses is to take both if the budget allows, use one, and point the other at it.

What to avoid is the third-choice extension you settled for because the first two were taken. That usually means the name itself needs another look.

What it costs to change your mind later

Worth pricing, because it is what makes this decision worth an evening rather than ten minutes.

Changing a domain later means new signage on every vehicle, reprinting cards and invoices, updating every directory and listing, changing email addresses for everybody, and maintaining a redirect from the old name indefinitely.

It also means whatever search visibility the old name accumulated has to be transferred, which is possible and imperfect.

For an established business that total runs into thousands and a fortnight of administration. For a business three months old it is a lost afternoon.

Which is the practical guidance: if you are early, changing is cheap and you should not agonise. If you are established, the name you have is probably worth keeping even if you would choose differently now.

Checking more than availability

1. Search the name and see who is already using it.
2. Check the trademark database for the name and close variants.
3. Check corporate registries, federally and provincially.
4. Look at the other extensions and who holds them.
5. Search the name plus your trade to see whether somebody nearby is close.
6. Check the social handles while you are at it.

The second is the one people skip and the one that occasionally costs a business its name two years in. A domain registration checks nothing about trademarks, and being first to register is not a defence.

A worked example

A painter setting up on his own, wanting a name that sounded established.

His first choice was his surname plus "decorating", hyphenated because the unhyphenated version was taken. On paper it looked fine.

The test that changed his mind: giving it over the phone. The surname needed spelling, the hyphen needed explaining, and the person on the other end still typed it wrong.

He ended up with a two-word name combining a local geographic feature and his trade. Nine characters, unambiguous when spoken, available in both extensions.

The cost of that decision was one evening. The cost of the hyphenated version would have been every phone call for the next decade.

Before you buy it

Two practical points that prevent later trouble.

Register it in an account belonging to the business, with an email address the business controls. Not a personal address, not the address of whoever happens to be setting things up.

And register it yourself rather than letting a supplier do it on your behalf. That single decision prevents the most common ownership dispute in this whole subject.

What the registration actually gives you, and how it relates to hosting, is covered in domains and hosting, explained once.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.