A decade in Web time is an eternity, isn't it? Because ten years ago, if you wanted to buy a URL, chances are good that the one you want was available. Now? Chances are that the first ten names you came come up with will be taken. So what's a small business to do when choosing a domain?

So you've agonized over your company name and finally come up with something that your attorney says is good to go. You file the paperwork, create a logo and now you need a web site. First, you need a domain.

When choosing a domain, here are some things to think about. 

Dashes.

This is one way to get the name you want. The domain mainstreetpartners.com is not going to be available, but maybe if you throw some dashes in there, you'll get it. Voila!

Not so fast.

If you have dashes in your domain, you will have to communicate those verbally. So when you're on the phone or at a conference, you'll have to say "Oh yeah, check out our site at main dash street dash partners dot com."

Numbers.

Again, risky. When you tell folks about your domain, you better indicate whether you spell the number or it's numerical. 37signals uses a number. The interesting thing is that you already have a number as your domain: your IP address. I still remember my first compuserve email address. It was a very catchy 340593y48compuserve or something like that.

Now I feel old.

But only use numbers if that number is already part of your company name. Otherwise, it's random and useless.

Dot com vs dot something-else

While the term dot com still refers to any web-based company, the need for a dot com address isn't as pressing. Dot us has grown in usage and makes sense as other countries have their code in their domains: .co.uk and .fr, etc. But if you go with mainstpartners.us and mainstpartners.com is your competition or, even worse, an inappropriate adult site, you better come up with something else.

Character count

You may find that your entire company name is available as a url, but keep in mind that you'll need to have that URL printed on business cards and other collateral -- and you don't want it to be untenable. munchhausenenterpriseslimitedpartnership.com is just way too long for any collateral to handle, much less your poor business card. And think about forms where you have to leave your email! 

 

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So what should you do when you pick a domain?

Make it short but descriptive and easy to spell. What do I mean by descriptive? This: if you're a designer, have the word designer or design or graphics or something in there. If you're a painter, have the word paint in there. You get the idea. Just don't go looking at my own domain because I realize I broke that rule. But it's a good one for search optimization.