Disclaimer: I was compensated for writing this Donuts Domains sponsored post. Regardless, I only recommend products and services that I feel will be an amazing resource to my audience. All opinions are my own.
It’s probably both simultaneously the most exciting and most difficult thing about starting a business: picking a name.
However, if you’ve got the recipe, it’s as easy as … pie… or maybe cookies … or whatever you find easy to whip up in the kitchen. Name.Kitchen has the ultimate business name recipe and the Name.Kitchen staff is happy to customize that recipe just for you.
Enter the Name Kitchen, grab a spoon and take a taste. Don’t like what you’ve sampled? They’ll tweak the recipe until you do. Powered by Donuts, the Name Kitchen website provides a kitchen atmosphere built around the subject of business name creation. The Name Kitchen website is geared toward entrepreneurs, aka “business chefs” who are scratching their heads looking for the moment of inspiration that leads to the perfect name.
In my own business it took some time to come up with a suitable name. My inspiration was the community with which I work. I work with mom entrepreneurs and because I design and market websites, social media and feature mompreneurs, Mompreneur Media seemed like the right fit. However, if I had to do it all over again I would choose Mompreneur.Media or Mompreneur.Digital.
The difference is a subtle but important one. Those names aren’t dot com names. The market is saturated with dot com names and when you run an online business anything you can do to stand out is to your benefit.
There are dozens of not-com words that can help you name your business. Name Kitchen is a great example in itself but what about using .Coffee for a coffee shop or .Guitars for a music store? The possibilities are endless and with the difficulty of finding the name you want ending with a dot com it makes a lot more sense to find a not-com word instead. It sets you apart from your competition as well as telling potential customers a little more about you right in the name.
If I chose Mompreneur.Media or Mompreneur.Digital I would get a unique name that is a good match for my business.
Here are a few tips for choosing the perfect domain name:
- Keep it short and simple
There is just too much that can go wrong with a long domain name. You want people to find you but with a long and complex domain you risk customers forgetting it, typing it wrong or misspelling it. Short and simple is the way to go.
- Make it Keyword rich
Keywords are always important so using keywords that describe your business and the services you offer is the way to go. That’s what people are searching for after all. So help them out and incorporate the words or simple phrases they are searching for in your domain name. The benefit is that that it improves your rank on search engines, the payoff is that it increases your traffic. Plus it just makes more sense to your customers.
- Target your area or market
Remember you’ve got a lot of competition out there but not necessarily for the same target market. Identify who you really want as your customer and make your name fit. For instance if your business is local, consider including your city or state in your domain name to make it easy for local customers to find you. If you have an online business and you are targeting a niche, for example if you are a web designer and want to work with salons, you may try something like salonwebdesign.agency
- Try to avoid numbers or hyphens
The problem with the scarcity of dot com names is that often in order to get the name you want you have to add a number or a hyphen to the name. Often entrepreneurs feel like they have to settle. What happens in reality is that you confuse your customers. Hyphens don’t flow in a domain name and are hard to remember. Numbers and hyphens are often misunderstood — people who hear your website address don’t know if you’re using a numeral (5) or it’s spelled out (five) or they misplace or forget the dash. As you can see a lot can happen and if your customer gets it wrong you may have just sent your competition what should have been your customer.
Naming your business can be fun and a little difficult but there are bigger challenges entrepreneurs face once that name is chosen. Moving forward with your business even after you’ve got that perfect name can be hard because then it all becomes real. You’ve got your winning name, an excellent web design—even business cards. It’s time to get to work.
Here are a few final tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- Set aside your fear
- Don’t be afraid to take risks
- Take all the advice you can
That first piece of advice: Invest your creativity and claim the right business name with Name Kitchen.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Donuts Domains.
Hey Nicole!
I must say I am really impressed by your piece of writing and I have shared with Jeremy (my sister). Actually I am looking for a domain name for my sister’s business that would help her business marketing campaign. There are tons of posts floating on the web that provides many ideas about business naming.
However, after reading your post I realized how easy this task. The points you have mentioned are useful while choosing a name. My sister is running a cake business and now she wants to start it online. With the help of your post’s suggestion she was able to locate her cake business name.
Thanks & Regards
Michael
Hi Micheal! I am so happy you enjoyed the post and found it useful. Congrats to your sister on her new online business!!
Great Share!! Very helpful article. I am amazed that you have included all the key factors for building brand identity. Can not expect better than this. Thank you for posting.