What's in a name?
Your choice of a domain name is critical to the successful integration of your site into your business. If you opt for a .com.au domain, the name must be obviously and directly derived from your registered company or business name. For a .com, anything is possible—if it's still available. Consider the new top level domains as alternatives to .com; .biz or .info may be more appropriate for you. But in any case, give careful thought to the name before you register it. It will become the label for your site, the signpost that leads your visitors there.
Is it easy to remember? Is it easy to communicate? A good test is the verbal one. If you tell someone the URL for your site over the telephone, do you have to spell it out? Remember, you'll be doing this at every possible opportunity—for your email address(es) as well as for the site.
What names, similar to yours, already exist? And whose are they? One client of mine, with a perfectly innocuous .com.au domain, discovered the hard way that the identical name with a .com suffix was a porno portal site...
Next: Where to from here?
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