Domain Names

What is a domain name?

The domain is the website address of your website, sometimes referred to as a URL.  The name you put on your business cards that a customer will type into their Internet Browser to access your site.

Your website might be something like www.YOURNAME.co.nz

What name should I use?

The single most important item effecting how people find your site on the Internet is your domain name. Domain names should be kept small, easy to spell, memorable and related to your business.

Domain name and search engines:

Domain names are the most important measurement used by search engines to determine your relevance. Relevance is very important if you wish to rank high in search results. A domain name that includes your primary keywords (words people would use when searching for you or your services) will perform well.

The extension (end part .co.nz) should also reflect your organisational type or genre. The table below details a few common extensions.

New Zealand client bases should take advantage of New Zealand domain name extensions, worldwide client bases should use International extensions.

Another thing to consider

If the right domain name for your business or product is not available, adapt.

- Rename your product or service.

Using a domain name with another firms digital fingerprint all over it will swamp all hope of being found in search engines.

An example where a business named their software product 'Guardian' was promptly buried in search engines results by the London Guardian, the Capetown Guardian, and a dozen other newspapers of the same name.

Pick an original domain name that is not already common property.