As a website designer and online marketer, I have seen quite a few bad domain names come across my desk – and that is putting it nicely. Some domains are down right horrible like the domain for the promotional product company Pen Island (www.penisland.com).

Sometimes my best advice for clients who have a bad domain name is to get a new one. Some of those clients have taken my advice and changed their domain name and some have not. But no matter what, every time the topic comes up I get asked the same two questions…

“Why is my domain name bad?” and
“How do I pick a good domain name?”

These two questions seems to plague quite a few entrepreneurs I come across, so today I have decided to outline a few of the traits that make up a bad domain name and a few that make up a good domain name.

Four Traits of a Bad Domain Name

1. No one knows what your domain name means
2. It is not easy to remember or repeat
3. It uses an uncommon spelling
4. Your domain name isn’t relevant to your business or audience

Four Traits of a Good Domain Name

1. It tells your audience what the site is about
2. It is easy to remember and repeat
3. It is simple to type and spell
4. It includes keywords your audience would search for to find you

Before buying a domain name, think about what the best domain name for your business is because the best domain for your business isn’t always the business name.

Here’s an example:

If your own a scrapbook store named Purple Oranges (yes, there is one by my house with a similar name), your domain www.purpleoranges.com would be a bad choice for a domain name. It doesn’t have anything to do with the business, the products, or the services, it is irrelevant, it doesn’t tell you what the site is about or what you can expect to find on the site, and it isn’t easy to remember.

A better choice for them may have been www.ultimatescrapbookstore.com or they could add a geo-specific keyword and use www.sacramento-scrapbook-store.com as the main domain. Their company name domain, www.purpleoranges.com, would then become a secondary domain that forwards to their main domain. This way they can use www.purpleoranges.com in their marketing, advertising, and business cards and it would send customers to the same website.

Also, when picking a domain name for your business you should also think about search engine optimization. A domain name with your keywords in it will help increase your search engine page ranking.

I usually recommend purchasing a few different domain names. As shown in the example above, in some cases it makes more sense to use the keyword-rich domain for your main domain and forward your business name domain to that site.

Here’s another example:

If you are a personal financial consultant, you may use www.personal-financial-consultant.com as your main domain name, and forward the domain www.yourname.com to the website. That way, you can use the easy to remember domain www.yourname.com on your business cards, and benefit from the keyword-rich domain online.

Here’s the bottom line:

If you are going to buy a domain name, make sure you think about your target market, your business, your products and services, and the keywords you want to be found under in the search engines. And, don’t be afraid to buy more than one and point them all to the same place!

Do you have any questions about picking a domain name? Are you stuck with a bad domain name? I’d love to hear from you and hear how you made your bad domain name work for you… Or, tell me about your bad domain name and I’ll see if I can give you some ideas on fixing it!