A domain name represents an easy-to-remember mnemonic address designed to help a person easily reach one of millions of servers on the Internet. Typically, a company has one of two goals when choosing a domain name: branding or memorability.
If a company has been around for some time, their name becomes branded to what they do and where they are. People associate their service with the brand. By choosing a domain including that brand, a company strengthens their brand exponentially. Good examples include carinos.com, tonyromas.com, and redlobster.com.
Sometimes, a company’s name is not the best choice for a domain name, primarily because of potential spelling confusion. In those cases, I recommend a domain name based on memorability and spelling ease to those clients.
For example, one of my clients is “Faulkner’s Pest Service.” While faulknerspestservice.com is available for registration, I recommended my client choose another domain. My suggestion was based on my own usability belief that most people on the Internet operate with a seventh grade educational spelling ability. The word, “Faulkner” is easily misspelled and would, no doubt, cause numerous problems for my client’s customers and potential customers in reaching his site.
Instead, I recommended he go with something more memorable. After research and brainstorming we decided texasbugkillers.com was the best choice – easy to spell, easy to remember. (more…)