Amazon Inc. The story of how Jeff Bezos chose the name of his company is often told as an example of how entrepreneurs think. In fact, the story is often mischaracterized on social media, which tends to be a vector for both over-blowing and oversimplifying these types of stories. But the real story is more effective due to its logic. Bezos chose Amazon because the (real) Amazon was vast, and he wanted to convey the vastness of the number of books he would sell, and Amazon would be listed quite prominently due to its alphabetical ranking.
Today, we don’t need to have the kind of A-Z phone book thinking of website listings that Bezo faced in the mid-1990s, but getting into his mindset about the naming of a brand or website is always a good starting point for budding entrepreneurs. While Bezos’ thinking may have seemed simplistic to some, it was multilayered, using abstract imagery (Amazon conveys a sense of vastness to many) and logic (a word beginning with A) to settle on his brand. If you are choosing a domain name today for your business, you will need to ask similar questions, as well as some new ones you wouldn’t have faced in the mid-1990s.
Lock in your domain name for future growth
Of course, the first thing to understand is that there are a lot of options. Most prominent website builder tools have tools that can assist you in creating a domain name for free, and the number of options available for free might surprise you. You might also elect to buy a domain name, but that will depend on many things, including the nature of your business and your budget. In short, you have plenty of options.
Before looking at how the right domain name can help your business, we should stress that it’s worth registering a domain name even if you have not yet built a website. Even if you operate from land-based premises today with little need for an online footprint, having your brand’s domain name locked away for a future website is a smart way to go. Remember, this ultimately gives you control over your brand, as many will see the company and the website – even a future one – as synonymous.
So, what can we say about the domain name and building your business? First of all, it clearly provides identity. Consider sites like PayPal.com, eBay.com, Lyft.com, and so on. Even if you hadn’t heard of these companies before, you might hazard a good guess at what they do based on the domain name. As with Bezos’ vast Amazon of books, they are suggestive of their raison d’être without needing to be blatantly obvious about it.
Short and memorable are key aspects of branding
The domain name, as well as the web platform it covers, will also evoke a sense of professionalism in your brand. If you are launching a startup, you will find lots of advice passed down from business leaders, some of it almost contradictory. But two of the cornerstones of branding are found in conveying what your business does and that you can do it professionally, preferably better than others. Can you achieve all that from a domain name? Perhaps not directly, but you can at least put your prospective customers’ feet on the journey to thinking so.
Most of what we have spoken about so far deals with the abstract, i.e., how a domain name evokes a reaction in someone encountering it. But there are also strategies to follow that deliver more tangible outcomes too. For instance, there is a logic to choosing a short name. Consider some of the most dominant and influential brands of the 2010s and 2020s – Apple, Google, Tesla, Airbnb, Uber, Meta, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Stripe, and so on. They are almost always six letters or less. There are always exceptions that prove the rule, but the fact that so many big brand names are short – and have short domain names – is no accident. If your domain name is easy to remember – and easy to spell – your traffic will increase as people know what they are looking for.
However, this short name rule might pose a conundrum in terms of marrying the idea with descriptive qualities. If you are opening a hair salon in Yonkers, for instance, finding a short word to tick all the boxes isn’t going to be easy, but it’s also unnecessary. Something like YonkersHair.com (.net, .biz, etc.) or YonkersHairSalon would suffice, as it’s easy to spell, descriptive of what your offer, and your target audience (most likely people living in Yonkers) will have no problem remembering it. As an aside, there are also strong SEO (search engine optimization) qualities – consider how many people would google Yonkers + Hair + Salon when looking for an option in the area.
It’s worth pointing out that the domain name does not have to be the exact business name. So, using our fictional hair salon as an example, the ‘real’ business name could be something like “Hair By Giuseppe”, which might work well on a storefront, adding personalization to the brand. But choosing a more general domain name, one that is easily remembered, descriptive, and includes the Yonkers location, might be a better option.
