Weekly Website Wednesday – Week #7

This week I want to talk about selecting your kennel domain name. First let’s talk about what a domain name is. Your domain name is an easy to remember name that points your visitors to the server that your website lives on, like gundogcentral.com or netkennel.com. All servers connected to the internet have a digital address, much like your street address. Instead of giving customers a long string of cryptic numbers, which nobody would remember, you can just give them your domain name. When someone types your domain name into a web browser, your domain name is looked up in a global directory and matched to its corresponding digital address, which directs visitors to the server hosting your website.

Keep your domain name simple, avoid trying to be cute by adding abbreviations, special characters, numbers or fancy play of words. Hypothetically, let’s say you wanted to start a website called Hunting dogs for Sale and registered the domain name HD4S.com, in an attempt to make the name as short as possible. While these four characters should be easy to remember, the association to your business just isn’t there making this domain name forgettable. It’s not as straight forward as huntingdogsforsale.com. Same with HuntingDogs4Sale.COM or Hunting_Dogs_For_Sale.com, adding numbers or special characters make verbally explaining your domain name difficult. Granted most of your traffic will be generated through search traffic, but some people may find you by word of mouth. Make your domain name easy to pass along in a conversation that doesn’t require explanation.

Selecting your domain name can also have a big impact on your search rankings. Picking a domain name that includes relevant keywords can boost your results. If you wanted to be found on the internet by people searching for English Setters in Alabama, which domain name would infer more authority on the topic, JeffsGundogs.com, JeffsKennel.com, JeffsAlabamaSetters.com, or AlabamaEnglishSettters.com? Remember to keep it short and avoid stuffing a domain name with too many keywords.
Try to stick with .com names, they are the most trusted domain names and are widely recognized. If you can’t get the .com name that you want, the preferred fallback name is .net.

The key take away here is, keep your domain name short and simple while working in keywords that make sense to your kennel.