Choosing Your Website Address. Part Two - Soft Guidelines.

Part one of this article focused on the facts of website naming. Here in part two the best practise method is presented to help you choose an address for your website.

Please remember that not one of these considerations need to be adhered to. If you have a good reason to ignore one then simply do so.

Is it short and sweet?

A good website address should be cropped to as short as possible. The shorter the address, the more usable it becomes.

There are some good reasons for this:

• It fits printed items such as business cards without being so small that it becomes unreadable.
• It can be positioned within the logo without destroying the whole design.
• The fewer characters there are, the lower the chance of a misspelling.
• It can be read at a glance on a sign or vehicle.

Does it cause confusion?

Avoid being easily confused with other websites by making your name as unique as possible for your circumstances.

In the first part of this article it was stated that only letters, numbers and hyphens are allowed. Try to avoid both numbers and hyphens if possible. Numbers can be typed in two ways (wallace4blades or wallisfourblades?) and hyphens are easily missed out altogether (wallace-blades.co.uk quickly becomes wallaceblades.co.uk).

There is no rule that forces your website address to be the same as the organisation name. Be creative and avoid confusion.

Would initials be better?

Many organisation names are simply not suited to being converted directly to a website name. Consider using an acronym, for instance wallacegromitandsons.co.uk can be converted to wgs.co.uk which is much easier to spell out over the telephone.

Due to their increasing popularity and the obvious scarcity, two and three letter names are getting harder to register, but many four letter acronyms are still available. Mixing initials with full words (such as wgblades.co.uk) can overcome the common problem of your two letters being taken.

How memorable will it be next week?

If your website is intended to be used by the public, it should be easy to remember. A decriptive word can be inserted if it enhances the name, for instance, Wallaceandson.co.uk may match the sign above the door but is hard to read, dull and not very memorable. If Wallace and son manufacture scissors then wallaceblades.co.uk could be used instead.

A decriptive word also hints at the purpose of the firm. It is helpful to say the website name out loud to judge it properly, wallaceweb.co.uk may sound better. A good name should be both easy to read and say.

You can spell it, can they?

If people can misspell something, they will. Long names cause some problems but complex words and unfamiliar names are guaranteed to cause chaos at the keyboard.

The name Wojciechowski is a common Polish surname but Wojciechowskiandson.co.uk needs some attention.

Some words sound the same but are spelt differently, Jewellery in the UK becomes Jewelry in the USA. If a particular misspelling becomes troublesome, consider registering the misspelling as well and point it to your website.

Is it relevant?

Your website address should say something about your organisation and that includes the single most important detail, your name. In a perfect world a visitor would be able to correctly guess your website address.

This approach may not be appropriate if you are a charity whose name is thirty eight characters long, try describing your main activity instead.

Do you want a unique name or a generic name?

Why not have both? The need for a unique website address of obvious to all but there are advantages to using a generic name, big advantages. Generic names can drive more customers to your website with little effort on your part. Generic names are catchy and demand attention, you may well be in the sanitising and deinfestation business but spidersplatter.co.uk has instant charm.

Web-ads, the glossy, mini websites containing only a single page with a single message, are often used in combination with a generic address to draw more business for a very low cost. Many internet users have a guess at a suitable address for the sort of website they want and may type in learnspanish.com or holidaycaravans.co.uk on the chance that they can go straight to a useful site without even searching.

Website addresses are incredibly cheap now and there is little reason to limit yourself to just one if you have a creative use for a second or even third.

Does it feel familiar?

Unless your organisation is purposely trying to push the boundaries with your creativity, now is the time to follow the herd. Familiar concepts such as wallace.co.uk and wallace.com offer no hurdle to visitors but what about wallace.co.to or wallace.tv?

Strange website names can keep potential visitors away. Resist the urge to buy into the lastest fashion promoted by your hosting company and provide what your visitors expect.

The above article is provided for information purposes only.