If you haven't chosen a domain name for your start-up yet, you might want to consider using your brand name – or, more specifically, using a brand name that exactly matches your industry. Exact match domains (EMDs) may be declining in power, but they still pack quite a punch.

Kevin Gibbons at Search Engine Journal notes that many SEOs say exact match domains aren't quite as important these days as they used to be. If you're skilled at applying SEO, this is certainly true. But if you're not, “many industries and niches [are] still dominated by exact match domains,” Gibbons notes. He points out that one major home and garden retailer in the UK uses diy.com instead of a branded domain.

So what should you do – go with a brand, or go with a descriptive term for your domain name? Gibbons thinks you should do both. In that case, you'll be in a strong position both for the short term, with exact match queries to Google, and the long term, in building your brand. That means you should consider how search-engine friendly your brand name is when you choose it. Also – and this is very important – many searchers will type your brand name into a search engine rather than putting your URL into the address bar. So if you don't rank for your brand, notes Gibbons, you're going to lose some of your own customers.

Okay, how exactly do you go about choosing a brand name that's search-engine friendly? Well, you might want to start by staying away from everyday words in the title of your company, unless they're specific to your business. That reduces your competition. Come to think of it, you might need to consider carefully before using common names that are outside your field. If your last name is McDonald, for instance, and you're trying to rank in the U.S., you might want to use something else in your business name.
 
When possible, if you're going to be doing most of your business online, make your domain name your business name. Gibbons notes that the business name of the company that owns the website contactlenses.co.uk is, in fact, contactlenses.co.uk. It's a great use of keywords. What follows from this is that you should make sure the domain name you want is available – and buy it – before you officially name your business. Does this mean you might have to use a meaningless name to begin with? Sure...but that didn't hurt Google.
 
When you've decided what domain name you want to use, try to get the .com version. As Gibbons notes, “if you build a great brand on a .co.uk domain for example, you don’t want to have to go into a high-bidding situation or even a legal case to secure the .com or .net versions of your domain in the future – so get in there early.”

Accept that you may have to use pay-per-click advertising to get your name in front of searchers, at least to start with. At the same time, work on your site's SEO. Gibbons recommends going after local search terms and targetting highly specific, long-tail keywords. But keep in mind that “A business really needs to rank for its own name, especially in the long-term.” So choose something for which you can rank. Good luck!

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