There are a number of elements to consider when it comes to selecting a domain name for your business.

Your business name
Its probably quite obvious, but if you’re creating a business website you should consider reserving your business name.   In some cases this is easy because the name is made up of one word such as ‘aurtra’ or ‘tetraq’.

In other instances, it’s not so straightforward, such as when there are multiple words involved such as ‘dusitbrookwater’ or ‘petejarvis’.  In this instance you could separate the words with a hyphen, but you really need to consider if the visitor is inconvenienced by having to type the hyphen.  (is pete-jarvis better than petejarvis)

And then there are instances where the name of your business might be just too long ‘paddington chiropractors’ or ‘auto carburetors’, which we shorted for convenience sake to ‘paddingtonchiro’ and ‘autocarbs’.

In all the cases above, our goal is to reflect the brand, keep it short and to make it memorable.

Should it be a .com or a .com.au
If your business is solely Australian it is far better to choose a .com.au domain name.  Google is more likely to index your business for Australian searches if the domain name reflects the fact it is based in Australia

You need to bear in mind that you need an ABN to register a .com.au domain name and that there is a minimal 2 year period for booking such names.

You don’t have to have a .com.au name, in fact you might choose a .com name if you want to attract customers from outside Australia.

Check for Trademarks
You’ve checked for availability and you’re established that your preferred domain name is available.  You should still consider if it’s legitimate for you to use the name.

For example, if your business name is “Sidyney Olympics’ you might want to check if that name infringes upon the “Sydney Olympics Games” before you book the domain name ‘sidneyolympics.com.au’

Keywords in the name
Keywords in a domain name can help make it memorable for people and for search engines.   Google says it doesn’t place importance on domain names that match keywords, but anecdotally it doesn’t seem to hurt and the anchor text you get from people linking to your domain can help.

There are lots of other things to consider, but this list will really help.
Call us and let us help you choose your domain name.