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The following is a guest article written by Susan Gunelius of brandcurve.com, and the internet at large. Find out more about Susan at the end of this post.

cartoon courtesy of Slap Upside the Head

Ensuring your brand message is consistently communicated through every part of your business is critical in developing the overall brand image you want to hold in the marketplace. One of the first steps of branding that people tackle is choosing a brand name. This can be a painful process, because your brand name must do so many things. It has to represent everything that your business or product is.

If choosing a brand name wasn’t hard enough, now we have to consider domain names, too. In a world of cybersquatters, typosquatters and every other squatter you can imagine, finding the perfect domain name can be easy, but actually being able to get that domain name is another story entirely. How can you choose a domain name that accurately reflects your brand image if all the good URLs are gone already? It’s time to put on your creative marketing hat and think out-of-the-box.

Here are 5 steps to finding the right domain name for your brand:

Check the obvious domain names first: Pick the most obvious domain name choices for your brand (i.e., your company name, your product name, etc.) and do a search to see if any are available. If not, move to step 2.

Massage your domain name choices: Add words or extensions to your first choices and search to see if any of those variations to your first picks are available (e.g., ad an article such as ‘the’ to the URL or a hyphen or pluralize a word, etc.). Many domain name search sites will even provide additional choices for you. If nothing you like is available related to your first choices, move to step 3.

Research competitors and keywords: Check out your competitors’ domain names to see if you can generate any creative ideas from them or search for popular keywords related to your brand. Then put together some possible domain names based on those findings and see if any of those are available (remember to massage the URL to see if any variations are available).

Create a list of relevant words and phrases: Put your thinking hat on and develop a list of words and phrases related to your brand. Think of what your target audience might search for or think of when they hear your brand or business name. Don’t be afraid to get very creative. Sometimes the craziest idea can lead to the best idea. Check if those domain names are availabe. If not, move to step 5.

Make up a word: Many domain names contain nothing but a word made up by the owner. Squido, Flicker and many more successful and popular websites started with a domain name that was completely meaningless but over time, it came to mean something based on what the business, product and brand represented. I don’t generally recommend this method because it has a number of negatives associated with it. For example, it’s not as search engine friendly as a more descriptive domain name would be, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work for the right business and the right brand.

Once you see the domain name you want is available, purchase it immediately. It’s not uncommon for a domain name to be available for an average price one day, then after you search for it, that name mysteriously skyrockets in price. I have heard of this happening to several people, so be prepared to buy when you see the right name to avoid the ugly possibility of someone snatching it then holding it ransom.

A final word of caution, a domain name isn’t everything. It’s a small piece of your business and marketing toolbox. Don’t change your company or product name or make any other sweeping modifications to your business or products to match a domain name. Your strategy should be to perfect your brand then select an available domain to support it, not vice-versa.

Can you think of any other tips to find the right domain name for a business and brand when so many URLs are already taken?

Susan Gunelius spent over a decade working in the marketing field for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Currently, she works as an author, freelance writer and professional blogger. You can find her blogging about branding, marketing and other business topics at WomenOnBusiness, Brandcurve and MarketingBlurb as well as a weekly article on BloggingTips.

// a tale of brands & branding, national identities, the internet
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