“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

This is perhaps one of the most intriguing questions ever raised by no less than the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare. Surprisingly the same question remains relevant in this digital era and haunts the so many business owners and starting entrepreneurs.

In the Internet economy, choosing the right and relevant domain name for your business proves to be very challenging yet somewhat daunting.

According to Princeton, domain name is defined as “strings of letters and numbers (separated by periods) that are used to name organizations and computers and addresses on the internet”. www.Hubpages.com is an example of a domain name.

What’s in it for you?

In the battle for online supremacy, the name is the game. The bearing of a good domain name to your business is very significant. It reinforces your brand in this hypercompetitive Internet market. More importantly, it helps existing and potential customers remember your products or services easily, leading to higher sales volume and increase in profitability.

Business name as your domain name

Logically, all companies are inclined to use their business name as their domain name. From a branding perspective, it conveys consistency to the minds of your target customers. It will help people remember your services and products easily particularly if you are marketing both online and offline or the brick-and-mortar aspect of your business.

Picture this: you are in the business of selling wild orchids across the country and to some European countries as well. However, you opted for a domain name flowerpower.net maybe because the domain name wildorchids.net is already taken or you have a penchant for that name.

The impact of your decision to use this domain name can be very detrimental to you business. In fact, this domain name will be the downfall of your online business.

Remember that majority of your target customers always use search engines like Yahoo! or Google whenever they like to canvass or buy online. If your customers type “wild orchids” in the search engine or type wildorchids.com then automatically you will lose money! Worst, you are indirectly helping your competitors profit from your slip up.

While this is the ideal case for every business, the reality is harsh for those startup businesses. Most of the common and highly relevant domain names like flowers.com or smallbusiness.com are already taken. Worst, sellers of domain names jack up prices for these names. You can buy domain names for only $10 but high quality domain names are priced from hundreds to thousands of dollars!

The best way to check if your desired domain name is available is to visit domains research services, Whois.net, and type your preferred domain name. This site will tell you the status of domain names whether it is for sale, already taken, or for re-sale. It will also give you the contact person so you can negotiate possible purchase, in case you find that name very important to the success of your business.

If I can’t use my business name, what are my alternatives then?

If you are currently setting up their online stores, I suggest that you take the reverse strategy or work backwards – domain name dictates your business name. I believe this is the more practical approach in building a powerful online and offline brand or company.

Search for available domain names in the market and adopt that name as your official business name. If you have a business consulting firm and looking for a good business name, try looking it up in Whois.com first and look for available domain names that you deem suitable for your business. Register that domain name as your business name quickly.

This strategy will completely eliminate your need to buy pricey domain names to be sync with your business name.

If you already have an established business with steady and loyal customers, you will need an armament of creativity and alternatives. Using a domain name different from your business name will definitely create confusion and brand inconsistency, a bad recipe for Internet marketing. You initial recourse is to spend more money to get that already pricey domain name. If already taken, you can negotiate with the current owner for a buyout. Nevertheless, you will have to spend more!