Beyond The Net
More domain names will make your site much easier to find
By Janine Warner
Can your customers find your website?
I am amazed when I type a business name into a browser and don't find the site I'm looking for. I must confess, sometimes it's because I've typed it wrong, or assumed they were using their full name when they were using some alternative. I eventually find what I'm looking for, but don't count on all your visitors to be as persistent as I am.
A shortened version of your business name may seem like a better domain name because it requires less typing, but if your customers know you by your full name, they may be confused. For example, the official site for American Airlines is www.aa.com, but they've been smart enough to register more than one name, so if you type in www.americanairlines.com, you go to the same site.
My best
advice: Register every variation and misspelling of your name
you can think of and direct all of those domain names to your
website. (Just because someone didn't do well in the third-grade
spelling bee doesn't mean they don't have money to buy your
products or services online.)
Directing more than one domain name to the same website is
a relatively simple technical detail you can arrange through
your Internet service provider or the company where you register
the name. And it's not that expensive. Some of the new registration
sites, such as godaddy.com, charge as little as $8 per year.
(You'll pay $29 at www.registrar.com and $16 at www.buydomains.com.)
Also consider registering the same name with different domain endings, such as .org, .net and, most importantly, .com.
The Seattle Ballet, for example, registered seattleballet.org (the domain ending used by most nonprofits), but they should also consider registering seattleballet.com because many people will assume that's the address.
Consider whitehouse.gov. The .gov at the end of that name distinguishes it as an official government site. You can't register a .gov site (which stands for government) as an individual, but anyone can register .com (which stands for commercial), and .org (which stands for organization).
If you've never visited the .com version of Whitehouse, I don't recommend going there. It's a hard-core porn site, but it provides a dramatic lesson in the importance of protecting your domain name. I'm sure that site receives many visits from unsuspecting people who type .com instead of .gov because that's what they think of first.
The .org version of Whitehouse isn't an official government site either, although it does at least have a picture of the White House. It also has lots of critical commentary on the U.S. government.
The moral here is that if you are a nonprofit, a government organization, or a university (usually distinguished by .edu), you should also register your name.com, just to make sure that people don't end up at a site that's trying to get traffic from your name recognition.
Similarly,
if the .com version of a name you want is unavailable, registering
the .net, .biz, or .info versions may be a fine alternative.
But make sure that the site that has the .com version is not
a direct competitor or something you'd be embarrassed by if
your visitors found it by accident.
You can check to see if a domain name is still available by
visiting any of the domain name registration services. All
of them have a search engine that enables you to enter any
name and find out if it has been registered. You would be
surprised how many names are still available.
You can register a domain name yourself or you can have your
service provider or system administrator do it for you.
If the name you want is taken, you can find out who already has it by clicking on the small button that says ''Who Is'' at the top of the Network Solutions at networksolutions.com . Enter the name in the ''Who Is'' database and you'll even find the contact information for whoever registered it.
First publication, The Miami Herald, Mon, Mar. 11, 2002
