How to choose a domain for a business website
A domain is your website's address. A client types it into a browser, hears it on the phone and sees it on your sign. A good address is easy to say and gets written down right the first time.
1. Short and clear when spoken
It is best when the domain matches the business name: barber-lev.com.ua, kava-ranok.com.ua. The shorter the address, the fewer mistakes people make in it.
Test the domain out loud. Dictate it to someone over the phone and ask them to write it down. If they ask how it is spelled, look for something simpler.
2. Transliteration
Ukrainian names are spelled in Latin letters in different ways: «Щастя» becomes shchastia, schastya or shchastya. Choose the spelling most people write. Common misspellings can be registered separately and redirected to the main domain.
The Cyrillic zone .укр exists, but such an address is awkward to type on a Latin keyboard. Email on a Cyrillic domain does not work everywhere either.
3. The zone: .com.ua, .ua or .com
.com.ua. The most common zone for a Ukrainian business. Anyone can register a domain in it.
.ua. A shorter address. Its registration terms and price differ from .com.ua, so check them with the registrar.
City zones such as .kiev.ua or .lviv.ua. They stress the city, but are less common.
.com. Suits you if you also work abroad.
A Ukrainian zone tells Google that the site is for clients in Ukraine. For a business that works only here, that is a plus.
4. What to avoid
Several hyphens in a row: kava-ranok-kyiv-best.com.ua.
Digits easily confused with words: 4you, 2day.
Other people's trademarks in the name.
Fashionable words that will stop describing the business within a year.
5. What a domain costs
A domain is paid for every year. Look at the renewal price, not only the first year's. A promotional price at the start can be half of what follows.
Register the domain in your own name or your company's. If a contractor registered it in theirs, the address of your site in effect belongs to them.
6. Email on your own domain
An address like info@kava-ranok.com.ua looks more trustworthy than kava.ranok@gmail.com. Mail from such an address lands in spam less often, provided the mail is set up correctly.
Frequently asked questions
What if the domain I want is taken?
Add the city or the kind of business: ranok-kava.com.ua, ranok-lviv.com.ua. You can also choose another zone. Then check what the owner of the taken domain does, so people do not mix you up.
Can I change the domain later?
You can, but business cards, links and search positions will have to move with it. Set up a redirect from the old address to the new one for at least a year.
Can I launch a site without my own domain?
Yes, on the builder's temporary address. For a business it is better to connect your own domain at once, since that is what goes on business cards and into search.
Where to start
Write down three or four options, dictate them to friends and keep the one they wrote down without mistakes. What the FastSite packages include, connecting a domain among it, is on the pricing page. What makes up the full price of a website is covered separately.Once the domain is chosen, all that is left is to build the site: the templates for different trades already have the blocks you need. Not sure whether a business card site or a single page for ads suits you? Read about a landing page versus a business card site. And if you still wonder whether you need a site at all, compare it with Instagram in “A website or Instagram”.