You’re reaching the exciting stage of website creation. This is where your branding really starts to take shape, with colour scheme, logos, imagery and more taking centre stage. One of the other excitingly-creative parts of web development is choosing your domain name.
You think you’ve found the perfect one but you check the registrar just to ensure it’s not already taken. And, oh no, it is already taken. That’s right, some savvy domainer swooped in to claim your extension in the hope you’ll actually pay them to use it!
For the uninitiated this may sound far-fetched, but businesses make big money banking on the hopes that business owners across the world will buy the web addresses that they pre-purchased.
It’s a pain, sure, but you don’t have to purchase the pre-taken extension from that pesky domainer – you have plenty of alternatives.
Let’s take a look at them below:
- Abbreviate the domain
When it comes to domain name registration, you can always try to abbreviate your business name through its web address. For example, you might run an air-conditioning company called “Fresh Air Company”. In our hypothetical, the web address www.freshaircompany.com has already been taken, leaving you to try an alternative approach to your extension.
In this case, you might like to abbreviate the web address to “www freshairco com” before checking if that extension is available. If not, you might like to put your choice through a word processor to see what other alternatives are potentially available.
- Just change the extension
Although you originally wanted to use the classic “.com” extension you quickly came to realise that your web address with that extension is already taken. That’s okay! As there are literally hundreds of extensions to choose from in the online realm.
Let’s come back to our Fresh Air Company example. You may not want to abbreviate the title to “Fresh Air Co” so instead you try a different extension to secure the address i.e. “www freshaircompany com .au”. Adding the .au at the end makes it highly likely you will be able to secure the web address.
- Use your slogan instead
Did you know you can use your business’s slogan to direct users to your website? If you have a pre-chosen slogan that customers can identify with your brand then this could be a good way to avoid the nuisance of securing a pre-taken web address.
Let’s once again go back to our air-conditioning company. You might have a short and sharp slogan like “Fresh is Best” the likes of which you could use for your web address to direct customers to your Fresh Air Company website!
- Consult the experts
The pros know this situation and they know exactly how to navigate it. If this issue is taking up too much of your time then why not consider chatting with expert web developers? They can help you find the most ideal domain name registration alternative. This is because they have experienced this situation with hundreds of other clients and can smoothen out what can be a rather frustrating process.
See, your desired domain name isn’t the be all and end all of your business. Instead, there are awesome alternatives available for you to choose from. You just have to get a little creative to secure the extension that you and your clientele will love!
Welcome to our blog! My name is Yuvraj Kore, and I am a blogger who has been exploring the world of blogging since 2017. It all started back in 2014 when I attended a digital marketing program at college and learned about the intriguing world of blogging.
