Your domain is your business’s gateway to the internet. It’s what clients would be most likely to use if they were to share your website or send you an email, and thus should be memorable.

But how does one make a memorable domain?

First, it’s probably best to look at what a domain is. We’ll take The Yardstick Agency’s website as an example in this breakdown: theyardstickagency.co.uk.

• theyardstickagency – This is the domain name
• .co.uk – This is the top-level domain (TLD).

Combined, the two make your unique domain, and neither is unique on its own – so, example.com and example.studio can be owned by two separate entities.

This is great, as it means that even if some firm in another country has the domain name you want, you can simply choose a different TLD and still use the domain name you want.

It’s so straightforward! So, why would picking a domain name make a disgruntled developer rant about domains for the next five minutes? Stick with me and you’ll find out.

What could go wrong?

Top-level domain bias

“.com” is one of the most competitive TLDs to get a hold of. When you come to buy your TLD, you may find that the perfect domain name and .com combo has already been taken; sometimes by another business and sometimes by a domain squatter (someone who buys a domain just to charge a high price to sell it on).

Luckily, .com isn’t the only common one here in the UK, and many people will also expect to see .co.uk as a TLD. So, if the .com is taken, you’re not entirely out of luck. 

This is where we encounter our first hurdle, and it’s a very British problem. Most other countries use their country code as their “default” TLD – for example, .au in Australia or .de in Germany.

However, the .uk TLD isn’t as common as the .co.uk one. This could lead to some confusion if you were to use .uk, as someone typing it in may incorrectly default to using .co.uk.

This isn’t to say other TLDs are pointless! If you’re a Wales-based advice firm, then the use of the .cymru TLD is unlikely to confuse people. And should you be fortunate enough to have a domain in mind where a less common TLD would fit perfectly, then there’s no harm in using that domain. For example, if your business is “Wealth Studio”, then wealth.studio would be a fitting choice.

Domain name clarity

This is the main thing people will need to remember. The TLD may cause confusion, but it’s usually just a few letters. The domain name is usually much longer. 

theyardstickagency is 18 characters long, and is made up of three words.

This is the first question to raise when creating a domain name: how do you deal with spaces? Do you do what we have done and ignore them, or do you respect them and put hyphens in their place?

Hyphenation was common practice in the early days of the internet. However, it has fallen out of favour with most people nowadays, as the clarity of individual words is less important. Albeit, you may want to have a strong look at what the domain name could be misread as; a tip that Pen Island sorely could have done with before registering their domain name.

Another consideration is abbreviations or shortening of words in your domain name, or whether the words/abbreviations are even necessary. Shorter domain names are generally better, but this comes with the massive caveat that the name has to make sense.

For example, if you are looking for a domain name for “Yorkshire Wealth Planning”, going with yorkswealthplanning is unlikely to confuse people. You may also consider yorkshirewp, which still clearly links to the core part of your business name. But, it’s probably sensible not to go overboard with yorkswp as it could now be too far removed from your business name.

But why does all this matter? No one types domains anymore

While this is mostly true, it’s not just your website that gets affected by all of the above – it’s also your email addresses.

Most people will find your website through Google, ChatGPT, social media, or similar channels. Your email address, though, is something people may need to type out manually, so it needs to be clear and recognisable.

My spouse and I have a custom domain for emails we both need access to, which uses .xyz as its TLD. This made perfect sense when setting it up, as .xyz isn’t as expensive as .com or .co.uk, and for the domain name we used, it was a lot cheaper. And for an email address that’s primarily for receiving bills, saving almost £50 a year is more convenient.

However, every time we have had to tell someone our email address over the phone, we have had to correct them when they read it back because they never expect customers to use a domain ending in .xyz. 

At best, this just means we have to tell them the correct TLD. But at worst, they don’t confirm the email address is correct, assume the wrong TLD, and we don’t get whatever email we’re expecting from them.

The last thing you want is for one of your clients to recommend you to a friend, only for them to get your email address wrong. You’re probably already using a memorable email address format in your company, whether it’s forename@… or forename.surname@…, but you also want the last part to be memorable too.

How to choose the perfect domain

Let’s assume that you already have the perfect business name (and if you’ve worked with us on your branding, then you definitely will). That means it’s time to buy the domain. So, how do you get the perfect one?

1) Keep it short

While you’re not going to be ranked lower on Google because your domain name is 50 characters long, people won’t remember it, and they will be more likely to make a typo should they try and remember it. 

A longer domain name also allows for more chances for a bad actor to trick your clients, or members of staff, by sending emails from a similar domain. 

Confirming that an email from john@thisisareallylongemailaddressdomain.com is correct, and not from john@thisisaraellylongemailaddressdomain.com isn’t something many will spot.

2) Use a relevant top-level domain

Sticking to .com or .co.uk (or your country’s most common TLD) will never be a bad choice. But if those options aren’t available, or there is a TLD that would replace the final word nicely with your chosen domain name, make sure it works for your business. For example, it’s sensible to use .london for a London-based business, or .finance if your domain name was originally going to be something like smartchoicefinance.co.uk, as that can be shortened to just smartchoice.finance.

3) Consider how your domain name could be read

Let’s assume your business name is the completely innocuous (and slightly boring-sounding) Funds Exchange Network. Remove the spaces and put everything in lowercase and uh-oh, the “s” from “Funds” suddenly moved to the start of “Exchange”, and people seeing the domain would likely assume you’re a website helping people pay for gender reassignment surgery.

In cases like this, you would be wise to use hyphenation, abbreviations, or acronyms to keep the confusion to a minimum.

4) Only use acronyms or abbreviations when necessary

“Financial planning” is quite wordy, so shortening that to just “FP” in your domain is perfectly acceptable. But what about if we take the previous example, where there’s not really much you could shorten it down to? 

You could maybe get it down to Funds Ex. Net., but is that how you want your brand to be seen? Every email you send will come from @funds-ex-net.com, or if we’re being savvy with the second point, @funds-ex.net. It works, but it doesn’t look pretty.

However, if all the branding for the company makes the first letter of each word prominent, and you regularly refer to the company as FEN, then using that would be a great alternative. 

5) Buy more than one domain

If you’re worried about people getting confused, want people to get to your website whether they use .com or .co.uk, or just want the peace of mind that people won’t confuse your business’s website with another, then you can buy as many domain name+TLD combos as you like.

You don’t need to use all of them, but you can have as many domains forward to your primary domain as you see fit. Doing this means you can also have a much shorter domain to use on certain promotional documents, where a user may not want to type your full domain, or the space on the design won’t accommodate your primary domain.

Need help getting the perfect (domain) name?

Whether you’re a new business trying to come up with the perfect name, or an existing business looking to get the perfect domain name, and don’t know where to start, email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call us on 0115 896 5300 and we’ll work with you to get it just right.