Back in the days when internet was nonexistent for general people and businesses, you could pick any company name you desired. As internet became mainstream and not an exclusive tool of communication for federal agencies, the concept of domain names cropped up.
A domain name is just the name that embeds your website IP address and instead of a series of numbers appearing as the website, it is a proper name.
In the primitive years, a company would register itself with a name and then to have a website, look for a domain name that was exactly the same as the company name. Miranda’s Salons would have gone for www.mirandassalons.com.
The scenario has changed over the last ten years and today there are about 100 million domain names registered. Hence if you are trying to opt for a company name that says Aromatic Florists then chances of having a www.aromaticflorists.com domain name available are bleak. Today, we all know the significance of domain names.
It is your online identity. It is how people would know you on the internet and look for you and reach you. You can opt for a company name and then due to unavailability of the same name as a domain name, might opt for a domain name that has nothing to do with your company name.
In such a scenario, a question become omnipresent – which comes first, company name or domain name?
It is no secret that a company would always like to have the company name as the domain name but given the reality as it is today, isn’t it wise to check the availability of a domain name and then deciding on your company name?
Experts believe that it is. You can always select a company name before but prior to registering it or finalizing it, it is important to check the availability of a domain name that matches it. It is likely that you would not get a .com extension. You can still look for .net, .co.ca, .us, .co.uk, .com.au or .biz domain extensions.
There are domain name extensions specific to countries and some other generic ones other than .com. The .com domain extension should always be your first preference but if you wish to stick with a specific company name then looking for other extensions or trying to change the domain name by inserting special characters such as hyphen can work better.
Ensure that a domain name is available for your company name and then register both.