Only
one domain name is necessary to launch a website, however, there
is some wisdom in registering more than one. Above, we mentioned the
situation where you're giving out the website address over the radio.
The same principle applies to quoting it on the phone, or during a
business meeting. Short, easy to spell, quick to remember. However,
many companies give out their website address in printed matter,
be it compliment slips, invoices, magazine advertisements, brochures,
shop windows, delivery truck paint jobs, or exhibition stands. In
this situation, what counts is readability, and this is where hyphens,
which are a bad idea for verbally quoted addresses, become important.
Consider these alternatives :
theweddingshop.com
the-wedding-shop.com
The first one is much harder to get right, because you're not sure
quite where one word ends and another begins. Is it "wedding" or
"weddings" plural for instance? In situations where the client is
communicating their address by multiple media (the norm), we recommend
registering multiple domain names. We do not charge extra for pointing
more than one domain name at the same website, aside from the registration
costs of the domain name itself.
Finally, a word about search engines. We cover the topic of search
engines more thoroughly elsewhere on the Room101 website, but it
is a fact that some search engines give especial prominence to key
words which appear in the domain name. Imagine two insurance companies
whose websites have the following names:
atlantic-insurance.com
greenhill-life.com
Both companies wish to achieve the most prominent search engine
listing when their potential client searches for the phrase "Life
Cover". An excellent tactic would be for one of them, (whichever
gets there first!) to register the domain name "life-cover.com",
and point it to their own website. This may take precedence over
so-called Meta Tags on some search engines.
