Your domain name is one of the most important decisions that you can make when you start your business and/or when you decide to invest in a website for your yoga business. Even if you have an established website and domain name, if it does not fit certain standards you may want to consider changing it so that it is a more effective tool for helping you grow your business.
Your website is one of the first things that many, if not most, potential students will see pertaining to you and your business, so the quality of the design is a very important factor in attracting new students to your business. In addition, the domain name that you choose plays an important role in the perception of your business by potential students. Here are some rules to consider when choosing or changing your domain name:
* Choose a domain name that is related to the name of your business. You should be continually branding both your business name and your domain name and there should be a consistency between the two.
* If you are just starting your yoga business your domain name is just as important as your business name. When choosing your business name, available domain names should be a very important factor. In today’s market it is just as important for students and potential students to remember your domain name as your business name since your website will be where they will go to find information about your classes, teachers, and products/services. And if they refer others to your business they will usually give out your domain name before they give out your business name. Also, since the vast majority of students that are looking for yoga will use the Internet as their source, your website and domain name play a critical role in marketing your business.
* If possible try to stick with a ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ even if you have to hyphenate your name. For example if your business is called Sun Yoga and http://www.sunyoga.com and [http://www.sunyoga.net] are already taken, you may want to consider http://www.sun-yoga.com. Hyphenating domain names is becoming more popular since good domain names can be hard to find.
* Try to keep the number of characters in the domain name under 12 if possible. This number of characters does not include the ‘www’ or ‘.com’.
* Try to choose a domain name that is memorable and easy to read and say.
* Only abbreviate if necessary in the domain name.
* If you have a unique domain name and are able to secure a ‘.com’, you may also want to secure the ‘.net’ as well in order to keep others from getting it.
* Once you secure your domain name, set up an email account to reflect this domain name. For example, if your domain name is http://www.newyorkyoga.com use an email such as info@newyorkyoga.com so that each time someone sees your email address they will see your domain name.
* You can have several different domain names pointing to a single website. So, if you already have a domain name and you are concerned about changing it since your students are already familiar with it, you can always secure another and have it connect to your existing website as well.
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