Choosing a domain name for your law firm is an important task. Often times, law firms don't consider all the factors that should be involved in making the decision. Below, I've addressed a few things to think about when you are considering the domain name to use for your law firm website or blog.
Think About The Keywords - When you first begin thinking about the domain name you want to use, consider 4 or 5 different keywords or phrases that best describe your practice. What types of words or phrases would people search for when looking for your services online? Once you've got those you can group them together or add additional words to create a domain name. For example, you might be launching a site for your Illinois injury practice. You could use terms like Illinois injury, Illinois car accident, Illinois personal injury, Illinois accident, etc. as seeds and then play around until you find a good, available match.
Pick A Name People Can Remember - You need to consider using a domain name that people can remember easily. Something like www.sdwdglaw.com is going to be much more difficult than www.ErnieTheAttorney.net. This is especially important if you are advertising the domain offline where people will have to go back later to type the name into their browser. It's also a good idea to use .com whenever possible since most people are not that tech-savvy and aren't aware there are other domain extensions out there.
Go With A Shorter Name - A shorter name is easier to remember and simpler to type-in. It will fit better onto business cards and will be easier to use as an email address.
Don't Make People Guess What Your Site Is About - Your domain name should identify what it is that you do. On it's most basic level, your domain should communicate your site is about legal services or the law. More specifically it could identify the geographic or practice areas you cover. At the very least, no one should have to guess what business you're in.
Look For Available Domain Names With Helpful Tools Like Domize - Domize is a search engine for domain names. You can type domains into the search box and Domize will let you know the availability as you type the name. This is a much faster process than using a registrar like Godaddy.com to search for available names. Anyone who has done that unpleasant task will really enjoy using Domize.
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And how much time should they spend doing it? I recently had the privilege of chatting with Tyson, Jim, and Conrad for an upcoming episode of The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. If you're not familiar with The Maximum Lawyer community, you should definitely check it out. Jim asked a really great question about who should do […]