I recently was asked by a client for some advice on choosing a business name. Here was the advice I gave
It doesn’t really matter
There are plenty of good businesses, great businesses with terrible names. Google isn’t great (although it does mean something). Mcdonalds is boring – Apple is a fruit so is Orange, so is blackberry (is it?). Anyway…
Some companies use the name of their founders – i.e. Harvey Norman – seems to work for them.
Some mention their industry, some are completely unrelated, some use Acronyms. There is no rhyme or reason, no recipe for success.
In my opinion it really doesn’t matter at all what the name is when you start – it matters what people think of when they think of the name after you are established. When you think of apple you don’t think of the fruit.
Having said that there are some things to consider.
Is the domain available
If you have the luxury of choosing your business name before you start your business (often people just start), make sure you check whether the domain is available. for .com.au use http://www.ausregistry.com.au/whois.php or GoDaddy.com for .com domains. This is going to be a big restriction on names these days as pretty much everything is taken.
Exact match domains – search engine considerations
To rank well in Google can be tough. One easier way to do it is to have a name of a keyword in your domain – if possible the whole domain is an exact keyword match.
For example if you want to come up for “plumbing Sydney” you are better off having the domain plumbingsydney.com.au than pipesgalore.com.au.
Another idea is to look at a site like www.netfleet.com.au and see what domains are available for resale. Older domains are better and you might find a keyword rich domain in your area for sale which would help you get traffic. This all depends on how picky you are about your name.
Is it memorable?
Having a memorable name doesn’t hurt. While Google isn’t the most glamorous name, it’s pretty memorable. There are plenty of examples of weird name companies doing well, Twitter, Skype, Fring, Mail Chimp etc. In more traditional industries though it might help to be a bit more conservative like my business name Web Circle is relatively easy to remember because its simple not because it’s a crazy name.
Is it hard to spell or pronounce
You will be forever explaining to people how to pronounce your name if it’s tricky. Similarly if it’s hard to spell you’ll get people going to the wrong web address so again it helps to keep it simple.
There are a lot of things to consider when coming up with a name but ultimately if you make a good enough business it can be called anything and it won’t matter.
