Choosing a domain name

[glitch]

I'm about to start up a little side-project to the day job and I'm having a little bit of difficulty in deciding on a domain name for the business. Like the day job it's based around photography, but it's my photography so ideally I'd like to be using my name. However all the decent domains are gone (i.e. www.myname.co.uk or .com) so I'm left looking at alternatives.

I'm not really worried about people finding me through Google as that isn't likely to happen just yet. For the time being any visitors to the site will either be going directly from a link in an email or having typed in the URL from any direct marketing I do; flyers, mailers, business cards, etc.

So given that I'm probably not going to be actually getting people to write the URL down, does it matter if it's relatively lengthy? Or should it be short and sweet just for both ease of use and a nice snappy way to remember who I am?

As I said before, all the 'good' names are gone, so I'm left with these options:

1. www.myname.me

2. www.mynamephotography.co.uk

3. www.my-name.com or www.my-name.co.uk

I'm not madly keen on #1 but in a way it is the ideal format. But would the somewhat unusual ending confuse people and they'll just type .co.uk or .com?

I quite like #2 as it says who I am and what I do, but is it too wordy?

I'm really not sure about #3 as I'm worried about the hyphen confusing people, although in theory they'll be reading the domain from something as they type.

If you were a freelance photographer, what would you do?

 

[glitch]

My advice would be to use .co.uk or .com without any hyphens etc, shorter and easier to spell is better.

I would, but I can't. The .com, .co.uk and .net are all in use.

What about .me though? Feels a little unprofessional to me but gets the point across quite well.

I have so much trouble with my .org.uk domain as people don't think to put it and automatically type .co.uk

Is it a big problem for you? Or do you find people get there in the end?

You may be better off with coming up with a new name entirely - like some arty company name rather than your actual name.

That would depend entirely on what type of photography you do and how creative you are with names... if theres any marketing types in your friends and family, they may be able to help.

Unfortunately I'm a commercial photographer so people need to remember my name rather than a pseudonym. And anything that sounds more like a stock agency rather than a person would also prove tricky.

 

[glitch]

Out of the options you have listed then I would suggest option 2.

You would be much better going for namephotography.com or .co.uk. or INITIALSphotography.com/.co.uk (or even first inital surname.com?).

I can get www.mynamephotography.co.uk but all the other variations are taken.

Even my initials are popular. I count at least three other photographers using that idea, although none in the UK.

All that's left is initialsurnamephotography.co.uk which doesn't strike me as being better than mynamephotography.co.uk as my first name is only three letters long.

People often just remember the main part of the address and if they cant remember the suffix will generally only try .com and .co.uk.

This is sort of why I need the URL to be my name. My clients will remember me and want to book me again rather than some pseudonym.

.me is possibly one of the worst suffixes, and doesnt really give an impression of 'a proffessional'

Do you really think it's that bad? Seems okay-ish to me, although it's behind .com, .co.uk and .net in my order of preference.

 

[glitch]

Personally I would only use .com or .co.uk, then at a push .net or .org, after that any other domain names just seem 'unproffessional' - as in they have an amature personal website feel to them. Perhaps that is just my opinion, though I am sure I won't be alone in that.

I agree with you up to the .org part, but then again that's more suited to an organisation than an individual.

I'm a bit undecided about a .me domain. It's less garish than .me.uk but it still doesn't have the same impact that a .com or .co.uk would.

The most important thing for me and my business is that it's easy to remember the name and ties in with who I am. The website will speak volumes about the professional aspect of my work, so the domain might not be an issue. And it is sort of about me and my work, so perhaps .me would be okay.

Personally I would go for mynamephotography.co.uk if I couldn't get myname.co.uk, though my-name.co.uk/.com is not a terrible option.

I'm wondering if it's worth going for my-name.com/co.uk for now and then hoping I can get myname.com/co.uk at a later date.

Or perhaps I should just stick with the mynamephotography.co.uk idea as that's who I am and what I do.

Hmmm...

 

[glitch]

Hi Steve,

Tell me about these keywords and how that would help me? It's highly unlikely that the general public would ever be Googling for me, but I do expect commercial clients to have heard about me and then want to look for my website if they haven't already been there, seen my promotional stuff, etc.

Alas, I have exactly the same name as a relatively well-known sporting star, so searches on my name alone generally find articles about him. How would I compete with that? Do you think that mynamephotography.co.uk would help me in that matter as that's almost the term that people would, in theory, be Googling for?

EDIT: And as if it couldn't get any worse, there's an American photographer with mynamephotography.com. How would I deal with that?

 

[glitch]

If someone was to go to Google and search for:

joe bloggs photography

And you own joebloggsphotography.co.uk, then you've scored some points in Google's massive ranking checklist.

It's not going to make you page 1 overnight, but all these little things add up.

Ahh, I'm with you now.

That domain combined with a well designed, accessible website, taking care to keep SEO in mind when building the site and writing the copy for it, will all help to propel you up the rankings.

SEO? Is that short for Search Engine Optimisation?

How would one keep it in mind when building the site?

Generally most "normal" Google users in my experience will type "joe bloggs photography" into Google, rather than typing www.joebloggsphotography.co.uk into the URL bar.

Good point, well made. I can think of about 10 people I know who do that.

 

[glitch]

Ever thought of changing your name?

It might be the easier option!

I know the feeling, and I don't really know what can be done to avoid the confusion really. I am competing with 2 other photographers with very similar names.

I have been known by all three names by different people and/or at different stages of my life!

Argh, that's a pain. Do you generally get the 'right' visitors?

Generally it's a case of making sure the site is coded well (validates - http://validator.w3.org/), and built using current standards - so no tables for layout, no font tags, etc.

And when it comes to the copy for the website, make sure it's original, well written and contains all the keywords you think are relevant.

Much obliged to you for that. I'll have a proper read-through later.

First thing that occurs is the fact that you mention most variations of yournamephotography are taken so to me that means you run the risk, if using that type of combination, of having your viewers going to someone elses site. It is also likelythey also specialise in the same field and your viewer may not realise. Of course this can go both ways .

Just the .com and .co.uk of mynamephotography, although I own the latter.

All the other variants are readily available. So I might nab the .net just to be safe.

Is photography a must in the name?

No, not really, but my name is a must and all the myname domains are long gone.

How about "photos" or "images" or "imaging" ?

The problem with using 'photos' is that sounds more like photos of the sports star with who I share a name.

And 'images' and 'imaging' don't scream photographer. That's more graphics and possibly printed media.

I used captured-emotions as I concentrated at the time on people photography but this was also more of a hobby than a business.

If I wasn't doing what I do, I could use a random name. But in the area I work in, name is everything. People will remember a photographer's name more than a random website.

In my area of expertise, random names are usually stock websites. All my peers are known by their name and have websites to match.

The gits.

 

[glitch]

Admittedly my research isn't complete, but from what I have done I'm pretty sure that there's nobody else out there with my name or initials that does the sort of photography I specialise in. So that's a small bonus.

But you are right in saying that people can and will get confused and possibly end up at the wrong site. I'm just relying on anyone who does that realising their mistake pretty quickly. Although they will still need to look again for me, so hopefully they won't give up too easily.

Luckily for the foreseeable future it will simply be a portfolio site. I rely on face-to-face meetings with clients to sell my services and just need the site to act as a 'always on' portfolio for those times when I can't be sat with someone.