How to choose a domain name

Say the name out loud to somebody and ask them to type it. If they get it right first time, it is a good name. If they ask you to spell it, it is not.

Everything else follows from that. A name that survives being said over a phone, read off a van, or repeated by a customer to a friend is a name that works. One that needs explaining leaks a little traffic every single time it is shared.

• Hyphens. your-business.co.ke gets typed as yourbusiness.co.ke by half the people who hear it, and they land on somebody else’s site
• Numbers. Is it 4 or four? Now you need both, and you still lose people
• Creative spelling. Kwik, Lite, Xpress — all of them need spelling out every time
• Too long. If it does not fit on a business card comfortably, it will not be remembered

The common thread is ambiguity. Every point where a listener could reasonably type something else is a point where you lose them.

Usually it is. Some things that work better than a hyphen:

• Add what you do. oceanviewlodge.co.ke rather than oceanview.co.ke
• Add where you are. A town or region, which also helps local search
• Try another extension. The .ke namespace, .africa, .co, .net — all legitimate
• Shorten it. Many strong brands are a shortened version of a longer phrase

What rarely works is bolting "online", "web" or "ltd" on the end. It reads as a consolation prize and it is hard to remember.

A country extension

.co.ke tells customers where you are, which matters for a business serving one market and helps in local search results.

.com

The default everywhere. Worth owning alongside your main name if it is free, so nobody else takes it and so people who type it by habit still find you.

Something specific

.or.ke for non-profits, .ac.ke and .sc.ke for accredited institutions and schools, .africa for a business trading across the continent.

You do not have to pick one. Many businesses register two or three and point the spares at the main site.