The internet is important for your business. Be it social media, a website or even just a simple Google Business listing. It’s now one of the simplest ways to advertise, sell products and reach your customer base. It’s vital then, when you start out a new company you consider the implications of your company name with SEO.

It’s all well and good coming up with a business name on a piece of paper. It might be the perfect name. Something you instantly fall in love with, that’s brandable and really represents what your business is about. But, let’s stop you there.

Take your new company name and Google it. What comes up?

If you’ve called your company Nike or Monty Python, then you might need to be reconsidering. In fact, if you’ve decided to name your company either of those things you might need to hire a professional. Because marketing isn’t your strongest point, sorry.

Where to start when planning your company name

So, you’ve got your business and it’s come down to naming it. Or potentially naming it if you are going through a rebrand. But where do you start? Start with a few options.

While you do need to make sure you pick a company name you like, keeping your options as open as possible will also help initially. It’s important to have names that you feel comfortable with and that has a sense of individuality.

Followed with this, you need to make sure that they are brandable names. And, that the brand can stand out. Come up with some rough logos, but don’t commit to any single name just yet.

Come back in half a day when you’ve got at least 10 names to choose from…

Welcome back!

Right, so you’ve got your potential names. Now we need to be checking which one will work best in terms of SEO and which one is actually available as a domain!

There’s a load of places you can do this online, just search Buy Domain and check your options with each idea you’ve had. Some will be for sale, but cost you £££££’s, if you’ve used your own name or a specific location in the title, you’ve got a higher chance of it being available.

Always try and choose .com or .co.uk if you can. These domains are generally more trusted and have a higher chance of getting traffic.

Now, if your domain is available, run the company name through Google. Do some keyword variants related to your business location/niche/offering and check what the competitions like.

If there is a lot of well established strong sites all over the first page it’s going to be much harder to get your business to the coveted first page of Google. Which could lead to some issues with traffic, leads and conversions in the long term.

SEO is vital when choosing your new company name. Arguably it’s more important than actually loving your name in the first place. SEO first, first choice second. And like we said, try to be creative and visualize plenty of options that could fit your company, this will make it loads easier.

If you want to discuss how best to choose a name for your new company and plan for the long-term search engine game with your website design, then feel free to give us a shout!

We’d be more than happy to suggest options you have and help you get the online part of your business off the ground!