How to come up with a Catchy Business Name?

Nothing on the internet is in scarcity as much as attention. Everyone tries to name their articles catchy, but it starts earlier. Finding the right business name and the related domain name is more important than ever before. The right name can make or break a business. From the beginning, you have to be sharp about your company name.

Following we discuss a fast approach to identifying suitable names as well as discuss two neat tools to check the names to save time.

Quickly, why is a catchy business name so important?

When you are searching on Google, what makes you actually click on the link? No doubt, it is the title of the article and/or the domain name. The title of the search result is where it starts – at least most of the time.

In a short time, you have to demonstrate you are worthy of their attention. There you got your chance to convince a potential user or customer to click through. Click through rates as titles and names are strongly correlated. Your article title and business name are what will make the visitors visit your site, read through the content and learn about your product, services, or community.

Your business name – and the related domain names and the social media handles – play a key role in marketing your product and services later on. This calls for catchy and potentially attention-grabbing names if you want a share of this free attention.

Finding the right name for your project or business

A name chosen should market the business so that you may have customers to click on the link and actually go through the services which you offer. The problem comes in when the domain name you desire to take is already taken by another company which has used it for a long time or someone simply registered it and put up a heavy price tag. This article will walk you through the steps you need to come up with catchy alternative names for your business or side project.

Starting from a brainstormed list of keywords, name and alternative writing. Here are some of the tips to guide you to more variety of name for your startup company:

1. Have SEO in mind. You may start by trying my[keyword].com, [keyword]hq.com, [keyword]central.com etc. You can get one if you are lucky. How to get some ideas for the prefixes and postfixes will be discussed later.
2. Check the synonyms of your keywords from the thesaurus.com. It is sometimes helpful to use an alternative word. Keep a list of keywords and their alternative versions.
3. Consider using a verb or adjective to quantify your keyword. The format can be something like [verb/adjective][keyword].domain. Many adjectives are available out there from which you can select an appropriate one for you.
4. Get creative with language. Open up Google translation, enter your main keyword and translate it from English to Spanish, French or German. Don’t forget to look at the alternatives below the translation. If you are lucky, you can get a name back that works for you and sounds great at the same time.
5. You can use figurative language. Include some animal names which you want to associate with your brand. For instance, lion to stress on your company strength. Think of names like “WhiteRhino Designs” or “newbee-chat.io”. Sounds great and you got an idea for an icon already, right?
6. Colors also work magic. Color is one of the marketing strategies which have worked miracles. Pick an appropriate color to associate with your brand to form the company name. For example, you can have something like VioletBooks.com or LimeDesign.io. This classic color emotion guide can help to find the right colors. Displayed are brands known to align themselves with these attributes and certain colors. You can do the same – starting with your business name. Ever wondered why so many ecologically-friendly products are green? This is why.
7. While “.com” domains are preferable for most businesses or projects they are also registered in most cases. You might need to be a bit more flexible. Use local domains such as “.uk” for the United Kingdom, “.au” for Australia, etc. when your business is mostly local. With tech startups, the top-level domains “.io” and  “.sh” are very popular. Check the options your domain registrar is offering.

After going through these points you should have a lengthy list of keywords/names as well as a few pre- and post-fixes to combine these with. It’s time to get onto checking these more.

Checking your wish-list of names

When starting a business, your dream is to see it grow. Many people turn to online marketing to create publicity for their business. The name should, therefore, describe what’s inside. Unfortunately, the web is a busy place. In most cases, the first choice for your business name or project name is often already taken. Same might go for the next 5-10 ideas, depending on how creative you are with the name and busy the niche is. Luckily there are online services to check domain and username availability. As time is mostly working against us, it is recommended to perform your checks using one of these tools below.

Checking names can be a time-consuming task if done completely manual. To avoid the waste of your time on typing and clicking to check names you should use a tool to perform these checks. Domain registrars doing a great job doing these checks for domains. Usernames, unfortunately, are left out most of the times. But there are tools to fill the gap. Following are two tools to help you with both usernames and domain names on this daunting task: namecheckr.com and startup name check. Both allow you to search over multiple social networks and domain names at once. While namechekr comes with a nicer design startup name check has a convenient table layout compare the results. It comes down to your preference.

Haven’t found the right name yet?

Sub-optimal names will make it harder for you to rank on Google and stay distinct from your competitors. It might pay off to and consider more ideas as you work on your project. If you haven’t found a suitable and available name by now, you might want to give it more time to let the issue “sink in” and come up with a name you will be happy for a long time.

The Bottomline

Both business domain names and titles have one common goal. A misleading business name will annoy your visitors, not convert and lead to falling rankings on Google and co. They may also provoke some to leave a negative review in return and that is far from good for your business.

Having a domain name which is similar to another companies name is bad for a number of reasons. The other company can sue you for infringing into their rights and force you to change your name – a nightmare for a young business. Double check your domain name before making anything public. A more important thing is to be creative while coming up with a name. Always be creative!