Your domain is the one asset that cannot be rebuilt. Everything else on a website can be redone; a name your customers already know and use is not something you want to change in two years.

The rules that matter

Use your business name. Customers who hear about you will type your name. If that does not lead to your site, you lose people who were already looking for you.

Keep it short. Under about 15 characters if you can. Every extra character is another chance to mistype it.

Make it sayable. The real test is the phone test: can you say it to someone without spelling it? "Juicy Designs dot co dot za" passes. Anything needing "that's with a Z" does not.

No hyphens or numbers. People forget hyphens and never know whether a number is a digit or a word. Both cost you traffic permanently.

Avoid deliberate misspellings. Dropping vowels to get an available name means explaining the spelling forever.

.co.za or .com?

For a business trading in South Africa, .co.za. Local customers expect it, it signals a local business to both people and search engines, availability is much better, and it is cheaper.

Take the .com as well if it is available and affordable, and redirect it to your .co.za. That protects the name and catches anyone who types the wrong one.

Choose .com as the primary only if you sell internationally or your market genuinely expects it.

Ignore the novelty extensions unless you have a specific reason. A South African customer seeing an unfamiliar ending is more likely to hesitate than to be impressed.

When your name is taken

In order of preference:

Add your city. bakerplumbingpretoria.co.za. Clear, useful, and it helps local recognition.

Add your service. bakerplumbingservices.co.za.

Use a common prefix. "get", "go", "the", "try" work and stay readable.

Buy it. If the domain is parked rather than in use, it may be for sale. Prices vary wildly, but for an exact business name match it can be worth asking.

What not to do: change your business name to fit an available domain, or take a misspelling. Both cost more over time than the extra word would have.

Does the domain need keywords?

Not any more. Exact-match keyword domains were a meaningful ranking signal fifteen years ago and are close to irrelevant now.

A memorable brand domain beats a keyword domain that nobody can recall. juicydesigns.co.za is more useful than best-web-design-pretoria.co.za, which reads as spam to a person and carries no advantage with Google.

Check these before you register

Read it without spaces. Domains have no spaces, and word boundaries can produce unfortunate readings. Say it out loud and ask someone else to write it down from hearing it.

Check the trade mark position so you are not adopting a name someone else owns.

Check the matching social media handles are free, so your name is consistent everywhere.

And check the domain's history on the Wayback Machine if it was previously registered. A domain that hosted something disreputable can carry search baggage.

After you register

Register it in your business's name, with a contact email you actually monitor, not your web designer's. Turn on auto-renew, because an expired domain takes your website and your email with it and can be registered by anyone after a grace period.

Enable registrar lock and, if offered, privacy protection. And consider registering the obvious typo variations, which cost little and prevent someone else profiting from your customers' mistakes.

Juicy Designs registers every domain in the client's name. See web design and managed hosting. Related: .co.za vs .com and hosting, domain and website explained.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose a domain name for my South African business?

Use your business name if it is available, keep it short and easy to say aloud, avoid hyphens and numbers, and take the .co.za. If the exact name is gone, add your city or your service rather than resorting to creative spelling.

Should I get .co.za or .com?

For a business trading in South Africa, .co.za. Local customers expect it, it signals a South African business, and it is cheaper. Take the .com as well if it is available and affordable, and point it at the same site.

Should the domain include keywords?

It is a very weak ranking signal now and not worth distorting your name for. A memorable brand domain beats a keyword domain that nobody can recall or spell.

What should I avoid?

Hyphens, numbers, deliberate misspellings, anything that has to be spelt out on the phone, and anything that reads badly when the words run together without spaces.

What does a domain cost in South Africa?

A .co.za runs about R100 to R250 a year and a .com about R200 to R400. Registering a few defensive variations is cheap insurance against typosquatting.