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Domain Name InformationHow To Pick A Web Site Domain Name For Your Institution Or Law Firm
by:
Philip L. Franckel, Esq.
Your web site is placed by an IP (Internet Protocol) address such as 67.15.4.94 and is accessible on the Computer network by typewriting http://67.15.4.94. Instead of typewriting a series of amount which are difficult to remember, you can register an easier to remember domain name which becomes associated with your IP address. Visitors typewriting an easy to remember domain name will be pointed to your IP address. Similar to a 1-800 vanity phone number, several domain names pertain to the subject of the web site, piece others may just be the name or an abbreviation of your firm.
Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.com is the primary domain name for my blog, which is instantly obvious that it is a web log concerning attorney advertising. Once
you type that domain name into the address bar of your browser, the domain name servers on the Computer network cognize that you're looking for http://67.15.4.94 and take you there. You can have multiple domain names inform
to the same web site. For instance, I besides registered LawyerAdvertisingBlog.com (without hyphens) which is used for stigmatization because folk ne'er
type hyphens. Because several folk may remember the name incorrectly, I besides registered galore another domain names such as AttorneyAdvertisingBlog.com, LawFirmAdvertisingBlog.com and others, all of which will bring the visitant to Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.com.
Tips to help you pick a domain name:
1) Choosing: Choosing a domain name is a lot like choosing a name for your institution or law firm. Ideally the name should be consistent with your branding. Determine whether you are stigmatization the name of your company, product or service. Your domain name should be nice for stigmatization - short, easy to remember, and has a “ring” to it or creates an pictures in the mind of the consumer.
2) Trademark: Before registering your domain name, be sure to check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to do sure that the name has not been trademarked. You can check at www.uspto.gov, click on Search under Trademarks. Assumptive that your select has not been proprietary
and you have now registered a non-generic domain name, you may want to protect your name by filing a Trademark or Service mark application.
3) Ownership: Once
you register a domain name, do sure that you are the person of your domain name. Several web site design firms will register your domain name with their name as the registrant. This will give them ownership of your name keeping you hostage. You can easily register your domain name yourself for $8.95 per year at 8.95Domains.com or GoDaddy.com.
4) Hyphens: There have been misunderstandings just about whether to use hyphens in a domain name. 1st of all, the domain name you give out to the public must not have hyphens. The domain name without hyphens is the domain name that everyone will type in the address bar of their Computer network browser.
The reason that several folk say that you should have a domain name with hyphens is to force the search engines to see keywords in your domain name so that your web site makes better in search engine results. The bigger search engines can now see individual words without hyphens, however, smaller search engines may not and even as the bigger ones may see a word otherwise
than you want.
Thus, the importance of exploitation a combined
domain name has diminished. If you will to use a combined
domain name as I did with Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.com, you should besides register the unhyphenated domain name which you will forward to the combined
domain name. Use the unhyphenated domain name in print and advertising.
5) Extensions: Domain names are accessible with various extensions, such as .com, .net, .org and galore another extensions. If it's actually important to you, you can register domain names in several extensions, however, for most firms only the .com extension is important. If you feel that you need to use .org, you should besides register your name in the .com extension.
The .com extension is similar to 1-800 for telephone numbers. Most folk mechanically
dial 1-800 even as once
they see 1-888. Likewise, most folk will type
.com even as once
they see .net or .org. Additionally, galore folk including myself just type in the domain name without http://www. or .com and press "Control, Enter". Pressing "Control, Enter" will type http://www. and .com for you, mechanically
taking you to a web site with .com.
6) Top Level Domain vs. Sub-Level Domains: A sub level domain is a second level domain under a 1st level domain name and can look like yourfirm.freehosting.com. You must have your own domain name. Do not under any circumstances use a free hosting service, since free hosting services will only give you a sub level domain. No one will ever remember it and it's sort of like handwriting your own letterhead.
7) Ethics for Law Firm Domain Names: A website name should be used as an address, not a trade name which is prohibited. Advertise your web site name as an address, a means for folk to find your web site, not a trade name. Like a vanity telephone number, several web site domain names can violate legal ethics. Do sure that your web site name avoids use of certain words which could create a possibly
incorrect expectation in the mind of the user
or violate one of the another ethics rules.
Your domain name should not imply that you are better than another attorney or that you can accomplish thing
that may not actually occur. Use of words such as "BEST", "TOP", "FOREMOST, "LEADING", "WIN" and similar words in a web site domain name could create a deceptive expectation in the mind of the user
and will violate ethics rules in most states.
For instance, LeadingLawyer.com or BestLawyer.com will likely violate attorney ethics rules by implying that you are a leading attorney or the better lawyer. The question is by what standards are you leading or the better and in what? WinningLawyer.com or WinningCase.com may be better for a casino, because it will imply that the person who becomes a client of the firm will win money when, that may not happen and even as if it does, it's an award for just compensation, not gambling.
Laura Hodes in her article for the ABA Journal entitled Vanity Phone Amount Do Your Firm Less Forgettable, at http://www.hurt911.org/hurt-911-articles/ABAJournal.htm, quoted Wish Hornsby, an expert on attorney advertising and staff counsel in the ABA Division for Legal Services, who aforesaid that piece there is nothing unethical just about vanity numbers, "1-800-I-WIN-CASES would-be be unethical because it is devising an uncorroborated claim, creating undue expectations that can be true but still be misleading." The same can be aforesaid just about domain names.
8) Advertising Your Domain Name: Be sure to include your domain name on your business cards, letterhead, and all advertising. Once
advertising in off-line media, always advertise your domain name with www. and without http://, such as www.LawyerAdvertisingBlog.com. Note that once
publication your domain name on the Internet, you may sometimes want to use http:// to ensure that you create a link back to your web site. Once
advertising in off-line media, always advertise a domain name without hyphens.
Just just about the author:
Duke of edinburgh L. Franckel, Esq., publishes articles on Attorney Advertising at http://www.Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.comand created http://www.HURT911.organ accident and injury research web site for folk hurt in an accident and personal injury lawyers.
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