Michel Fortin, who I have been fortunate enough to have briefly studied under, has a great article on the importance of the choice of names for your company.

That importance can extend to your Website url. For instance, did you know that Google and other search engines will give some additional weight to a site if it's url happens to have a keyword or keyword phrase in it?

Not that doing so will rocket you to the top of the listings, but if you can incorporate a keyword into your url, it gives you another leg up on attracting attention.

Unfortunately, some people take this too far. That's why you end up with convoluted Websites with names like "get-my-cheap-mortgage-interest-rate.com." Thankfully, no such site exists, but you've probably seen those ridiculously long url names that are nothing more than an attempt to get some extra points from the search engine spiders.

You do need a memorable name. But being memorable also usually means being relatively short. Ten-to-twelve letters long, max.

"Zunch" is memorable, in part, because it is a unique name (I find new clients guessing at its origin and meaning all the time), but also because it is short and easy to recall.

Finding the right name for a new business is hard. Finding the right url can be even harder.

A few pointers--

• Alliteration helps recall
• Rhyming does the same
• Partiicularly with urls, avoid names having more than 10-12 characters
• Your surname may well be a good choice for a unqiue company name or url

If you are in the midst of trying to create a name for a new venture, or if you've decided you want to re-brand and change your name, I suggest you visit Michel's article for a quick lesson on the art of choosing a name.

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