Domains are a balancing act. We always prefer a .com, but with some domains, there is a lot of competition. 

Let’s say your advisory business includes a word like “compass,” a widely used term in the finance niche; you won’t have as much choice and risk of users not finding your website.

Here are two ways to approach this issue:

  1. Using other top-level domains (TLD) (the .com or .net part of the domain) such as “.finance”. While these niche TLD domains can result in shorter domains, end users often don’t understand these top-level domains. Even though there’s a higher chance of getting a short domain like compass.finance, if clients keep getting it wrong and try to add a .com, it would defeat the point. Similarly, adding a special character like compass-wealth.com is an option, but this requires explaining and can easily be misunderstood. Even if you managed to get an incredibly short domain, it might be too obscure. Cwm.finance, for example, while short, might not be intuitive or memorable to users. For these reasons, we recommend the second option:
  2. Spelling your company’s name out will result in a long but straightforward domain that is easier to implement because end users can easily understand them. For example, compasswealthadvisors.com, while lengthy with 21 characters, makes the most sense to the user and is easily communicated. There is also a benefit to the recall. Users will more easily remember your website address and email.