When looking at the grand scheme of things for the planning and development of a Start-up, one would assume acquiring a domain name is far down on the list. This may have been true 10 or so years ago, but a good domain name should be at the forefront of every Start-up's mind due to the ever increasing importance of an online presence.

Whether a domain is acquirable or not is now a huge deciding factor in the naming of a Start-up, with more and more opting for quirky, made up but pronounceable brands, instead of dipping into valuable funds to secure an expensive domain name. Below is a collection of actionable advice and tools that can greatly aid you in your search for the perfect domain name.

Short and Sweet

It's unquestionable that the shorter a domain name is the better, which is why people are willing to pay several millions of dollars for a short and brandable name. However, securing a short but pronounceable word is near impossible in this day and age, with the majority being registered many years ago.

If you are after a short name, be prepared to pay a lot of for it. The owners of such highly sought after domains understand their value and may have been holding onto them for over 15 years, so it's important you approach them in the right away. Aaron Patzer understood that Mint.com was highly valuable, but greatly desired it for his personal finance Start-up. He lacked the funds to put in a realistic offer so sold the owner equity in his Start-up; the equivalent of a few million dollars when Mint exited.

Brandable or Descriptive

One thing that must be clear from the outset is whether or not the domain name will be related to the nature of the Start-up or Product, or if it is a brandable word. As mentioned previously in this article, the use of a made up yet pronounceable word is on the rise, proving favourable amongst smartphone App developers and tech Start-ups. For example, Waze.com for a smartphone navigation app is much more appealing than NavigationApp.com, due to being short, pronounceable and memorable.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing which path to pursue, as it usually comes down to a case by case basis. Smashing Magazine has put together an extremely thorough article on approaching this in a structured and logical way.

Tools

There are an abundance of free tools available on the internet for coming up with a catchy and memorable Start-up name, by mashing multiple words together and checking if they are available on the fly:

• Domize – A real time domain finding tool, that supports advanced modifiers
• Domainr -  Clean and simple tool that focuses on domain hacks with obscure country code top-level domain extensions
• DomainTyper – Simple searcher and domain hacker, with a gimmicky but surprisingly effective 'Web 2.0 Domain Name Generator'
• LeanDomainSearch – Searches available domains as well as Twitter handles, displaying them in a huge grid.
• Domains Bot – Comprehensive searching tool with synonyms, that searches Twitter handles and Facebook page URLs 

Hopefully, armed with the above information, you will be able to settle on a Start-up domain name that's right for you. If your desired name is taken, it's not the end of the world. Consider enquiring with the owner or exploring other top-level domain extensions. It's not uncommon for companies to add a prefix or suffix to their brand name, such as GetPocket.com, and won't have a detrimental effect on your brand if you have good strategy in place.

Author Bio
This post has been written by Mark Potter of Namecheap Domain Registrar.