How To Choose Your Consulting Domain Name (2 Options)

Choosing your consulting domain name can be a tough decision. Before you write and design your consulting website, you need to purchase a domain name. Everything starts from there.

The audience you want to build, your potential clients, and your network will be typing your domain name into their address bar to go to your website. Or, they will search for you on Google and your domain name will show up in the search results.

It’s an important decision to make. And it’s best to get it right the first time.

In this article, I’ll share 2 options to help you choose your consulting website domain name.

Option 1: Use Your Name

If you’re an independent consultant, using your first and last name as your domain name is a great option. It’s simple, effective, and straightforward. And since you run businesses of one, it makes sense to use your name. Example: TomCritchlow.com

The strongest brand is your name. “Get me Joan Larson” is a far better dynamic than “Get me an excellent strategist” and Joan happens to be a possible name among many. Not many people have said, “We need Summit Consulting Group.” They say, “We need Alan Weiss.”

— Alan Weiss & Chad Barr, Million Dollar Web Presence

In an ideal world, everybody would own their “firstnamelastname.com.” However, many of you reading this were excited about the prospect of owning a domain name consisting of your name only to find out that somebody else owns it. No big deal.

Here are a few different ways to play with your name to find a consulting domain name that’s available. You could try adding your middle initial: johnrdoe.com. You can add consulting at the end: johnconsulting.com or janedoeconsulting.com. Example: AngelaBrittonConsulting.com

You could add the type of service you provide: janedoefinance.com or janedoehr.com. If you are in a more creative field, you could use something like hellojane.com. Example: HelloBrady.com

If you are outside the United States, you can add your country’s domain extension to your name. Example: TroyDean.com.au

The strongest brand is your name.

There are hundreds of ways you could use your name as your consulting domain name. You may not be able to use your “firstnamelastname.com,” and that’s OK. Use one of the options above and you’ll have an excellent domain name for your consulting website.

Option 2: Use A Branded Name

Let’s say you have a very common name, and you can’t find an available domain name. Or, you want to build a consulting firm (instead of being a solo consultant). In this case, come up with a branded domain name — one that matches the name of your consulting firm.

This is more challenging, but just as viable. See our article on “How To Choose A Consulting Firm Name” to learn the best practices.

With a branded consulting domain name, look for something relevant, memorable, and ideally, has the .com extension available.

Find a combination of words that is memorable and accurately represents you and your business. Use a service like Namechk to see if the name is available on different social platforms. A good example of an effective branded domain name is People Spark Consulting, founded by Clarity clients Kristen Ireland and Erin Mies.

The People Spark Consulting team works with ag business clients across the US to implement strategies and processes to create a thriving company culture where everyone has shared goals and is headed in the same direction.

We focus on simple, practical business and HR strategies to boost a company’s bottom line by increasing profits and margin, increasing retention and engagement, and creating a culture of success.

The name, “People Spark Consulting” is relevant, memorable, and had the .com available — hence their consulting domain name: PeopleSparkConsulting.com.

So, with a branded consulting domain name, look for something relevant, memorable, and ideally, has the .com extension available.

Should You Use A .consulting Domain?

Only if the name you want isn’t available as a .com, and the name matters more to you than the extension. A .consulting domain isn’t penalized in search. John Mueller of Google has said newer extensions carry no ranking advantage or disadvantage against .com. So this isn’t an SEO decision.

It’s a recall decision. People default to .com when they type a domain from memory, and again when they say one out loud on a call. A prospect who half-remembers your firm will try yourname.com first. If someone else owns it, you just handed them the visit.

That’s the real cost. Not rankings. Traffic you never see.

Use .consulting when your firm name is distinctive, the .com belongs to an unrelated business, and you’d rather keep the name than compromise it. If kellerconsulting.com is gone, keller.consulting reads cleanly and leaves your brand intact. Skip it when your name is common, or when you plan to run ads or print anything physical. Every extra word of explanation costs you.

What About .online, .io, Or .xyz For A Consulting Firm?

Same logic, weaker case. None of them carry a search penalty, but .online and .xyz are less familiar to a buyer deciding whether you look established. .io reads as credible to a technical audience and as a typo to everybody else.

Selling to enterprise buyers? Get a .com, or a country extension like .ca or .co.uk. Selling to startups on technical work? .io costs you nothing. Whatever you land on, if a close .com variant is cheap and available, buy it and redirect it to your main site.

Get Help Building A Lead Generating Consulting Website

Head over to Namecheap and find a consulting domain name that matches your firm’s name, and purchase it. It will cost you around $10.

Now, you own that domain name. That’s all it takes. Don’t fret about your domain name for months. Make the decision and then move on to what’s important: designing and marketing a consulting website that helps you generate more clients.

Remember: it’s your positioning, copywriting, and content that’s most important — both with your ideal clients AND search engines.

If you’d like to see examples of the best consulting websites, check out our article on the topic: Best Consulting Websites & How They Use Them.