How Choosing the Right Domain Name Can Improve Educational Branding

Aside from the image that top Ivy League or internal universities have tried to construct, branding in education has never been a priority in the past. Otherwise, most educational institutions were focused on the intellectual and didactic content, aiming to produce superior academic results.

Yet, as the market has demonstrated, branding is essential to doing business. Products or services associated with other mental triggers will be easier to remember in the long run.

So, let’s take a look at how to construct a proper domain name to increase your educational institution’s name recognition.

Content Is King

This article will mainly focus on the domain name. However, directing traffic to a bad site can result in disappointed visitors.

If you want to ensure your site is a hit, consider hiring professionals from legitimate essay writing services. Despite its name, these types of services include other types of writing, from blogs, movie reviews, landing page content, etc.

You can find rankings of the top writing services on the JPost website, with reviews of the Pros and Cons of each service.

Using a Recognizable Extension Format

Brand recognition happens to the web address itself. Even to those aware of how the internet works, domain extensions still carry emotional weight. We are likelier to trust a site whose extension is “.com” or “.org.”

By all means, this does not mean that every other extension that can be used in college branding is bad.

Still, branding isn’t about objective, measurable results. It is about the consumer’s perception and the product’s overall reputation. Using the “.com” extension for branding in higher education can benefit from the years of accumulated trust from many trustworthy sites.

Do Not Overcomplicate the Domain Name

Academic people tend to want to be methodical and accurate. But, when it comes to college branding, that can work against their interest.

Marketing is about being catchy, memorable, and recognizable. When naming your domain, keep it simple. This is similar to how you name your books. Aside from technical manuals, book names are deliberately kept brief.

Just by reading your domain name, I should be able to tell what your site is about. Just look around and try to find how many successful products of any kind have short and catchy names. I assure you, it’s almost all of them.

Stay on Message

Branding in higher education should make use of descriptive domain names. Try to avoid derivative titles or non-specific words. Again, I should be able to realize what the service is just by reading the header.

For example, “HarvardHistory.com” is much better than “FindOutMore.Harvard.com” if your purpose is to sell me a history degree.

Be Sure to Include Keywords

How does your search engine know which results to show you? This is not a manual process, and there isn’t a room full of people sorting search results.

Search engines are mostly oriented towards measuring the popularity of the site and the use of keywords. There is an entire field of activity called Search Engine Optimization, which specializes in strategically using keywords in the right spots just so your website gets noticed and displayed.

Your education branding strategy can include hiring these SEO companies if it is within your budget. However, it isn’t mandatory.

For example, by including keywords in your domain name, you vastly increase the chances of being indexed at the top of the search results.

It is now easier than ever to find the right keywords to use, especially if you are relying on Google, which publishes metadata regarding searches. If possible, try to select keywords that are not ultra-popular because popularity means you will have a lot of competition.

Introducing local references, if not in the domain name, then in the text, and using medium-traffic keywords is probably the right combination.

Be Legally Secure

Intellectual property is the legal basis of all branding. The point is for people to recognize that the service is uniquely yours. So, after you have brainstormed your domain name, you have to make sure that you are not infringing on the intellectual property of another organization.

In other words, make sure the name is unique and easily distinguishable. As an anecdote, this is why people constantly confuse the words concave and convex. They just sound too similar.

The last thing you want to do is drive traffic towards another guy’s site.

Include Alliterations

In marketing, it’s well-known that alliteration is very effective for memorization. Anything that rhymes or has a rhythm of cadence will get lodged in people’s minds much easier.

That is the reason why teachers recommend you make songs or rhymes to memorize the periodic table of elements, the alphabet, or some formulas.

If it doesn’t sound too forced, you can try to include alliteration in your domain name. Examples of this wording would be “Harvard-History”, “Charismatic-consulting”, “Speedy-self-service”, etc.

Use Online Tools

If you do not wish to hire an SEO service, that does not necessarily exclude getting outside help. There are multiple online domain name generators that you can use to come up with a name.

You simply feed this tool all of your ideas and keywords, and it suggests what would be best for you. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to copy and paste the recommendation.

Many people use the generated name just as a starting point to get a general idea.

Conclusion

In conclusion, branding in higher education is very similar to branding in any other domain of activity.

You can hire a professional to advise or use available online tools. There has always been a great diversity of resources for those with a DIY mentality.

The name has to be concise, descriptive, catchy, and not infringe on copyright law.