Picking a domain name for your coworking space is not a “forever-set-in-stone” decision, but it is one that you should take seriously.

Over the years, I’ve bought and sold a few thousand dollars worth of domains.

You’re probably thinking I’m a bit crazy, but hear me out: your domain is your digital address.

It goes everywhere your business goes, from your email addresses to your website to your business cards, advertisements, and so much more.

There’s a TON of information out there about best practices when it comes to buying a domain.

But none are about coworking (I say without checking), so I’ll give you a few ideas of my own.

1. Try to get the .com

This one isn’t essential, but it’s the ideal situation. Dot com’s are the default domain, and while hundreds of new ones are now out, a lot of people still default to typing .coms when they enter in domains. That’s changing though, so don’t sweat it too much.

2. If you can’t get a .com, try a country-specific domain (ccTLD)

In Canada, we often use .ca for our domains.

Technically, the US has .us, but I’m not really sure how popular it is. I see more US and international companies using .co (Columbia’s) than .us.

Every country has its own, so unless you plan to go international, it’s a safe bet to use your own country’s domain extension if the .com is not available.

3. New top-level domains (TLDs)

There are hundreds if not thousands of new TLDs. Some of my favourite for coworking are:

• .space
• .works
• .studio
• .me
• .work
• .ventures

A few years ago, new TLDs were a bit rarer, so people may have been confused to see one on a business card. Slowly it’s becoming more and more popular and can add a very modern flair to your brand.

4. Avoid putting your city name in the domain

I see a lot of people using things like “spacenamesandiego.com”. This isn’t inherently bad (you covered tip #1 after all) but it does make it more difficult when you need to expand later on. It’s not impossible to change your domain, but it’s not ideal either.

5. Use your business name only

Avoid adding extra words into the domain (like your city name or corporate structure). Try not to abbreviate it either.

What I have found (and this might just be me) is that people naturally call your business by the name in the URL. If you add extra words like your city name or corporate entity, people will call you “XYZ Workspace San Diego LLC” instead of just your business name.

It’s okay to include fewer words or to abbreviate some or all of it, just know that it’s what people will naturally want to call you. And that might annoy you over time. 🙂

And unless you’re The Wing (who uses the-wing.com), don’t use hyphens. Guaranteed people will forget to include it and it will create all kinds of typos and missed backlink opportunities.

6. Consider buying similar alternatives

Even if you get the .com or .space, try to get similar alternatives like your country’s ccTLD as well. You don’t want people ripping off your brand or trying to squat on your brand name with important domain alternatives.

A note on changing your domain

If you need to change a domain later, it’s totally possible with some 301 redirects. Don’t sweat it too much. But redirects are not great for your SEO. You work so hard to build backlinks and having several third-party links to your old domain will water down the benefits.

You’ll also need to keep the old one registered forever in order to retain the traffic. Not a big deal, but easy to avoid from the beginning with these tips.

Takeaways

You don’t need to be an absolute perfectionist when picking a domain or spend thousands of dollars doing so if you can’t find the one you want.

But picking the wrong one is not ideal either, so I hope you take these guidelines into consideration (if it’s not too late already!).