People develop opinions about your website or online business very quickly. Within seconds, various elements can create positive or negative connotations that’ll permanently define the brand to those who have seen it. As such, you want to make sure you’re making the right decisions when designing your online presence.

Nothing is more fundamental to a website’s appearance and appeal than its domain name. How people find you can say a lot and/or create a variety of benefits or problems. There are many reasons why domain name selection is important, whether it’s an entirely new brand or one that is branching out.

Let’s examine when picking the right domain name matters so you can make the best decisions.

You’re Planning to Expand to Different Audiences

An already-established brand may have plenty of clout within its audience, but growing that business is in many ways like starting over again. After some success, you may decide that you want to offer the same products and services in new markets, or begin offering new alternatives. Whichever is true, it is important to consider how domain names can impact this.

For those pinging users in different geographic markets with the same offerings, no new domain name is necessary. Likely the best choice in this case is to take advantage of subdomains, and target your users with geographic-specific subdomains. This will not only help add additional SEO clout to your broader domain, but it saves you the work of building a new website.

Another option is to create an entirely different website with your brand name in the domain, but to also include the city or area you’re targeting in it as well. Some brands have seen notable success by creating new top-level domains for each market. There is more work involved, and it certainly makes scaling more difficult, but it is an option.

You’re Promoting Seasonally or Temporarily

Many businesses and brands experience disproportionate business and sales during a particular time of the year. For many retail businesses, it’s around the holidays. For outdoor companies, it’s during the summer.

Whatever the motivation may be, brands often find it necessary to create new domains for seasonal or temporary promotions. In many cases, a new TLD is not needed. However, the option exists to both promote this section as its own website while still having it tied to your predominant domain.

For example, you may decide to host a Black Friday sale on your TLD, with the default address as www.yoursite.com/blackfriday, but purchasing a separate TLD that points to that – and then using that domain to market the event with – can provide added value. You’ll be able to easily determine just how effective your campaign is by seeing who accesses the site via the TLD.

You’re Testing New Things

Last but not least, brands do not want to jeopardize their standing with Google and other search engines by pinging users with poorly-written or formatted content.

Whenever you’re unsure about the direction or potential of a new project or effort, choosing a new TLD can always be a safe bet. This ensures that any tweaking or work done on this domain does not impact your existing brand’s main website negatively. If the testing proves successful or worthwhile, then you can always choose to incorporate the results into your main domain.

Domain name selection is crucial in just about every circumstance, but some situations present more opportunities for risk than others. By making the right decisions when embarking on a new venture, you’ll avoid the potentially damaging effects to your existing brand’s performance.