smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

A great website domain name is less important to a successful small business website than people think, according to a leading business IT consultancy.

The success of companies such as Bebo is proof that having a meaningless name is not a barrier to an SME having a popular website, claims Dave Allen, managing director of CC Technology.

Mr Allen also stresses the importance of companies looking to launch a website or start an online business registering prospective domain names for their website as soon as possible, instead of waiting and testing the possible success of the name.

'If I thought of a [domain] name, and I didn't think somebody else had thought of it, I probably wouldn't go and do obvious searches – I'd just try and snap it up,' he says.

'Another question might be: how important is a great name? Presumably most of the great names are taken. It's only one small part of your marketing and branding exercise,' he adds.

According to figures from webhosting.info, there are 98 million registered domain names worldwide, with three million of those registered in the UK.