Building an Upgraded Internet Domain Name: is sixthnationalbank.com or snb.com the more effective web address?

• Author: Albro, Walt

Your bank may be happy with its current domain name--but that could change. Increasingly, banks are updating their domain names as a result of rebranding, merging or acquiring another bank.

When bank domain names were first created, the Internet was young, and many banks selected a name simply because it was available--and "close enough" to the bank's real name.

With a growing appreciation of the value of an effective domain name, banks are placing more emphasis making the renaming process, when it becomes necessary, as successful as possible.

ABA Bank Marketing magazine posed some questions about creating highquality upgraded domain names to three Website experts:

* Michael Bouchard, Web director, at the Pannos Winzeler Marketing.

* Amber Farley, director of Interactive Services and Media, Financial Marketing Solutions (FMS).

* Christopher Heng, a website developer and founder of the website, thesitewizard.com.

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Our experts did not always agree completely in their responses to every question. The questions and excerpts from our experts' answers are printed below:

What are the general guidelines for coming up with a strong Bank Internet domain name?

Christopher Heng: The domain name you get for the bank should be the name you market the bank under. If the new name of the bank is, say, XYZ Bank, it's probably wise to get, at the xyzbank.com, xyzbank.com, xyzbank.com and their "org" "net," and "us" versions.

Keep the name short, with as few words as possible, and not include things that will lead to ambiguity when people have to type your name into the Web browser. If possible, try to avoid conjunctions (like "and") and symbols (like "&") in the name. Abbreviations are fine, although you should buy the full form of the domain name as well.

For example, if the bank is known as NIB, and it actually stands for New Internet Bank, you probably need to buy both the "nib.com" form as well as newintcrnet bank.com."

Michael Bouchard: Reserving a domain is the first step in establishing your brand online. For that reason, financial institutions should keep their domain name as similar to the bank name as possible. When choosing a domain name there are also many other factors to consider.

The name should be both short and memorable--something that will make it easier for bank customers and potential customers to remember. It should be easy to pronounce and spell to make it easy lor bank employees and brand advocates to direct customers/potential customers online. Additionally, the domain name should not be too similar to competing bank names, if possible.

When researching potential domain names, sites such as net-vvorksolutions.com allow you to search for and register domain names. This site also brokers deals to transfer ownership of domain names, browse the inventory tor a domain name or keyword, and browse the list of expiring domain names to back order.

Amber Farley: Choosing the domain of your website and/or microsite is an important decision. It needs to be "friendly" for users, search engines and for marketing purposes. When deciding what the domain name should be, our team immediately jots down ideas that are most reflective of the brand of the bank or the campaign initiative being implemented.

Because the domain is not always "clicked" it is important for it to be memorable to the user who might need to type it. For the domain of the main website, we always try to choose something that is reflective of the bank name or how community members refer to the bank. When we have to select a domain name that...