The Importance of a Domain Name

[Tony Hardy]

What are people's opinions on this debate.
If I were to set up a website doing design work, would you register as say;

tonyhardy.com
or
tonyhardydesigns.com

Do you think it's important to have what you do in the domain name?

[Paul Murray]

It helps SEO a little having 'design' in the name, and it gives an indication of what you do (though the term design is broad, and could refer to a few genres rather than graphic design).

Personally I would have preferred just my name since paulmurraydesign.com is pretty long, but apparently Paul Murray is a popular name choice.

The important things is having your name in their since you're basically branding yourself.

[Tony Hardy]

Yeah, I don't personally like it when it says design in the domain name.
I don't think I'm going to use my name, fancy a change and I want to run it more of a studio where I can bring in more people in the future etc.

[Boss Hog]

Most the decent tonyhardy extensions are already taken, unless you own them?

hardydesigns was a possibility but most also taken.

Maybe come up with something totally different....

[Tony Hardy]

Yeah I wanted to start up as a studio, so I was going to go with a totally different name.
I just meant it as an example :)
Do you think it's worth having design in the domain Boss?

[Boss Hog]

I would personally as it says what you do straightaway.

[Tony Hardy]

I was thinking maybe 'studios' but like you said it doesn't say what I do straight away. But, it'll be more of a studio than just design, because I"m hoping to offer photography and animation/video too.

[Boss Hog]

Studio could be a hair dresser although as mentioned above design lends itself to other things also...

[Tony Hardy]

I think it's a gamble either way. Might just go for just a name.
Really not sure.

[Corrosive]

Have you thought about a geographical slant on your domain name? Can be powerful if concentrating on working locally.