Every week I see a new business launch with a domain name thatâs going to cause problems. These are the five mistakes I see most often â and theyâre all avoidable.
1. Making it too long
The mistake: premiumprofessionalcleaningserviceskigalirwanda.com
Why itâs bad: No one can remember this. No one can type it without errors. It wonât fit on a business card. It looks spammy in search results.
The fix: premiumclean.rw. Short, clear, memorable.
2. Using hyphens and numbers
The mistake: best-clean-4-u.com or kigali2clean.com
Why itâs bad: When you tell someone your domain verbally, you have to say âdashâ or âthe number four.â Theyâll forget. Theyâll type bestclean4u.com instead. Traffic lost.
The fix: Use only letters. If you canât get the clean version, try a different name.
3. Not matching the business name
The mistake: Your business is called âHorizon Eventsâ but your domain is eventspro-kgl.com
Why itâs bad: Brand confusion. When someone Googles âHorizon Events Kigaliâ and finds eventspro-kgl.com, theyâre not sure itâs you. Trust drops.
The fix: Register horizonevents.rw or horizonevents.com. Your domain should match your business name exactly or be obviously related.
4. Forgetting about email
The mistake: Registering a domain for the website but continuing to use @gmail.com for business email.
Why itâs bad: You own yourbusiness.rw but send emails from [email protected]. The domain mismatch undermines the professionalism you just invested in.
The fix: Set up email on your domain immediately. [email protected] should exist by the time your website goes live.
5. Not setting auto-renewal
The mistake: Registering a domain, building a website and email on it, then letting the domain expire because you missed the renewal notice.
Why itâs bad: Your website goes down. Your email stops working. If someone else registers the expired domain, you lose it entirely. Iâve seen businesses lose domains theyâd been using for years because of a missed renewal.
The fix: Enable auto-renewal on every domain you own. Keep your payment method updated. Some registrars let you register for 2â5 years upfront to avoid annual renewal risk.
Domain registration through a bundled provider like Kisimenti avoids most of these issues â they handle renewal, DNS, and email setup. But even if youâre managing domains yourself, avoiding these five mistakes will save you time, money, and embarrassment.