Firm name and domain: how clients find you and remember you

Why name and domain decide whether you are found

Most mandates do not start with a search for “Steuerberater Linz” (tax adviser Linz), but with a sentence like “Go to Ms Huber, she advised us well when we bought the house”. The person then types “Huber Steuerberatung” or “Notarin Huber Graz” into Google. If they misspell your name, misremember it or find three different firms under it, the recommendation is lost.

Name and domain are therefore more than a formality. They are the search term other people use for you. A good firm name is correct under professional law, easy to say and to spell, and it leads to the same result on Google, in the directory and at the door. Ideally the domain is exactly this name, plus the right ending.

What professional law allows in a name

All six professions have one thing in common: the name must not mislead. If you work alone, you must not appear as a company or a group, and if you do not hold an authorisation, you must not imply it. In the details, however, the rules differ considerably, also between Austria and Germany.

The details for your profession and country are in the guides on advertising law, for example for lawyers in Austria, tax advisers in Germany, bookkeepers in Austria or notaries in Germany. If you are just setting up, the steps up to registration are in the guide Starting a firm in Austria or in Germany.

A name people can pass on

Within these limits there is usually more leeway than you might think. Whether “Kanzlei Huber”, “Huber Rechtsanwältin” or “Steuerberatung Huber & Kern”: test each candidate with a simple check. Say it on the phone and ask the other person to write it down. What goes wrong there will also go wrong with recommendations.

• Short and easy to say: two or three words, no abbreviations that need explaining.
• Clear to spell: with names such as Maier, Meier, Mayer or Meyer it pays to secure the variants as domains too.
• Distinguishable: if there is already a “Kanzlei am Markt” in town, a second one helps nobody.
• Future-proof: a district or a single area of law in the name can become a burden if you move or expand your services.
• True: every statement in the name must be true today, not in three years.

.at, .de or .com?

Google treats a country ending such as .at or .de as a strong signal that a website is aimed at people in that country. A .com domain is neutral and needs other signals to be assigned to a country. For a firm whose clients are in Salzburg or Cologne, the country ending is therefore the natural choice. It also feels familiar: people tend to type .at for an Austrian firm and .de for a German one.

Feel free to secure the other endings if they are available and redirect them permanently to the main domain. But do not run a second website with the same content under another ending. How to set up several languages properly is explained in the guide on the multilingual firm website.

Name or keyword in the domain?

Domains such as “arbeitsrecht-salzburg.at” (employment law Salzburg) or “steuerberatung-bonn.de” (tax advice Bonn) are tempting because they sound exactly like what people search for. In current experience the ranking advantage is small: Google assesses content, links and the Google profile, not the domain name. The keyword domain has two drawbacks, though. It cannot be passed on as a recommendation because it is not tied to a person, and it touches professional law more quickly.

Umlauts, hyphens and spellings

Domains with umlauts have long been possible under .at and under .de, under .de also with ß since 2010, so “müller-steuerberatung.at” works technically. In practice it causes problems: keyboards abroad lack the ü, some e-mail programs and forms cannot handle umlauts in addresses, and many people type “ue” anyway. The proven approach is therefore: the transliterated form as main domain and for e-mail addresses, the umlaut variant registered in addition and redirected.

• Hyphens: between name and profession they make reading easier (“huber-kern.at”). More than two make the address tedious on the phone.
• Titles: “mag-huber.at” or “dr-huber.de” look formal and become outdated when another title is added. The name alone is enough.
• Double names and variants: secure obvious typos and the spelling with and without a hyphen if they are cheap to get.
• Capitalisation: domains do not distinguish between upper and lower case. On letterhead you can still write “Huber-Kern.at” if it is easier to read.

Check before you register

E-mail addresses on your own domain

An address such as “kanzlei.huber@gmail.com” is free, but for a firm it looks provisional and cannot be taken with you when you switch. With your own domain you get addresses that match the name and belong to you. A general address such as “office@” or “kanzlei@” for enquiries and personal addresses following a fixed pattern, for example “firstname.lastname@”, have proven themselves.

• Deliverability: set up SPF and DKIM for your domain, ideally DMARC as well. Gmail requires at least SPF or DKIM from all senders, otherwise your replies to enquiries end up in spam.
• Confidentiality: the e-mails contain client secrets. Choose a provider with servers in the EU, a data processing agreement and two-factor sign-in.
• One address for everything: the same address on the website, Google profile, letterhead and in the official directory, not “office@” here and a private address there.

One name everywhere: door plate, profile, directories

Search engines and AI assistants compare what different sources say about you. If the door plate says “Rechtsanwältin Mag. Eva Huber”, the Google profile “Kanzlei Huber”, the website “Huber Legal” and the business directory still shows the name of the former office-sharing arrangement, the picture becomes blurred and people wonder whether they have the right firm. In professional law this is partly even mandatory: a short name must be used consistently, for lawyers in Germany under § 9 BORA, for tax advisers under § 9(4) BOStB.

How to set up your Google profile with the right name is explained in the guide to the Google profile. Which directories count for your profession is covered in the post on online directories for firms, and how name, website and directories together create local visibility in the guide Local SEO for firms.