A domain name is the most essential component of a website. As your domain name represents your brand identity, you must put sufficient thought and consideration into choosing the right one.
Believe it or not, a domain name can make or break a business. Hence, you must opt for a brandable name that is easy to remember, pronounce and type.
Here, we’ll take a look at eleven tips to help you pick out the best domain name.
1. Avoid Confusion Through Research
It’s ideal to use the same name in your domain and social networks to establish your business as a brand. That’s why it’s important to perform thorough research before choosing a domain name.
Check if the name is registered to someone else, and if it’s available on social media. Always stay away from trademarked names to avoid legal issues. If the name already exists, find another name to create original profiles on social platforms.
2. Carefully Choose a Befitting Extension
Extensions are essential parts of a website address. These are the suffixes you use at the end of the address, such as .com, .gov, or .org. While .com is the best extension, it may not be the most suitable one for your business intent.
You may go for any top-level domain (TLD) such as .net, .org, .info, .me, .co, .edu, and .biz. There are some new generic TLDs available as extensions like .app, .photography, .today, .xyz and .guru.
3. Pick Something Easy to Pronounce and Spell
One thing is common among all the most globally popular websites— all these are easy to spell. If you have a domain name difficult to spell, the public may have a hard time remembering it. But with a domain name that has a simple spelling, you can have a long-lasting impression on their memory.
Also, pick up a domain name that is easy to pronounce. If people can easily say the name, there’ll be a higher chance of spreading it by word-of-mouth.
4. Keep It Short but Unique
One great way to keep a domain name memorable is to keep it short. Try to keep the length of the domain name within 15 characters. It’ll be challenging for the users to remember domain names longer than this.
Besides, people can end up making typos while entering long domain names, and going to another website. For this reason, also try to keep your domain name unique.
5. Avoid Numbers and Hyphens
A domain name should be smooth and catchy. Unfortunately, numbers and hyphens get in the way of that.
Domain names with these elements will confuse your audience and prompt them to type the wrong website address. Therefore, you should stick to the letters when it comes to domain names.
Including numbers might sound reasonable in email addresses, but don’t end up choosing a domain name with a number in it. Also, avoid using hyphens, as people might consider a hyphened address as a spam domain.
6. Don’t Use Double Letters
If you use double letters in your domain name, you’re actually going to lose traffic due to typos. Doubled letters aren’t only hard to read, but they are also difficult to type correctly. Hence, you should try to avoid using the same letter back to back in your domain name to make it easily typeable.
Besides confusing it with a similar domain that might belong to a competitor, people will have to spend more time remembering the correct spelling.
Of course, there are some exceptions to this advice. If you already have an established brand name with a double letter, you should follow the same spelling in your domain.
7. Check Domain History
This point is particularly crucial if you have chosen a domain name that already exists. Occasionally, your preferred domain name is already in use, and you’re all excited to know that it’s up for sale. Before getting elated, check the domain history.
Even a seemingly harmless domain name can have a controversial history. Wayback Machine is the most widely used domain history checker that can take you back to the past and show how a website used to look on a particular date.
Before buying an existing domain name, go through the domain’s history for every available month to find if anything shady was going on there.
8. Target Your Business and Locality
Not every business has to be globally focused. You can also achieve growth by targeting a particular locality or country. To do so, you can get a domain name that contains a localized web address extension.
For instance, to get a higher ranking in the search engines of France, you may want to get a .fr extension in your domain name. A geographic domain extension will also help you achieve trustworthiness among the local users.
9. Focus on Branding
Consider the domain name as a branding opportunity for your business. With the right kind of domain name, you can increase brand recognition. So, always go for brandable domain names over generic ones.
Since a generic name is usually keyword-focused, it gets difficult to distinguish your brand from others with that domain. On the contrary, a brandable domain name stands out in the crowd.
You can use existing words and use them creatively to get a unique name, or you may come up with a new word or phrase.
10. Always Think Long-Term
Never view your business from a short-term prospect. While it’s wise to choose a domain name that reflects your industry, don’t be too specific not to leave any scope for growth.
If you use a flexible domain name from the start, you don’t have to move to a new domain even when you change your business. By choosing a smart domain name, you should keep enough room for upscaling or expanding your business.
11. Purchase Multiple Domains if Possible
Once you have found the perfect domain name for your business website, you can also buy the domain name with all the available TLDs. This action will save you from a tricky competitor from owning a website that contains your domain name but a different extension.
After purchasing, redirect them to your primary domain. If possible, you should consider buying common misspellings of your domain name.
Choose the Domain Name Wisely
The biggest problem with getting a domain name is the perfect name for your website may not be available. In that situation, you may need to tweak the name while keeping its business value.
Follow the tips mentioned here while picking up a name for your domain. It’s always good to have alternative domain names ready before domain registration.
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