More often than not, selecting a domain name for your business website is extremely important. It’s something that you need to do correctly because once you make the wrong call, it could potentially ruin your business.
All site owners must choose their domain name and make sure that they get it right before doing anything else. Domain names have, for the most part, a significant impact on the web with regards to the click-through-rate, from offline advertising to social media results, to brand-ability, to type-in traffic, and referring links.
Picking a domain name is just like selecting a company or brand name. It needs thorough consideration and thought. Since it will be your, for the most part, identity on the web, you should ensure that it fits your brand and is easy to search and promote. For a little help, here are a few practical tips on how you can choose your domain name for your business.
Consider A Brandable Domain Name
To start off, consider making it brandable. By that we mean, when someone sees or hear the domain name, it sounds or looks like a brand.
With that in mind, if you want to make your domain name brandable, avoid using numbers and hyphens. Otherwise, it will only make your domain name sound strange and generic, which isn’t your goal.
Make It Easy To Pronounce
Although most users will just click or type a link, it’s rather crucial to make a domain name as pronounceable as possible. You may be thinking why you should do such a thing. But we, human beings, have this cognitive bias.
It’s where we recall and recollect things that we think and say. And that involves pronounceability. Keep in mind that it will, for the most part, differ on the region and language that you are targeting.
If you cannot say the name easily, there’s a high likelihood that you will lose memorability, processing fluency, and the advantages of brand-ability that you have made.
Short is Better
In relation to making it pronounceable, it is also advisable to make it short as possible. Length is essential in making a domain name pronounceable.
For that reason, the fewer the characters, the easier it is to share, say, and type. Plus, it won’t get shortened on search results and social media sharing channels.
Go with .com
In case you didn’t know, the internet has been around twenty years or more. You may ask yourself why does .com still matters today when there are plenty of alternative options. Well, the answer is that it is the most accessible and most recognized top-level domain.
So, if you want to create a brandable domain period, go with a .com. However, if it is unavailable, you can try using a .co or .net domain. Those can be your best options.
Steer Clear From Trademark Infringement
When choosing your domain name, you need to be extra careful. It is not whether your domain could get someone confused. It is whether another brand may take legal action against your company because they confuse your domain name with theirs.
If such a thing happens, contact an attorney right away. Trademark owners can sue you immediately, so, remember to avoid Trademark infringements.
Choose a Domain That’s Intuitive
An excellent domain name gives web users an idea or insight if what the site is all about. Making your domain name as intuitive as possible is, without a doubt, a massive win for your business.
For instance, pastaperfect.com. It’s intuitively all about pasta. For sure, everyone will instantly know what it is about.
Take Advantage of Broad Keywords
Using broad keywords in a domain name can aid with the SEO perspective and fluency biases. Although Google has been avoiding partial match and exact match domains, the keywords that you earn from the sites linking to you can surely help.
So, if you can use a keyword in your domain name that can make it intuitive, then go for it. However, if you are trying to get a keyword targeted domain or secure a keyword rich domain, then it’d be best to steer clear away from those.
For instance, Google.com or Amazon.com. Both of them apparently don’t mention anything about what the site is all about. They’re, for the most part, branded. But they do not have keyword richness to them. It is more of a creative association.
It’s Okay to Modify It
For instance that your domain name isn’t, like it or not, available, it is alright to modify or append it. You can add or delete a prefix or a suffix.
Also, you can leverage other TLD extension, and it is okay to be a bit creative with your website
Use Domain Name Generators
If you are finding it difficult to come up or generate a brilliant domain name, you can always help yourself to a few domain name generators. These domain name generators are easy to use and can be very helpful.
All you have to do is to enter a single keyword. And then it will provide many suggestions, full of available and valid names that you can leverage right away.
Check the Domain History
You can check the domain history of a particular domain name via Wayback Machine. Even if your domain name is a new one, it doesn’t hurt to check.
Perhaps the domain that you will be using has been, for the most part, already registered in the past but the owner abandoned it. With that said, it is always a great idea to check the history.
With Wayback Machine, you can look up a domain’s history. By doing so, you can ensure that was not anything suspicious going on the domain name.
Takeaway
Choosing a domain name takes a lot of time. Think of it as choosing your company’s name. It requires lots of time, effort, and consideration. But with the tips above you can make the process of selecting a lot easier.