Choosing a domain name is like when your parents want to give you a name. A name is like an identity, a domain name is one of your brand’s, product or business identity.
A domain name is one of the first things someone sees and it's one of the things that affect the impression on your brand and website.
Imagine introducing my fashion business to you and I told you my website address is ajinkinlomed.com. How does that sound? I am very sure you won’t want to visit that kind of site and it's not even speaking about my business.
Below are the tips you need to choose a good domain name;
Think Long Term not Short Term
In choosing a domain name, you have to think long term. Changing your domain name after 3 to 4 years affects your SEO rankings, branding and even cost you money, it's a huge pain in the ass.
If Google changed their domain name from google.com to another one, how would you feel as a user? I would feel betrayed and anytime I want to search I would have typed google.com before I remember the name has been changed. Also, google’s domain name still speaks about what they do till now.
If you know you will expand your business later, choose a domain name that still covers what you will be doing later. You don’t want to pin yourself down to a certain niche if you think that you would possibly expand out of that niche.
Therefore, keep your long-term vision in mind when picking your domain name.
Keep it Short and Simple
Like I mentioned earlier from the introduction, your domain name leaves an impression on a person before even visiting your website and according to a saying “First impression matters”.
Keeping your domain name short and simple makes people remember faster and spell it correctly, using a complex, long and unknown word may be hard to remember and spelt correctly.
Brandable
Domain name is how visitors will find your brand, business and website. It is the bedrock of your brand. Choose a domain name that speaks your brand.
A brandable domain name is unique and stands out from the competition, while a generic domain name is usually stuffed with keywords and unmemorable. ~ Anonymous writer
Easy to Pronounce and Spell
Your domain name should be easy to pronounce. This is similar to being simple!
For example, ymkwht.com is hard to pronounce, it doesn’t even have pronunciation, smartie.com is a good name that is easy to pronounce and spell.
Check if the name is taken
If the domain name you want to use is taken, you can try to choose another unique name or try another TLD of that domain name. For example, if grace.com is taken, I can try grace.me,grace.net, grace.co etc and if all is still taken, you can ask owners if they are interested in selling their domain name.
If you don't want a domain name now, you can predict which domain name will be relevant in the next 4 - 5 years using the Cloudname prediction tool.
Go Beyond .com
A lot of domain names are registered with .com TLD. According to exploration from Domain Name Stat, 43% of all domains have the “.com” extension. Well, .com is popular and it's most likely possible that visitors type .com to your business name to visit your website, but more TLDs resonate well with some kind of businesses. With many TLDs to settle on from, brands now have more options to make a particular domain name that quickly communicates the aim and value of their offering.
Below are some TLDs, most popular once;
You can get more examples here
Use Domain Name Generator for Good Ideas
We have millions of domain names registered online which led many people to say that all good domain names have been purchased.
You can use a domain name generator to generate different domain names based on your keyword, so you can get ideas from there.
The app is free and helps with your domain search.
I hope you find this article helpful, I know with these few tips you will get a better domain name in your next purchase.
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Top comments (2)
Thanks for this...its very resourceful
Glad you found it helpful.