Choose the perfect domain name in 6 easy steps

It’s an important decision, your domain name! You want to get the right name for your website – one that rolls off the tongue, makes sense in it’s spelling, and gives a clue to what you do!

It is a process that requires consideration and research. It needs to be a domain name that reflects your business, and your brand, and that can be easily promoted. Creating the perfect domain name is essential to ensuring success.

Our SEO specialist Tom often asks if our clients wouldn’t be open to changing their domain names to contain certain keywords. It’s hard for people to make that change if they are established, and their website is long-standing. So, it’s really when you’re at the early stages of the journey that you can make this important choice.

Be prepared, your first choice may be taken.

The internet has been around for a long time, so all the typical names, words, and brand names have pretty much been taken at this point, or if you want to buy one, you’re going to be looking at paying several thousand dollars per name, which may not be in your budget.

Choosing a domain name these days is all about getting creative and being smart with your word choices. To help you along the way, here are 6 top tips to help you choose the perfect name for your website.

1. Consider different types of top-level domains

Domain name extensions are the suffixes that are attached to the end of a web address. The most popular and common domain continues to be .com. If possible, you should aim to create a website with the .com domain.

However, you might also want to consider using a different type of top-level domain (TLD), such as .co, .info, .net or .org. Different extensions have different associations, so if you’re planning on using an alternative TLD, it’s useful to make sure that it’s appropriate and relevant to your business and website. For example, .org extensions are usually reserved for non-profit organisation, whilst .biz is commonly used for business or e-commerce sites.

2. Run a keyword search

Keyword optimisation is commonly used as part of search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing strategies. However, it can also be a helpful and effective strategy for naming your website. Spend some time researching different keywords associated with your business, industry, or the services you offer. Including keywords in your website name that describe your business or what you do can help people find you when they search online, as well as helping to improve your search engine rankings.

There are endless tools out there you can use for keyword research, but some of the best platforms to get started with include KWFinder, Google Trends, and Answer the Public.

While I’m on the subject of tools you can use, there are plenty of really easy, simple, and affordable (mostly free) tools you can use to check whether any domain names you can think of are available, no matter where you are in the world or what service the domain names are registered with. All big domain name providers will offer services, as do these services:

3. Use simple spelling

Your website should be easy to pronounce and spell. Avoid using slang words or words that have multiple different spellings as this will make it harder for customers to find your site. If your website has a very similar spelling to a competitor’s website, you risk misdirecting potential customers to your competitor.

“You should try to avoid numbers and hyphens in your website address. People can be easily confused as to whether to spell out the number or use the numeral instead, which can lead to a loss of customers. Similarly, hyphens are easily forgotten. Not only are they prone to typos, but they can also be mistaken for a spam domain,” says Richard Birk, a business writer at Essay Writing Help and Essayroo.

4. Make it short

Ideally, you want to keep your domain name simple and short. It should be memorable and unique, whilst still reflecting your business and services, or the brand identity and core principles. Consider including a relevant and meaningful adjective or even using alliteration to make it more memorable. You should aim to limit your domain name to 15 characters or less to avoid unintentional typos and to make it easier to remember.

5. Keep it local

If you’re still struggling to find a unique website name, consider adding your local area to your domain name.

“Adding a locality to your website name can be a particularly effective strategy if you are a small, local business as it will help you to reach out to your local customers more easily. It also has the added advantage of being less likely to be in use already. You could even consider using a geographical domain extension instead,” says Karen West, a marketing blogger at Do My Assignment and Research Paper Service.

6. Research before registering

When you find a domain name that you love, make sure that you spend some time doing some research before registering it. It’s important that you perform a trademark search to check that no other businesses are either using your exact domain name or one that is very similar to it. Not only will this help to prevent loss of customers to other websites, but it will also make sure that you can avoid legal complications that can arise.

This brings me onto another point. If you’re starting a new business and you have no business name, you could couple in naming your business along the lines of what available domain names you’re able to find. Who knows, you might find the perfect name you hadn’t even thought of!

For example, a client of our SEO partner Tom, Peckham Bar, The Prince Of Peckham chose perfectly as it was an exact match for the name of their venue. This also contains one of their main local area SEO keywords, a win-win domain name in terms of brand and nonbrand SEO keyword rankings. The landlord of this pub from The Village People South London Community Pub Group has recently opened a new venue The Queen Of The South Pub in Tulse Hill, for this domain name Tom recommended incorporating the word Pub as the SEO keyword part of the domain.

Conclusion

Finding the right name for your website can take some time, but it’s also an important and exciting step in creating and launching your brand and your business effectively. Domain names are usually fairly inexpensive; however, they can sell out very quickly. Once you’ve spent time researching your chosen website name and making sure that it’s the best it can be, be sure to register it quickly.

Katherine Rundell is a young entrepreneur and marketing consultant. She is a regular writer at Write My Essay For Me and Assignment Writer Services. Katherine writes about e-commerce and marketing strategies. Also, she is a blogger at UK Dissertation Help.

IMAGE: The explorer owl was from a selection from Vecteezy