Many people don’t understand that the domain name they choose has a great impact on their business success. Choosing a domain name is as important as choosing a company name – if you think about it, this is in fact what you’ll get recognized for. The domain name of your website acts like your “online passport” and it’s crucial that it fits and promotes your business.
That being said, your domain name isn’t only about first impressions or enhancing your brand recognition – it also helps with SEO rankings. If your domain name actually contains a keyword meaningful for your business, it might help you obtain a higher SEO rank as well.
But how to pick the right one? Here are some tips that will help you choose the best domain name.
1.Keep Your Domain Name Short and Easy to Type
Your domain name should have between 6 to 14 characters in order to be successful. In fact, you should keep your domain name as short as possible. If you choose a longer name there are more chances for your customers to misspell or mistype it. Despite the fact that the domain name should be concise, it should also be easy to type and easy to pronounce. Some of the most famous websites such as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo have names which are short, catchy and easy to remember. Follow their lead when choosing your domain name.
2.Always Go With .com
There are many domain name extensions you can pick from, such as: .net, .org, .me, .blog, .photography, etc. Even though these variations may sound cool to you, it is advisable not to choose them, but rather stick with the .com option.
“.com” is, in fact, the oldest and most credible choice that you can pick and that’s the reason why it should be your primary choice. Also, domains which end in .com will be recognized by users most easily. This means that some users might just remember your brand and add .com to it without giving much thought.
There isn’t anything more frustrating than not being reachable because you use another extension than .com. So, take our advice and stay on the safe side by sticking with a .com domain.
3.Use Keywords in Your Domain Name
Implementing keywords into your domain name, will not only help your brand be more recognizable, but it can help you achieve a higher SEO rank. If you use keywords in your domain name you are essentially telling search engines what your site is all about.
This might be quite a challenging thing to do, because most of the keywords concerning your business are probably already taken. Nevertheless, be creative and make the most of it. For instance, if you have a wood carving business, why don’t you try the domain names: woodesign.com or uniquewood.com?
4.Avoid Using Numbers and Hyphens
Anything which may create confusion, misunderstanding or complication should be avoided. The most important thing when picking out a domain name is simplicity. That’s the reason why you should avoid using numbers and hyphens.
Just imagine this situation. You have a customer who is very satisfied with your website. He wants to share this with his friends and recommends them to visit your website. However, your website includes a number or hyphen. This complicates things for your customer, especially because he has to write it down in order to share it with his friends. If he just pronounces your website name to his friends they wouldn’t know whether to use a numeral (3) or write the numeral in letters (three).
5.Target Your Area
For local businesses, it’s important to target their local area. This can be done by adding their city or area as a part of their domain name. Customers can find the website more easily this way and it will also be easier to remember. This should only be done if you are certain that it will never change. It’s not an ideal method to use, but it can be very effective.
6.Keep Your Options Open
The domain name you choose should be specific and connected to your specialty, however, it shouldn’t be an obstacle or a limitation for you in the near future. It’s always better to stick to something more general which will leave room for expansion, rather than going for an alternative which will narrow down your options for progress.
For instance, if your business is a blog about pregnancy, instead of using the domain name pregnancyinfo.com why not go for something like motherhood.com? The second term is more general and keeps your options open.
Conclusion
To sum up, the most important things to remember when choosing a domain name are:
- Make it short and memorable
- Don’t overcomplicate things by including signs, hyphens or numbers in your domain name
- Use keywords in your domain name for the added SEO benefits
- Leave room to expand in the near future, and avoid making your domain name too specific
- If you have a local business, add your city in the domain name
We hope you find the perfect domain for your business or project. You can instantly check whether it’s available through Domain Name Sanity. If it is available we recommend picking it up! You can always change your mind later and it’s better to have ownership of the domain just in case somebody else decides to purchase it.
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