Getting the right answer to the question of how to choose a domain name is not an easy task. Selecting the relevant domain name for your company is a process that might take a little longer than just a brainstorming session with your fellow colleagues. Although it might sound a bit overreaching, the domain name of your business will directly impact your overall path to success.
Yes, you read that right!
The reason for this bold statement lies in the fact that a domain name is the first thing your potential clients are going to see once they search for your company. Therefore, coming up with something that will be recognizable and that will stick easily is one of the top priorities you need to set right from the beginning.
But, how to choose a domain name that will be memorable, and won’t give people hard time in writing it or even pronouncing it?
In general, choosing something that is short and catchy will always be the best and simplest solution to this problem. On the other hand, there are many brands that are using longer domain names and are high on the scale of success. Therefore, there is no perfect formula that will lead you, step by step, in the process of choosing your domain name and guarantee you a successful outcome.
But, in all this domain noise, we decided to make an extensive list of factors you might want to consider while making your final decision on this matter. Let’s dive in!
The Importance of Domain Names
In essence, once chosen, your domain name will represent your business, so you will have to make sure that it corresponds with your company’s name. Therefore, timing is what is most important here. Once up and running your business will have to have an adequate live website with a domain name based on your business name. That way you will ensure that your clients will not confuse your brand with another similar one. Additionally, you will cut back on the possible failed attempts of your clients trying to find your brand on the internet.
It is crucial to remember that first impressions will always matter, and sometimes the first thing your client will see from your company will be the domain name.
Careful consideration is also fundamental as you only get to choose your domain name once. Not that it is impossible to change it later, but it takes a long time and effort in order to cover everything that the changing process will bring upon. Loss of website traffic due to maintenance might cost your company valuable assets and you will face dire consequences. Thus, the correct answer to the question of how to choose a domain name will always lie in picking a name that you love, that corresponds with your company name, and be easily associated with you.
Go with a More Common TLD (Top-Level Domain Extension)
A Top-level Domain (TLD) is the extension that comes after your brand’s name and is part of the overall domain. The most famous TLDs are the ones that end with the extensions .com, .net, and .org. Nowadays, you can find numerous modern options, but our advice is that you should go with the ones that are already used the most.
The .com TLD is the one that you should strive for as one of the most used forms. However, due to this fact, you might not be able to find the most appropriate name with this extension as many of them are already taken.
Another thing you should avoid is choosing extensions like .travel that might always drive people to the wrong pages. For example, due to the fact that people are most familiar with the .com extension they might try to add .com on your domain name that ends with .travel and end up with an error due to the fact that such page does not exist.
Additionally, unfamiliar extensions might get people to think that your company is not credible or trustworthy and chase your potential customers away.
Use Relevant Keywords that Will Help Your Business Get Noticed
Keywords play a significant role in the context of creating a visible business. In fact, keywords are what define your scope of work and help search engines discover what your business is about. Therefore, including the relevant keywords can rank you high on Google.
However, what you should be careful is not using too many keywords, as that might be interpreted as pretentious and even have a negative impact. So, the best keywords to use are the ones that will represent your site in its own respect, not more and not less.
Of course, when you set your target keywords you might come along a dead-end as many of the domain names with the same keyword will already be taken. So, how to choose a domain name that will correspond with the targeted keywords?
Well, there is no easy answer to this question, but the best thing is to keep up with the trends and get a little bit creative around the keywords. You can slightly change them by adding new words and that way make your domain slightly different and authentic.
Choose a Domain Name that is Easily Memorable
Of course, keywords are an important part of the whole discoverability process. But, you should keep in mind that the best length for a domain name is a maximum of 15 characters. Having a shorter domain name means that there is a high probability that your clients will remember it. Domain names that contain more than 15 characters are hard to remember and will often lead potential customers to mistakenly use additional characters and end up searching the wrong domain. This in turn will lead to loss of website traffic and can cost your company money.
While asking yourself how to choose a domain name that will be easily memorable you should also consider the spelling and pronunciation. In essence, simple spelling and pronunciation will immediately catch the attention of a wider audience. You should have in mind that word-of-mouth is still a powerful tool of the advertising segment and an easily pronounceable name will certainly increase your chances of being discovered.
Never EVER Use Hyphens
Although you might think that hyphens can help you build a unique domain name by fusing different words and experimenting, what they actually will do is bring you confused consumers that will immediately forget about the hyphen while typing your name on Google and end up on a completely wrong page.
Avoid Numbers in the Domain Name
When processing your thoughts on the question of how to choose a domain name for your business, try to avoid using numbers or other characters that are not letters. Using these types of characters will only confuse your target audience and will lead to numerous typos while they are trying to find your business.
Double Letters Are Also Out of the Picture
Using double letters is the perfect formula for lost website traffic. In fact, you might also divert your traffic to a website that will appear on the Google SERP instead of your website due to this common mistake. Additionally, people have a hard time remembering double letters, so they will also take time to remember this and this process chases away customers as well because they are spending more time on something that should be pretty simple. Now, this might sound like a ridiculous point but when online people want to spend less time trying to figure out things and more on actually finding what they are looking for. You are only making this process long and in the long run, you might lose a fair part of your target audience.
Use a Brandable and Unique Name
Before committing to the process of choosing a domain name it is for the best if you perform a thorough check of what domain names are likely to get more attention than others. After this, you need to come up with a unique name that will represent your company and the overall values it has, while making sure that the selected name will also fit the ‘brandable’ framework. A ‘brandable’ domain name is every name that can greatly contribute to your marketing strategy and will score high in terms of promotion.
Avoid Specific Domain Names and Use Flexible Ones
While it is clever to choose a domain name that is connected to your particular niche, you should also avoid going too much into the details and limit your future business expansion. For example, if you register your domain as traintravel.stories you lose the ability to increase the topics of your business. Writing about another means of transportation like planes or cars would be a complete inaccuracy as your domain name states something totally different.
Therefore, it is very smart to make an accurate strategy on how to choose a domain name that will allow future growth.
Make a Research on Domain Names
Once you have a few possible domain names, it is time for doing research on whether your potential names are available for usage, and to make sure that they are not already used by another company.
If it turns out that your potential domain names are available and can be used, the next thing you need to do is find out whether they are trademarked. This is especially important in order to avoid any future legal disputes over the names that might cost you your time and resources. Bear in mind that an available domain does not mean that a company does not have a specific claim over this name.
In addition, you should also do research on whether the same domain can be turned into an appropriate handle on the social media channels you will be using in the future. It is fair to say that having a corresponding handle on social media channels is also an important part of your overall marketing strategy.
Once you Make Your Choice, Do Not Overthink and Purchase it
Once your process of selection is over, your next step is to purchase the domain. Acting immediately is crucial because for sure there might be someone out there that is seeking to find an answer to the question of how to choose a domain name and is following the same steps as you are. So, the last thing you want to end up with is fighting over a domain name on the internet.
Purchase the Corresponding TLDs as well
If you have managed to purchase your perfect domain name with the .com TLD, it is advisable that you purchase all the other TLDs that come with the same domain name. This is a highly popular tactic that is used by companies worldwide in order to disable other people or companies to use your domain name but with another TLD. After purchasing all the TLDs it is best to set a redirect that will lead the potential customers to your website.
This tactic can also be used for social media channels. For example, your business might not be a perfect match for Instagram but that does not mean that you do not have to open an official account and reserve your handle there. By doing that you will leave no room for future fake channels that might impersonate your business.
Final Steps
When all is set and done, and you are ready to make the purchase, you need to choose a domain registrar. A registrar is a company from which you will purchase the domain name. While going through this process you should be careful of several factors such as domain transfers, prices, expiration policies, privacy protection, etc. For example, when purchasing a domain you do not buy it but pay for using it for a specific amount of time. If by any means, you forget to repurchase, the domain name can be bought by others and you will lose the right over it.
In Conclusion
There is no right answer to the question of how to choose a domain name that will stick with your potential audience. The process of coming up with the perfect name might even last for weeks, or even months. After all, your domain name is not something that can be changed without the hassle and requires your undivided attention in order to set you on your way to success.
Luckily, there are numerous tools you can incorporate into your selection strategy that will help you along the way. Just remember that a short, easily memorable, and brandable domain name might be the reasonable starting position from which you can later expand and upgrade by following some of the advice we have covered in this article.
