Struggling to pick the best domain name for your website?

A website is essential for every online business, and one of the most impactful things you can do to ensure you have a great website is to choose the best domain name.

Choosing the wrong domain name can lead to customers mistaking your business for another, causing you to lose customers. When choosing your domain name, it’s important to keep best practices in mind. Steering away from what’s considered a normal domain name can put you in a position where visitors don’t trust your website.

Once you choose your domain name, it will become a permanent asset for your business (as long as you keep it active). But, deciding to change your domain name at any point will be a challenge.

Follow these 5 steps to choose the right domain name for your business from the start.

 

#1: Decide Between Brand Or SEO Focused Domain Names

 

There are 2 main strategies to take for a domain name: brand-focused and SEO-focused.

For example, big brands such as Apple, Nike, and Amazon don’t have any keywords in their domain name for SEO purposes. They went for a 100% branded approach. This works for them because of their brand recognition, and they have high-volume searches for their brand name.

In most cases, as a small online business, having a purely branded domain name won’t be as valuable.

On the other hand, purely SEO focused domain names are also becoming ineffective. Firstly, a lot of exact match domains are taken in industries (an example of an exact match domain can be “city”+”industry”.com). Secondly, using an exact match domain can lead to Google penalties that damage your rankings.

If your business permits, choosing a domain name that includes both your brand name and the primary keyword is the best option for a small online business. For example, ‘Jim’s Bookkeeping’ combines a brand name with a primary keyword.

#2: Check For Trademarks

 

Once you know what you want your domain name to be, it’s vital that you check for any trademarks on that name. The last thing you want to happen is to have your business operate for months (or even years) and then finding yourself in an expensive legal battle that can result in the loss of your domain name or worse.

You can also take this time to check the availability of social media handles.

To make it easier for customers to find you, it’s essential that you have the exact same name across different social media channels.

#3: See If It’s Easy To Remember & Search

 

Now that you have a domain name idea that isn’t trademarked, you need to test it in the market to see if people respond well to it.

There are countless horror stories of domain names turning out to be offensive in another language, impossible to spell, or extremely difficult to remember. The easiest way to test if your chosen domain name works well to is to share it with others.

While it’s tempting to ask your friends and family, it’s likely that they’ll provide you with a biased opinion. Instead, asking strangers online or offline is a better option.

Some questions to consider:

• Is it easy to say aloud?
• Can you type it easily?
• Does it use any offensive words in another language?
• Are there any other meanings?
• Is it easy to remember?

 

#4: Choose The Right Domain Extension

 

Once you’ve decided on the domain name, you have to choose your domain extension. This includes .com, .co, .net and others.

In most cases, you’ll want to stick to a .com domain, especially if you run an online business that isn’t location-dependent. But if you primarily operate within a specific country, look to purchase that country’s domain

When possible you should also purchase additional extensions to secure them. Even if you only need one domain, purchasing common extensions such as .net, .co, and .org can future-proof your online presence.

#5: Check For Availability

 

Unfortunately, even if you’ve come up with a domain name, there’s a possibility that it won’t be available for purchase.

Some top web hosting providers offer a free domain name and include a tool you can use to check for domain name availabilities. If you’ve come up with a taken domain name and you really want to purchase it, you can reach out to the owner of the domain to see if they’re open to sell it to you.

Note: If your domain name isn’t available on one extension, you can consider purchasing it for an alternative extension. But it’s still better to secure the popular .com extension.

 

Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing the Best Domain Name

 

1. Hyphens and numbers

These make typing your domain extremely difficult. It also breeds confusion when saying the domain name aloud.

 

2. Misspelling

It might seem funny or smart to misspell a word on purpose to make your domain name interesting, but this makes it extremely difficult for others to find your website.

 

3. Waiting to register

If you found an ideal domain name, it’s essential that you purchase and secure it ASAP. It’s not unheard of for people to target domain names that are potentially popular for the purpose of selling it to the buyer at a premium.

 

4. Too long

A long domain name makes it difficult to share, harder to say aloud, leaves room for error, and it doesn’t stand out.

 

5. Spending too much time

Having a great domain name can benefit your online business tremendously. But spending days or even weeks hunting for the perfect one isn’t the best use of your time. Choosing one and moving forward with building your business is infinitely more impactful.

 

6. Not checking domain name history

Some domain names could have a bad reputation attached to it. This could be from the previous business owner using spamming practices to rank on search engines. Do a quick Google search on the domain name to find any previous mentions.

 

7. Not considering future growth

The size of your business will grow over time, the main service or product you offer might change, and even your target market could shift. Keeping these potential changes in mind forces you to broaden your domain name to accommodate these pivots.