Today, I let you know a little secret on how to choose a perfect domain name.
The domain name you choose is your identity on the web, hence whether you are creating a blog or a company website the name should be a compelling one.
So its worth investing some time in searching a good name before registering it.
Then what are the necessary parameters you should set before searching a domain name.
Here are some I have figured out with my experience in 5 years of blogging journey.
Lets check it out…
Domain Registrar
Choosing a great registrar is the first step before registering a domain name.
As we keep our precious assets in secure hands, similarly its equally important that we should also keep our domain with reputed registrar who provides multiple layer security against any fraud or cyber hijacking.
While choosing a registrar make some search about their reputation, like for example, how prompt is their customer service, their payment terms and the gateways they provide, read reviews on third party sites about how they tackle the situation in case of any emergency.
In short study how effective is their customer support.
Here are some registrar which I prefer to go with, they are : GoDaddy, BlueHost, DreamHost, NameCheap and HostGator. (I am registered affiliate of above mention registrars).
Make it easy to spell and type
The second and far most ingredient in choosing a domain name is that it should be easy to to spell or type.
Avoid using slang ( for ex. use the word ‘extra’ instead of ‘xtra’ ) as it creates confusion in mind of your customers / visitors while searching your site.
Once you come up with a name share it with your colleagues, friends and family and get their take on it.
Shorter the better
Short and simple domain names are easy to memorize. There will be lesser chance of mistyping or misspelling by your visitors. Research says that many sites looses major chunk of their traffic only because of their complicated domain names.
I like small domain names which may contain less than 9 to 10 alphabets. It is always recommended that the length of your domain name should not exceed 15 characters without any justifiable reason.
Try to find out such a name that on the first sight your heart should say “YESS!!! This is the name I always want to have…”. And here your half journey about choosing domain name completes.
Brandable domain names vs. Keyword domain names
Try to create a name which would be more brandable rather than using keywords in the name. Though, there is no harm in using keywords in domain name, but if you are thinking about SEO than it will not help you out much in search ranking.
In past, Google and other search engines were giving emphasize on keyword rich domain names and were giving them greater weight and ranking in their search algorithm.
But recently they emphasize more on the sites providing quality. Search engines are now loving “good-ness” more rather than “on-topic-ness”.
Hence, if you want to create two blogs on for say ‘Nutrition’ topic and bought one domain name which contains keyword ‘Nutrition’ and another domain which is more of brandable in nature.
And if you provide valuable content in brandable domain site and less valuable in keyword rich domain.
Then the possibilities will be high for the brandable domain to gain much more love rather than keyword rich domain site from search engines.
To make it precise you may go through the video below in which Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, has elaborated the things.
Google’s “Exact Match Domain” (EMD) update has already reduced weight of poor quality sites having exact match domain name in search results.
Thus as far as SEO is concern, unless and until you maintain quality stuff on your blog you ought not to have any worry whether your domain name has any keyword or not.
Say no to Numbers and Hyphens
While choosing the domain name you should try to get a name which contains one or two words. Avoid domain names with more than two words.
Moreover, don’t register such names which contains numbers or hyphens, as such domains are generally considered as spammy. If you are already an established brand with a name which contains number or hyphen, then only go for such things.
Many times people misunderstood numbers as they don’t know whether you are using it as numerical (9) or in words (nine). Similarly they forget or misplace to place hyphens while typing the website name in the browsers.
Also in practical terms www.wpoutlook.com looks more professional than www.wp-outlook.com or www.wpoutlook123.com.
Buy Non-Spammy names
Arguably it is always advisable to start from scratch, means you should buy a domain which is new and was not previously registered. But this doesn’t mean that you should not buy old domain.
Their is a myth that an old age domain gains more traction with search engines. This may be true to some extent when the owner of the old age domain has done some thing nice with it.
However, if the owner has done some ill or spammy things then it is advisable to stay away from that name though it is quite attractive.
Go through the video below, Matt Cutts has shared some tips to follow while purchasing an old domain.
Avoid trespassing others property
Knowingly or unknowingly you should avoid such names which are already a trademark or copyright of some one else or any such name that any other person or company is using.
For example, using www.wordpressoutlook.com instead of www.wpoutlook.com is not a standard practice as the term WordPress is a registered brand name used by another company.
Doing such things are inappropriate and in long run you may face legal consequences which may bring you in financial trouble along with the chances of loosing the domain name. Don’t try to book mileage on some one else property.
So before going ahead with any name try to make some research around it. The simple way to research is by Googling.
To get things deeper you may refer policies set by ICANN.
Target Audience
Along with the domain name, TLDs are also equally important. If you are targeting a country specific audience then registering a domain with country specific TLD is much more beneficial.
Every country has its own country code top-level domain. For example, If you want to gain business from people in India than it would be ideal to make your domain as mysite.in rather than mysite.ca or mysite.br or any other.
Also if you want to create global presence you may go for .com, .net or .orgdepends upon your need and availability. For my side I create sites for global audience hence my preference always goes to .com.
Domain Name Extensions
Choose the domain name extension wisely, as in general terms it reflects the nature of the business of your site.
For example, if you are a company or an e-commerce website or a community then .com or .co is preferable. .com is widely used and accepted top-level domain (TLD) on the planet.
Moreover other TLDs have their own features and benefits, here are some discussed below:
.net : networking technologies, Internet infrastructure sites, etc.
.org : non-profits and non-commercial organizations.
.edu : Schools, Colleges, Educational Institutions and other Educational Organisations.
.info : Informational Sites.
.biz : business, e-commerce, commercial sites.
.me : personal blogs or sites.
There are several other TLD’s but the above mentioned are widely accepted.
Brandable Social Presence
If you are thinking of creating a brand then just buying a brandable domain name might not be enough for you. Along with the brandable domain name you will have to brand your social presence too.