13 Tips For Choosing a Domain Name: A Complete Guide

5 min read

Your domain name is more than just a URL – it’s truly one of the most important elements of your online business. Sure you’d like to think that your domain name isn’t as important as your company and marketing, but you’d be mistaken. A convoluted domain name or a subdomain of another site isn’t going to be easy for customers to type in or feel confident with. When choosing a domain name some customers are savvy and skeptical – you need to choose wisely.

Tips For Choosing a Domain Name For Business

Make It Brandable

Make It Brandable

Your URL is just as important as your company name. That means it’s important that you find a URL that you can build a brand around, just like you work hard to brand your company name. This doesn’t mean the URL has to match your existing company name, but it should be in the same field so that it can be incorporated into an existing brand.

Keep It Short

Memories are short, and if you want potential customers to be able to remember, repeat, and then type your URL into browsers, it needs to be short. Shorter URLs are more memorable and they have significantly less chance for errors when typed or repeated.

Watch Your Spelling

Words in your new URL should be spelled in the most traditional pattern possible. Creative spelling is cute for a baby’s name, but it can be a huge pain for a business owner and his customers as they try to come up with the right random spelling to pull up your site. It is also important that you avoid words that have multiple conventional spellings. Principle or principal? Your customers certainly won’t know.

Pronunciation Matters

Pronunciation Matters

Many websites have creative URLS that are spelled phonetically, but they are pronounceable. Google, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Be creative with your URL, but don’t be so creative that nobody knows how to pronounce the word that you’ve created. How can people spread the word if they can’t say the word?

Keywords Can Help

Including keywords in your URL was almost a necessity a few years ago, but it is not as imperative now. If you can work a keyword into your URL naturally, it can be beneficial, but it is not required for SEO purposes and it can harm you if your keyword use is too heavy, strange, or makes your company seem shady. It’s better to have a professional-sounding name than one that is jammed full of forced keywords.

Skip Hyphens And Numbers

Adding a hyphen or using a 2 instead of “two” might seem like a good idea to get closer to the URL you want, but that hyphen or numeral is going to throw off everyone who tries to remember or type in your URL later. Even if you have to do more brainstorming or go in a new direction, a whole-word URL is better than a hyphenated one.

Commit for Decades

When you buy a URL and start developing it, plan for the long term. You don’t develop a business for a few months or less and shouldn’t buy a URL and plan to only use it for a few months or less. You are going to be investing a great deal of time and money into your project. As your hard work pays off, it will hopefully continue to do so for years. So plan to be invested in your new URL for decades.

Try For The .COM

There are more domain extensions available than ever before, but the .com domain extension is still the gold standard. Play with URLs to try and reserve the .com rather than the .net or .it or .anythingelsetheycomeupwith. It is possible to be cute and clever with a domain extension, but the majority of people will default to the .com when they write or type, so keep it easy for them. The .com makes you appear more professional as well.

Watch For Trademarks And Confusion

Watch For Trademarks And Confusion

Nobody is going to stop you from registering a URL that sounds and looks suspiciously like the name of another business. It is on you to research and do some due diligence on other companies that may be confused with your new URL. Granted, you can register the URL and do the work to set up your new website without interference, but if you have infringed on copyrights, you can expect some legal consequences down the road.

Make Sense

It should go without saying, but it can be said that your new domain name should make sense. Sure, you can use a creative word that nobody has ever heard of before – that’s an internet standard. But if you are going to use traditional words, use them with traditional spellings in a traditional phrase. A jumble of words doesn’t make sense, and customers won’t care for typing in what feels like nonsense.

Test It

Don’t forget to do a bit of split testing with your new domain name. It doesn’t cost much to register multiple domain names, so if you’re concerned about a new one, grab a couple of domain names you like and try them both out for a while. Once you’ve lived with both, you will likely find yourself with a clear preference and your testing groups may have a clear preference as well.

Consider Your Area

Consider Your Area

If you run a local business and you’re looking to attract a local market, including your location in your URL name makes a terrific amount of sense. Rather than being plumbers.com, you can become Atlantaplumbers.com (although that domain name is probably already taken). Customers generally respond with trust to websites and businesses they know are local rather than an unknown entity that could be from anywhere across the globe.

Move Fast

It doesn’t take long for domain names to be snatched up. If you’re researching and playing with names and you find one you like, don’t let it sit. It might be snatched up by someone in a matter of minutes. This doesn’t give you a lot of thinking time, but it’s better to spend the $10 to keep the name safe than plan to come back to it next week and find the name taken and out of your hands.

Brand Consistently

Your brand is your business, and you should incorporate your new website into your existing business smoothly. Even if your URL isn’t the same name as your business, the branding for your domain should be consistent with the business the website is representing. If you design your website correctly with SEO in mind, customers searching for your business name should be able to find your differing URL easily in a search engine anyhow.

Conclusion

Choosing a domain name might very well be the first step of a new business. If your business is already established, the domain name might be a natural extension of what you already do well. Regardless of your scenario, choosing the right domain name is critical.

20 thoughts on

13 Tips For Choosing a Domain Name: A Complete Guide

  • Vijesh

    Hi Oleg,
    These tips are really helpful for those who are brainstorming for their domain name. As you have said the word which makes sense and which is short will definitely be a good catch.

    Before we keep a name for our business we should also look for the availability of the domain name so that in future we may not fall short of it.

    Thanks for the worthy tips…

  • Joy Healey

    Hi Oleg,

    Glad to see these 2017-style domain name tips, because “things” have indeed changed.

    I was one of those people who chose a domain name, didn’t register it straight away, and found someone had registered it AFTER I was planning to do it. Very disappointing. If you like a domain, register it ASAP.

    Joy – Blogging After Dark

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hey Joy,

      thank you for the comment,
      Yeah, so many domains are being registered everyday – if you like a domain, it is best to reserve it before someone else does.

      Your current domain is excellent thought, very personal and yet – short and brandable,

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • Ryan Biddulph

    I found a major league brandable domain name in Blogging From Paradise Oleg 😉 I ran with it when I bought it, building an even stronger brand. Even if it is kind of a long domain name 🙂 Look for something people can visualize, something people can feel, and your domain name becomes memorable. Super tips here.

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hey Ryan,

      Thank you for the comment,
      Yeah, love your domain – it is truly both brandable and relevant! Agreed it is a bit long, but it presents your entire site and your life pretty well.

      I remember you had a different domain when you had started, but this one is indeed stronger!
      Keep up the good work,

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • Nishant

    Hey, Oleg.

    Glad that you highlighted the importance of choosing the right domain name of businesses. Since the website is our online business store, putting a name out of the context seems odd. The website is selling digital marketing courses its bad to have a domain name like, onlinestore.com. It confuses people in thinking that its an eCommerce store.

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hey Nishant,

      Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
      Yeah, relevancy matters a lot, people will surely judge the site based on the domain name you choose. It even has an impact on the CTR in both search and PPC – the domain name plays a big role in it.

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • NogenTech

    It is the fact that a most relevant domain name makes the website or blog more visible in SERPs, and you have shared great stuff regarding the selection of right domain name. I am new on board and will probably visit again to get more.

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hey NoGenTech,

      Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
      Try getting a Gravatar for your profile image and use your name in the comments, that way we can address you better!

      Yeah, relevant and short domain names are the best – because in the longer run, it will be both useful and brandable,

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • Nomar

    For me brandable is the most important factor. Without that, find another domain.

  • Susan Velez

    Hi Oleg,

    Great tips on helping us choose the right domain. Personally, I’ve always had issues with coming up with something creative for a domain name.

    I know that it’s important to choose something that you plan on using for several years. I guess that’s why I went with my personal name.

    I registered it for 7 years. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even take the time to try to think of any other name for my domain.

    I just knew that I wanted to use my personal name. Only time will tell if I made the right choice or not.

    Thanks for sharing these tips with us have a great day 🙂

    Susan

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hi Susan,

      Thank you for the comment,

      Having your own name in the domain isn’t a bad idea, it is actually good for personal branding – am sure it is already helping your personal brand grow further.

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • Prosper Noah

    Helo Oleg,

    I’d have to tell you i changed domain name more than twice before finally arriving at the right one.

    Its way so goog to know how to properly choose a domain name and I believe your tips have explained it all!

    I wrote a post on it earlier, but you have something cool here too!

    Do have a nice one.

    • Oleg Kaluger

      Hey Prosper,

      Thank you for the comment,
      Yeah, that happens to most of us – we do keep changing domain names till we are comfortable with – and that is mostly based on the experience that we gain during our blogging life.

      Glad you liked the tips, it is always best to settle down with a domain that you want to run for the rest of your life – and you need to arrive at that decision as soon as possible, because you lose a lot of branding etc. when you leave your old domain behind!

      thanks,
      – Oleg

  • Roger

    Thanks Oleg for sharing your thought process.
    A good and attractive domain name needs to require some serious brainstorming to determine the best name for it. I was simply stumped on what domain name to buy? Even tried using a Domain Name Generator. I found your article more interesting and useful as a tool which could help me explore my domain name options and help to get the creative juices flowing.

  • YouMeGeeK

    Thanks for this helpful and useful information

  • Aashima

    Well I always love to pick branded domains since its easy to promote. You have shared pretty informative points here.

    I definitely savored every little bit of it and I have you saved as a favorite to see new stuff on your site.

  • Joquim

    Great article for those new to domain names and all the hype about gTLD extensions. I agree .com is best or your country code if you want to focus just on that country. Registering a foreign domain extension has some specific issues though and I would look into that before everything else. Having a website is a global business. Always go for a dot com. A great domain name is a huge asset to your business!

  • Vipul

    Thanks for this wonderful post. I never had enough knowledge about domain names. After reading this article, it really helped me to solve many of my queries. For any kind of business, a domain name is considered to be a huge asset. I will definitely keep in mind these tips while choosing the domain name for my business.

  • Emily Jhones

    Oleg,

    Very well written the information is really useful to choose my domain name. Keep up the good work.

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