Domain name is the first and arguably the most important steps in making a website. Among all the websites I have created and marketed I have noticed that the websites with better domains needed lesser work to get visitors than the other sites.
In my previous post I discussed about the steps in creating a website. If you haven’t read it yet please go ahead and read it and come back to finish this post. If you don’t want to read the detailed post then at least see this image below.
In this post we are going to discuss the first step that is domain selection.
There are lots of concepts regarding domain selection for a website but remember these are not rules. You can see then as guidelines which can be followed or not. All depends on what you think.
Here are the things you should keep in mind while choosing a domain for your site.
1. Type of site:
Different type of sites needs different types of domain names.
Personal blogs: If you want to start a online journal or a personal blog you can choose your name as a domain fro your blog. eg johndmello.com. Remember this goes only for personal blogs. If you want to build a blog to earn money you should choose a domain related to your niche. Personal domain names also make it difficult when someone become interested in buying your blog. You will not want to sell a blog with your name as domain.2. Choosing the domain extension:
Celebrity Website: Celebrity or a known personality who is making a website to get people know more about himself should also get a domain containing their name in it. People will search for their name or they may simply type “yourname.com“ in the browser. So getting a domain name with .com extension is best
Business websites: Choosing a domain for business website is little tricky. You have to keep a lots of things in mind. If your business is known then it is little easier. You can choose the domain with which people recommend your name to other. People are going to search for that very name. But if you are new to business then then you will need a name that tell people what you do and also they can find you by searching you on Google or other search engines.
Always prefer a .com domain. This can be considered as a rule. Whatever type of website you are building, whether a blog or a business website .com is always better. The main reason is people who have less knowledge about the internet technicalities, they still think all the websites end up with .com. Domains ending with .com are also easier to remember and also easier to share.3. Easy to remember:
There are times when .com domains are not available and you have to choose some other extension then you can go for .net or .org. These extensions are little less known in comparison to .com but still people hear them frequently.
If you are choosing a domain name for your local business site then you can choose a domain with country specific domain extension like .us for an USA based site of .co.uk for an United Kingdom based site. Most countries have their country specific domains. Sometimes search engines give preference to the sites with local extension.
Try to choose a domain that is easier to remember. Short domains are best. Domains that are too lengthy are difficult to remember but even difficult to recall and type. You don't want to loose your visitor just because they feel lazy while typing you domain or they make spelling mistakes while typing your domain name.4. Domains should tell about your business:
Please don’t let your craving for short domain make it difficult to understand what you do. Domains should be tell users what your website is about.
If you are a known brand then your domain name should have your brand name in it. People will search for your brand and it will become easy for them to reach you. If you are new you should have words in your domain which tells user what your site is about. This serves many purpose. There are better chances people will remember you when they are in need that will give you more business. People will find it easier to recommend to other. It bring a feeling that you are expert in this field. These words also help your website rank well in search results.5. Say no to hyphens or numbers:
Domains with words separated by hyphen(-) are easier to read but they lead to too much problem when you want to tell others about your site verbally. You may loose a lot of visitors just because they were missing the hyphens or adding some extra hyphens while typing your domain name. example. newyork-piano.com can be spelled like newyorkpiano.com by missing a hyphen or new-york-piano.com by adding an extra hyphen6. Keep keywords in your domain name:
As for numbers we all know how difficult it is to remember numbers. And also for every number there is a word in English. your domain may be mystore55.com but people may type in mystorefiftyfive.com.
Think for few keywords that explains your website or business in advance before searching for domain name. For example a finance website can have keywords like finance, bank loan, mortgage, interest rate etc.7. Domain uniqueness:
These keywords boosts search engine rankings as well as people know what you do by simply hearing or reading your domain name.
Your domain should not resemble any other well known domain name or company. Also do not choose misspelled words, plurals of hyphenated version of a known brand. People searching for you may get misguided to other website and you will loose a loose your valuable customers.8. Stay away from copyrighted words:
Google also show results for well known website believing that person who is searching has mistyped the word. You may have come across something like this while searching on Google.
Beware of this mistake. Always search for whether the words containing in your domain are not copyrighted. You may have to loose your domain after you have established your website and brand and that would be terrible. You can search at copyright.gov before registering a domain.9. Register for longer period:
Most of the time people register domain for 1 year only but if you are serious about your business you should try to register your domain for as longer period as you can. Google gives better ranking to domains that are not going to expire for long time. The reason being domain spammers register domain for shorter periods and leave those domains after they have done with their spamming.10. Choose a reputed domain registrar:
This is important but neglected step. We have heard stories where registrars have locked domains and demanded more renewal fees after the initial registration period ends.11. Use better tools to search for your domain name:
Domain registrars also provide DNS hosting services.There may be times you also host your DNS at your registrar and bigger domain registrar have better monitoring and serving systems to keep your sited available all the time.
Domain search tools can make a difference in choosing your domain. Some tools provide with domain suggestion where you can get better domain names if the one you searched for is not available.12. Know about the history of the domain:
Some domain search tools also provides information about the search engine value of the domain and other useful information.
Always look at the history of your domain name as there are chances that some spammer has registered that domain name earlier and got it banned or blacklisted at either search engines like Google, Bing etc. by spamming or at major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail by doing email spamming from this domain. In that case it will become your headache to get your domain whitelisted at these services.13. Have a look at expiring domains:
There are lots of good domains that people buy to sell them later to needful at higher price. Many a times they don’t get a buyer and they leave the domain to expire. If you search for these domains at regular domain search engine you won’t see them there because these domains are not yet fully released for new registration. There are few days left for their release but you can still get them. You need to search them at proper places like name.com’s expired domain search.14. Premium domains:
There are many services where you can get already registered good domains for larger prices. These are called premium domain. You can choose these domains if they fit your need but they are costly. Always negotiate on price even if you can afford the original price. One of my friend needed a domain and the owner was asking for 3000$ for that domain. After a long negotiation my friend got that domain for 250$. See what I mean by when I say always negotiate.If you know any more things that need to be mentioned in this domain selection guide please feel free to tell them in the comments. I will include them giving you and your website credit for the tip.
