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8 Clever Ideas for Choosing a Great Domain Name

Getting the best domain name for your site is one of the most important steps in developing a successful website. A great domain name will boost your traffic, trust, and sales. The right name can attract, entice, and encourage customers to take the next step towards becoming a customer.

Below, we’ve put together a list of clever ideas to help you with picking the perfect domain name for your business online.

Aim for.COM

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Your business is growing. You know you need to make an investment in a website, and after all this time, .com still looks like the default choice. But what makes .com so special, anyway?

.COM gives you visibility. Visibility means that potential customers will find you on search engines and using tools like business directories. It makes it easy for people who are interested in your brand or service to see that you exist.

.COM is trusted. With more than $1 trillion worth of companies listed under .com domains, it’s the standard for businesses around the world…for a reason. And don’t forget that 80% of domain name searches begin with .google.

The choice of.COM is logical. .COM is a generic domain name extension that makes it a memorable and user-friendly web address to help establish your brand. A registered.COM offers the best opportunity to achieve maximum exposure to your targeted audience and to strengthen your digital marketing strategy.

.COM is where it’s all happening. Think of all the great.COMs you know and trust that you use every day – Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Minecraft.

Use keywords sensibly

Keywords play a large role in determining domain name popularity. They are also very useful for SEO purposes. A keyword-rich domain name is more likely to be found by visitors who are interested in your topic or niche market, which means the higher website and advertising conversion rates.

Incorporating your main keywords in your domain name can have a dramatic effect on the traffic to your website with the expected return increasing by up to 2 times.

Keep it short, but not too short

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How short should a domain name be before it becomes too short? The answer is that you should keep it short enough to be memorable, but no shorter. No matter what the namespace extension is, people usually opt for the shortest possible domain names possible. It makes sense that users would choose short names as they are easier to remember and faster to type than long ones, but there is a point when even the fastest typists will start having problems typing super-short domains.

Five to seven words is the ideal domain name length. For instance, Apple’s domain name, apple.com, is just five words long and very memorable and easy to spell and say. However, some businesses pass the 5-7 word limit with an overly long domain name. If a domain name is too long, it becomes more difficult for search engine bots to get enough of a sense of what your website is about when looking at your code (on a page load).

Make your domain name easy to pronounce and spell

People are more likely to remember your domain name when it is easy to pronounce and spell. Create an unforgettable impact with an easy-to-pronounce, easy-to-spell domain name that rolls off the tongue. Having a memorable domain will help you be found by customers, increase website traffic to your site, and improve search engine rankings.

Avoid trademark infringement & confusion

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To protect your company from confusion and legal action, make sure to not inadvertently infringe upon another company’s trademark when selecting a domain name. In the age of social media and big data, there are many ways for trademarks to come into conflict, making it critical to consider your domain name before committing.

Avoiding trademark infringement and consumer confusion over trademarks when choosing a domain name can be as simple as a quick search on Google or WHOIS. It’ll help you determine if a domain name is available or whether it is already in use by another company (and thus may be infringing on trademark).

Don’t use hyphens or double letters

Don’t put hyphens or double letters in your domain name, they don’t look professional and will make your site harder to read. Hyphens are very difficult to rank for as they are not common keywords. Double letters are also not good as they are usually hard to fit in the URL.

Append or modify with a prefix, suffix, or verb – if necessary

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You found your dream domain name, but it’s already registered. Don’t get beat by the competition. There may be a way to expand the possibilities of your desired domain name with a simple modifier or prefix. The solution might be right in front of you, but it could take some creative thinking to figure out.

If you cannot secure your preferred domain name, some experts like to recommend appending or modifying with a standard (and effective) verb, prefix or suffix. For example, if you want to open a store selling men’s pants and you wanted to buy www.pants.com, but the domain name is taken or too expensive, you could get clever alternatives by appending or modifying as follows:

  • www.getpants.com
  • www.pants4men.com
  • www.thepantstore.com

Use ccTLD

ccTLD stands for country code top-level domain, such as co. uk for the, .fr for France, .de for Germany, au for Australia, and .co.NZ for New Zealand from providers like www.domains4less.co.nz ccTLDs are often overlooked but they’re very powerful and can add instant credibility to your business name. The right ccTLD will help your business look more professional and will also make its location much clearer to customers.

Conclusion

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A domain name should match your company’s identity. Your brand name is a great start, but your domain name should be customized to communicate keywords, services, and whatever other details help define your brand.

Therefore, when picking a domain name, it’s important to choose one that you can play around with – a safe pair of hands to guide you through the choppy waters of creating a valuable online business.

About Suzan Vega