How to choose the best domain name for your website
The domain name is one of the most important factors that you must have in mind when you want to have an online presence. Whether you want to create your own website that sells certain products or you want to create a blog to share your experiences, you need a relevant name to support you and help you create a worthy brand online.
At the moment there are a lot of Internet domain names. Some better, some not so good, but all are placed in two categories: domain names consisting of common words and domain names consisting of abstract words.
1. Common names: this area consist of common words for the public and are a fairly easy choice to remember (for example http://www.cosmetics.com/).
Advantage :
– if you use this kind of domain name that contains the name that describes your business or product, then it’s much easier to reach top positions in search engines. For example, if you have a site that sells cosmetics products like the website that I’ve used as an example in the previous paragraph and your domain name is cosmetics.com, when a user inserted the words “cosmetics” in the search engines, the chances that the website will be on the first page are very high also if the SEO is optimized as it should.
Tip: choose a domain name that fits the area in which you want to make your online promotion, I recommend you try the Keyword Planner. It’ a great tool that it shows you keyword suggestions appropriate for your business and the number of monthly searches and competitiveness in the online environment.
Disadvantage :
– the use of these common words, unfortunately, doesn’t guarantee exclusivity and maybe one of your competitors could choose a domain name similar to yours like “cosmetic.com”.
2. Abstract names: These fields consist of words that have no meaning and that is an abstract name, for example, my own domain name: blackellis.ro.
Advantage :
– in these cases is much easier to become unique. Although it may be harder to remember depending of course also on the complexity, it will last much longer especially if the name fun or very catchy. In these cases, it will be very hard for your competitors to copy the idea of the name.
Regarding the choice of the name itself, you must pay attention to several factors that can help and influence to make the best decision:
1. Easy to remember.
Whether you choose a domain name usually abstract, it must be easy to remember and especially to not cause confusion when you pronounce it. If you need to repeat something is not quite as good a name.
2. Relevant.
Are keen to find a name that is relevant and is related to your field. Although it seems that today is too difficult to find a name that is good and right (especially if your niche is populated by many competitors and especially if you start later activity in online) always will find an appropriate name for you and your business if you know how to search.
3. Extension.
It plays an important role in creating a web page. When choosing your domain name, you should know that the extension can help you get higher in the search engines for a specific geographical location. If you want to make a website that operates in Romania, the .ro extension is the best. If you want to activate the international market the .com extension is the best.
4. Keywords.
If you want to be ranked first in the search engines for a specific keyword (which may consist of several words) then you can choose your domain name consisting of those words so you can give yourself an advantage in the search.
But pay attention that using a single word, doesn’t provide the wanted result. For example: if your domain name is makeup.com doesn’t mean it will help you get to the top search for “makeup”.
5. Combination.
To find a good domain name, often we don’t find what we want and we make certain combinations to achieve the desired result. For that, we are willing to make some compromises (using numbers or hyphen). In my opinion “0” can be mistaken with “o” and most of the times hyphens can be forgotten.
6. Brand.
Choosing a domain name must be a reflection of you and need to last a long time. Please think of all the variables, find a name to be proud even in 20 years and especially choose an area that can become a long-term brand. You don’t want to take a domain name, create your brand and then after a period of time you are forced to start all over again.
7. Social Networks.
One of the important places you have to look first when choosing a domain name is on social networks, verify that you chosen name is not taken by another company or person. In this way, you can get a name to be used both as a web address, but also as the name for your social networks profile.
8. Trademark.
Often it is possible to think of the perfect name, only to discover that that name is registered or is a registered trademark. There is a big difference between having a website and having a brand. There are cases when a certain brand doesn’t have a website. In these circumstances, it’s best to check everywhere before buying a domain name.
9. Hosted.
It’s possible that a domain name is put on sale. At first glance, it would seem you an excellent alternative. You think that you won’t have to start from the beginning should not you start from the beginning stop and think about it for a second. If the owner is selling it means that it didn’t succeed with it, it’s not like anyone would sell a successful name and also it’s not possible for you to know what kind of SEO techniques were used by the previous owner. Sometimes people resort to Black Hat SEO to boost their site but that it’s just a risky, short-term solution and all the links that came with the domain could drag you down and even marked as spam by Google. So all your hard work and all of your efforts will be in vain because it’s not even a remote chance to get in top searches with this kind of domain.
10. Be different.
Experience and think what you could identify with and what name you could choose in order to be different from your competitors.