One of the most crucial decision while building a website is to choose a suitable domain name. The right domain name for your website is important for both
- Your target audience
- SEO search engine optimization.
It is always best to think of a meaningful name that makes sense for your business in present but also in future like 10 years from now so don’t get into any slang or trending words because they will eventually fade away.
These are the 10 tips to help you take domain name purchase decision:
1. Research
All the time invested in researching for domain names can have a great impact on the final word selection.
- The search should focus on similar names used by competitors
- The category they belong to
- The most searched keywords related to your business
2. Buy domains that are easy to recall & pronounce
It is always advisable to opt for words that are easy to recall and pronounce as even if you were to do SEO for your website, using names which include odd spellings, dashes or numbers can have a negative effect on over all SEO performance.
Ideal names are:
- Short in length
- Easier to spell
- Global Presence
- Related to Business/ Keyword friendly
3. Avoid similar domain names to existing sites
Let’s say that the term you are looking for is not trademarked but there can be a domain that uses similar variation of words so it is always best to avoid:
- Plural words if the singular is taken (mediatemple.net vs.mediatemples.net)
- Hyphenating a phrase (media-temple.net)
- Adding “my” or some other preposition (mymediatemple.net).
Alternately, you might consider buying these variations yourself and set them up so that if someone types one of the variations, they are redirected to your main site.
4. Avoid trademarked domains
If your purpose in buying a trademarked term as a domain name is to try to confuse people, you will face many negative consequences such as:
- You’re opening yourself up to having a complaint filed against you
- You would have to give up the domain name.
To be safe, you can search for trademarked terms and make sure no one owns a trademark on the name that you are considering.
5. Stick with .com mostly
Most people assume a domain name ends in .com because of the popularity and widespread use of this extension so it’s better to avoid domain names that end with these extensions:
- .Net
- .Info
- .Org
- .Club
Although it is not a hard and fast rule but you’ll have to do some extra work to get people to remember that your site has a different extension.
6. Hyphens positives & negatives
Using hyphens to separate words in a domain name does makes it easier to read for users & somewhat easier for search engines to recognize the individual words but:
- People often forget about the hyphens when they type domain names.
- If you do use hyphens in your name, don’t buy a domain with more than three hyphens.
7. Avoid numbers
Avoid having numbers in your domain name, because:
- People can get confused about whether the number is a digit (3) or a word (three).
- If you want a number in your domain name because there’s a number in your company name, buy both versions (digit and word) and redirect one to the other.
Be especially careful about using the number “0” in a domain name as people may see it as the letter “O”.
8. Check availability on social media sites
Always check your desired name availability on social media sites like:
- YouTube
- Google+
Even if you don’t plan on using social media right away, you’ll want to use the same user names on all sites when you plan on doing so.