Choosing a good domain name can help you in your business tremendously. In fact, a good domain name will help others remember and find you more easily.
In this article, we shall go through 5 tips on how to choose a good domain name.
Tip 1: Choose a Meaningful Domain Name
If you are selling health supplements, you should choose the domain name “healthsupplements.com” instead of “ilovepizza.com” for obvious reason. Let say a person is looking for vitamin C pills; he is more likely to visit “healthsupplements.com” instead of “ilovepizza.com”.
Choosing a meaningful domain name will also help you in your search engine ranking. For example, if your domain name is “healthsupplements.com” and your webpage is also optimized (optimized means your webpage title, meta tags, keywords and content are relevant to one another) with the term health supplements, you will have a better ranking for the term health supplements.
Tip 2: Length of a Domain Name
Should you choose a short or long domain name? Most people may argue that a short domain name is better than a long domain name. Well, I agree. A shorter domain name is usually easier to remember. Of course, it depends on the situation.
For example, “IAmADatingCoach.com” is a better choice compared to “IAADC.com” since the former is easier to remember. Yet, you won’t want to choose “IAmADatingCoachWhoHasTaughtThousandsOfStudentsSuccessfully.com”. People won’t remember such a long domain name and even if they do, it would be a chore to type.
Tip 3: Avoid Trademark Names
You should avoid domain name that looks too similar to terms like eBay and Amazon. Registering these domain names can get you into trouble. You may be forced to sell the domain name. In the worst case scenario, you may even be sued. If you are unsure, it is always a good idea to consult a lawyer, especially if you are planning to start a long term lucrative business.
Tip 4: Try Not To Use “_”
If possible, try not to register a domain name with hyphen. Imagine you have a domain name “eat_pizza.com”. There is a very high possibility your potential customer will end up in “eatpizza.com” instead. Most people don’t type hyphen in the url.
However, if you want to play safe, you can always register several variation of the domain name. For example you can register domain names like "eat_pizza.com", "eat_pizzas.com", "eatpizzas.com" as well as the various extension of .info, .net etc.
Of course, this is not necessary. However, if you are very confident that one day, your site is going to become an authority that boast lots of traffic, then you will want to snatch all possible domain name.
Tip 5: Use .com Whenever Possible
“.com” is the most popular domain name extension. Most people will try .com first whenever they are searching for a website. Unless your website has a special purpose, try to register a .com.
Special Case:
If you are in education, then you may want to register a .edu extension. If your site is geared towards providing information, then .info may be a good choice. However, in most cases, a .com will be a good choice.
