One of the most important steps you have to take when planning a website is picking a good domain name. Millions of domain names are registered each day, so choosing domain name for your website is not an easy task. Let’s point out the top tips on how to choose good domain names and what to keep in mind when choosing the domain.
What is domain name
Domain name is a unique alphanumeric name consisting of English letters, numbers, and hyphens. A domain name length should be less than 25 characters, because shorter domain names are easier to remember and far easier to type into Google search box and into the URL address bar of the browser.
Every domain name has an extension/suffix indicating which type of organization or country the domain belongs to. Common domain name extensions are:
.com – commercial business .org – organizations .net – network organizations
How To Choose Domain Name
Avoid long domains
Domain name length can be up to 60 characters. However, short or single word domain names are catchy, so we recommend it to be less than 25 characters. Such domains are hard to misspell, easy to remember and easy to advertise both online and offline (radio/TV/etc).
Avoid hard to spell words
Avoid using hard to spell and hard to remember words. The website domain name should be easy for your website users to remember and type into Google search box and into the browser address bar.
Avoid domains with numbers and hyphens
Although it is a fact that the domain names with hyphen is easier to read, but it is also a fact that domains with hyphens are harder to type and remember. This means that your website can lose customers and traffic who type the URL into the browser address box. Bookmarking applications are helpful in this way, but some people do not use them and prefer using websites with easy to remember domains. Plus, the search engines read your website content and index web pages based on relevant keywords ignoring the punctuation, numbers and hyphens.
Choose domains with keywords
Pick domain names with keywords which are short, easy to remember and relevant to the website topic. Web users are more likely to stumble upon your website because your domain name has keywords relevant to y our website content and industry.
Domain name promo value
When picking domain names for businesses and e-commerce websites, remember about commercial and promotional value of the domain. Simply imagine your domain name in a commercial for example and think of how it will look.
Best domain name tip: enjoy your domain & others will enjoy it too 😉
Use keywords that are relevant to your site and remember to put yourself into your target audience shoes. Create a keyword list and then choose and combine the most effective and relevant words that people would surf online to stumble upon your website.
Check domain name availability to avoid legal issues and domain names that are similar to existing ones. There are good domain name search services where you can check if your desired domain is available.
Now let’s summarize briefly how to choose domain name and what to keep in mind when picking a domain. Good domain names are: unique, relevant to the website industry/subject, easy to spell, easy to remember, easy to read, easy to type, not too long, not too short. Make your choice and best wishes on choosing a domain name for your website!