Choosing a Domain Name - Do's And Don'ts
How do you decide what domain name to choose for your website? A lot of people will start by searching the internet to see if their perfect domain name is available and then make an offer to buy it. While this might seem like a smart move, it may not always be the best way to go about choosing a domain name; especially if your website has something unusual or difficult to spell in its name.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) measures how well your domain will rank in search engines. The higher it is, the better chance you'll have of getting ranked for relevant searches. Even if you already have a site and plan to move it over to Squarespace, it’s important to keep your DA in mind when selecting a domain name. Search engines value short domains with high DA’s over domains with low DA’s.
As a best practice, use .com short domain names whenever possible. You can find DA scores online using tools like Moz , Ahrefs , or SEMrush . Domains that are more than 10 years old typically have an advantage since they've been around longer and gained natural links from other sites that use them as their own domain name.
Top TLDs [Top Level Domains]
.com, .net, .org, .info. If you’re not sure what TLD you want to go with your domain name then go with a top level domain such as .com (for commercial) or .org (for nonprofit). It is highly suggested that you pick one that ends in .com because those names are widely known by consumers and can be recalled more easily than a name ending in any other TLD.
The Anatomy of a Good Domain Name: A good domain name has four elements that make it stand out from all of your competitors on search engines like Google. To understand how to choose a good domain name we must first talk about its anatomy: The Four Elements of a Great Web Address. Each element deserves its own section so let’s break it down starting with letters followed by numbers and finally by symbols.
Use available tools
Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool, Google Insights, Google Trends, Yahoo BOSS, GoDaddy’s Domain Suggestions. The domain industry is changing fast and can make it challenging to determine which domain names are available. No matter what your niche is or how difficult you think it may be to find a good domain name that has not been claimed yet – tools exist that can assist in finding available domains you should consider registering right away.
If possible I recommend using different services to help verify whether there are any available options before moving forward with registration of your desired domain(s). Keep in mind however, sometimes certain domains may simply just not be for sale at certain times so if you don’t see anything on one service try another one.
Avoid Typosquatting
Typosquatting is a type of cybersquatting that involves registering Internet domain names that are similar to already existing popular or trademarked ones. The act is considered unethical by many registrars and has been illegal in some countries (including China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey). However it’s still very much alive in others such as Canada and Mexico.
What makes typosquatting special? It may sound obvious but with thousands of new domains registered every day, making sure you don’t accidentally register a typo-squatted domain name can be time consuming and expensive to monitor properly if you have an e-commerce site. There have been cases where someone takes your brand name and registers variations on it with different TLDs hoping you will miss them when searching for your exact web address on Google.
Research your desired domain name
To prevent wasting time, make sure you’re not trying to register a domain name that is already in use. Use simple search tools like Google, WhoIs and DomainTools to research your desired domain name and ensure it’s available. If you find another user owns it, don’t be intimidated! The Internet has made finding owner contact information fairly easy. Reach out to them and ask if they are willing to sell. If not, look for other similar names or consider using your business name as your domain instead.
Also note: before purchasing a new URL (website address), check if there are any URLs that may have negative content about you or could cause potential issues for consumers such as misspellings or typos. There are many advantages to registering your company/brand with a .com rather than one that includes numbers or underscores. For example, when people conduct web searches, words with fewer letters generally come up higher on lists of results.
Consider your audience
Short domain names have become increasingly popular in recent years, but you should still consider your audience. If you’re planning to set up an international e-commerce site, for example, you’ll need to take into account that many people don’t read or write in English. Creating a short domain name that promotes understanding and recognition in several languages can be very beneficial for your site.
On top of that, short domains are easier to remember and share. However, if you want your brand name to appear in each visitor’s address bar when they type it in their browser, there’s nothing more annoying than a domain extension like .com or .org at the end of it. This makes things look unprofessional – unless it has been properly optimized with key words or proper branding techniques – and defeats half of its purpose from day one!
Establish credibility with your domain name
You should be able to read your domain name quickly and easily, or it might give you less credibility. If it's too long, people may not know how to pronounce it and will stumble over reading it aloud. If it's too short, people may consider you immature for having something so simple as an internet address. Establishing yourself as credible is important when trying to build up traffic, SEO rankings, and positive branding.
A good domain name is key. So what constitutes a bad domain name? Is there such thing? Well, in my experience at least one of these options applies: either too short, too long, hard to remember/pronounce/spell, broken English... The list goes on.
I could go on forever with advice about how to choose a great name but suffice it to say; you'll want everything from easy pronunciation, easy spelling, clear meaning (so no nonsense words), accuracy (no typos!), length (not too short; not too long), and uniqueness. I could go into more detail about some of those categories but we're running out of space here. Look at the list of domain names available at www.buybrandeddomain.com, who sells short domain names that are branded domain and can save you lot of time trying to do all the work mentioned above..
