Are you wondering how to choose a domain name for your business? You are in the right place.
We talked about the role a domain name plays when starting a blog in one of our previous posts.
When you are planning your online presence, your website’s domain name is an important decision that you will make. This is very necessary if you don’t plan to use the internet for driving traffic to your website.
If you want all your website visitors to land on your site by clicking on a link from Google or other websites, then you can use anything for your domain name. But if you want some portions of your audience to come to your website by manually typing the domain name into their browser, then you need to be very careful when choosing your domain name.
You can refer to your domain name as your website’s brand name. Companies spend lots of hours and millions of dollars on creating an effective brand. Results obtained from such tasks also apply to choosing good domain names.
In this article, we will discuss five tips that you must consider when choosing a domain name. These tips will help you come up with domain names that are right for your business.
But first, let us consider why you need an effective domain name.
Why Do You Need a Domain Name?
You need a website if you are starting a new company or if you have an existing brand. A website is the only way through which people can find your business online.
Your domain name is what people will type into their browsers before they land on your website.
Domain names can determine your click-through rate. They also impact the results you get from social media, referring links, type-in traffic, and offline campaigns.
Also, domain names impact your online marketing, and you can’t just do without paying attention to choosing the perfect domain name for your brand.
Besides, a strong domain name creates an impressive internet presence for your business. It also creates mobility for your presence on the internet. If you want to change the hosting service for your website, or maybe you want to move to another country, your domain name will still stay with you. This helps you to keep building your brand without starting all over.
More so, a domain name portrays your business as being tech-savvy and forward-thinking. Whether you eventually sell online or offline, having a domain name boosts your reputation and helps you to claim your space online.
Furthermore, domain name plays a very important role in search engine ranking. As you keep building your business and adding valuable content to your website, Google and other search engines will recognize your domain name. The result is that more customers will visit your website.
How To Choose a Good Domain Name
1. Make the name brandable
Your domain name must sound like a brand when people see or hear your domain name. This means you should not use numbers and hyphens because they sound strange and generic.
For instance, if we wanted to create a website that teaches blogging tips and sells resources that teaches how to start a successful blog, here are some suggestions that we can look into:
- Blogging-hub.com does not look unique. It sounds generic and may also be hard to remember.
- BlogAmigo.com is a better option because it has a unique touch to it. It is also brandable and easy to memorize.
2. Make your domain name easy to pronounce
You may be thinking:
“Why should I make my domain name pronounceable since most of my site visitors will be clicking a link or typing it?”
Making your domain name pronounceable is necessary because human beings have more associations with things that they can easily say and think about. Being able to pronounce things in our minds is not left out.
This, however, depends on the region that you are targeting and the language they speak.
Your users may be unable to memorize your domain name if you find it difficult to pronounce your domain name. This can make you lose the value of the unique brand name that you’ve created.
3. The brand name must be short
Length also matters when choosing a domain name. It helps with processing fluency, i.e. the ease with which people pronounce the name.
The shorter your domain name, the easier people will find to type, say, and share it.
Also, short domain names are less shortened in search results and on social media sharing platforms.
4. Make your domain name mobile-friendly
Mobile devices accounted for about 51.89 percent of the entire internet traffic based on data obtained in the second quarter of 2018.
At least 50 percent of people accessing your website are going to be using their smartphones and other mobile devices to do so.
This implies that you need to make your domain name as concise and memorable as possible. Memorable and concise domain names are mobile-friendly.
Google and Bing are examples of mobile, easy-to-remember domain names that come to mind. Apart from the fact that we all know how to spell them, they are also short and simple.
When you compare the domain names above with Martha Stewart’s website, you will discover that the latter is far less mobile-friendly. Although it is memorable, however, it is not easy to type.
So, when you’re choosing a domain name, type it on your mobile phone first. Is it easy to type? If you’re a pro in tying, ask someone that is not as savvy as you to try out your proposed domain name on your phone.
Now, let’s proceed to the last tip.
5. Add keywords (when it is necessary)
Including keywords in your domain name can be beneficial.
It is a nice bonus, although it’s not compulsory. But if you can, and if it is necessary to use a keyword in your domain name, then you should. About 63 percent of domains that are performing very well contain keywords.
However, if it doesn’t make sense to have a keyword in your domain name, then you should focus on what makes sense and ensure that your domain name is brandable and typable. These are more important than forcing in keywords.
Final Thoughts
You may be intimidated by the idea of choosing a domain name for your website at first. After all, it’s a crucial decision that you must not joke with. However, you will discover that by making use of the right tools, and with some research, the process is interesting.
So, if you want to choose a domain name for your website, you need to focus on these five steps:
- Make your domain name brandable
- Make it easy to pronounce
- The brand name must be short
- Make the name mobile-friendly
- If necessary, include a keyword in your domain name
You will be able to choose a domain name that’s perfect for your website if you follow the steps discussed in this article.
So, what next? Come up with one of two keywords that represent your website’s niche or service. Come up with different options for your domain name (you can use a domain name generator for this purpose), and use the tips discussed in this article to select the domain name that’s right for your business.