One of the first things you need to do when launching a new web business is choose a domain name for your website. Having your own domain name gives you the ability to brand your business website and will help create a long-lasting asset for your business. The process of coming up with a domain name is fun and creative, and is also the first step in announcing your business to the whole world.
Here are a few characteristics of a strong domain name.
1. Unique
Check out your competitors’ websites and make sure that your own domain name stands out from the crowd. It’s hard to promote your own unique products and services if your website name is similar to everyone else’s.
2. Easy to spell
The easier it is to spell your URL, the easier it will be for people to find your new business. Ever found yourself on a different website from the one that you thought you were visiting? It’s easy to make a mistake when visiting a new website for the first time. After all, domain names may only be a letter or two apart in spelling.
3. Easy to remember
Choose a domain name that people find easy to remember. Test your intended domain name on a friend or two to gauge their response. Can they still remember your website the next day?
4. Pronounceable
Does your domain name roll off the tongue easily? Choose names that are easy to pronounce and can stand alone as a separate word.
5. Short
The ideal length for a domain name is 10 characters or less (e.g., Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube). If your domain name is longer, don’t sweat it. Anything under 20 characters is still pretty good.
Branding
Consider how well your domain name fits with your business brand. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What does this domain name say about my business to my prospective customers?
- Does it align well with the tone, voice, and tagline of my business?
- Will this domain name still be relevant if I decide to grow my business and expand my services?
Dot com? org? net? tv?
Select a .com name if possible because it signifies a top-level domain address that has commercial intent. If you really can’t find a suitable .com name, choose a .org or a .net version instead.
If you are doing business locally or within a set geographic area, you might want to choose a country-specific domain name like .uk.
I have a preference for purchasing .com addresses over .org or .net. Similar to the problem identified with misspellings, people may end up on the wrong website if they can’t remember whether your address ends in .org or .net.
Keywords
For SEO purposes, it’s good practice to incorporate relevant keywords within the domain name for your business. I like to use both the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Market Samurai to find suitable keywords to include in my domain name.
Pre-owned or new?
Just like a nicely aged wine, purchasing an “aged” domain can have distinct advantages over buying a new domain. Aged domains are already established and have had more time to get some good link juice with the search engines. You can trawl auction sites to find a suitable domain name, or try searching by entering a description of your “market” plus “domain for sale.” You might just snare a good one for a song.
More resources
I like using the following tools for the domain name research and buying process:
Domain name generators
A good method for generating ideas for domain names is to add a prefix or suffix to your keyword. This method generates hundreds of combinations of potential names that you can consider.
Experiment with the following domain name generators:
- NameBoy generates domain names based on entering primary and secondary keywords.
- Sedo connects buyers (who need a domain name) to sellers.
- NameStation generates domain words based on random phonetic names, suffixes and prefixes, and permutations.
Trademark research
Before purchasing your domain name, check to see whether it has any potential trademark issues.
- Tess – If you have a US business, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s website and search their trademarks directory Tess.
- Likewise, for non-US based businesses, contact your local Government Intellectual Property or Trademarks Office to carry out a trademarks search.
Buying domain names
- Namecheap is great for registering your domain name at a price that won’t break the bank.
Discount coupons
- RetailMeNot will help you find a coupon code to use if you are ready to purchase your domain name.
Domain tools
- DomainTools is a handy tool to research information on your proposed aged domain. Don’t forget to carry out due diligence on your proposed purchase to find out its age, traffic statistics, page rank, and number of backlinks.
- Domain Samurai is a recently released tool from Noble Samurai that takes the pain out of finding a good domain name.
Summary
The selection of your domain name is an important step in launching your new business. With your brand and domain name selected, you are getting close to actually bringing your business site online.
You should probably have told people that getting a .com with six or less letters with an actual word in it almost impossible. Everyone buys more and more of these and attempts to seel them. If you don’t have much funding you can try merging two words together or coming up with some kind of “web 2.0″ type name. Otherwise your best bet would be buying one from somewhere like sedo. You might think the cost is too high, but if it has a small amount of letters and a keyword in it then it will more than likely be worth the cost.
“Just like a nicely aged wine, purchasing an “aged” domain can have distinct advantages over buying a new domain. Aged domains are already established and have had more time to get some good link juice with the search engines. You can trawl auction sites to find a suitable domain name, or try searching by entering a description of your “market” plus “domain for sale.” You might just snare a good one for a song.”
Be careful and loo at the history off the domain as well as you can the juice flows both ways.
I’d add http://domai.nr it’s a great & simple tool to find the perfect domain
Checkout http://www.BrandBucket.com, we specialize in brandable domain names at a very affordable budgets, we only stock .com names and we are very picky about the brands we offer. We have supplied many great names to many wonderful internet brands including envato.com the parent company of the NetSetter blog.
Domain name is always a big talking point between us and clients on new projects, so much to consider
It’s probably worth mentioning that the new .co domain has just been made publicly accessible. It’s a top level domain that’s already making headlines as Overstock bought “www.o.co” for a LOT of money. http://www.e.co and http://www.t.co have also been bought by some pretty big fish. I’ve also seen some clever domain names that make use of country-specific extensions – such as http://www.fo.lk (Folk)
The term ‘Web 2.0′ and everything associated with it is passe, it annoys people. Seeing one of those domains is about as groan worthy as having a friend who just discovered the internets and is constantly saying ‘fail’ like twenty years too late.
Great Article
Its a really superb tutorial. My many confusions are released when I read this article. Thanks for that
Thanks Chandan and Eshban. Glad you enjoyed the article and found it useful.
I would like to add further that there are always opportunities to find a good domain name, even though it may seem that all the good ones are snapped up.
Choosing one carefully to start your online business on the right foot is well worth the time and effort.
You can also check out Nomaine, available in English, Spanish and French.
It’s similar to NameStation but produces names that are more pronounceable.