For your business to be easily found and thrive online, choosing the right domain name for your website is essential. You may already have a domain and website set up and thinking about a name change. On the other hand, you may have a name in mind, and now you’re looking to launch your website. In this article, I will outline some tips for choosing a domain name that will attract visitors and enhance your branding.
Start with Keywords
Start by writing down 10 words or phrases that describe what your business does. Then, think about phrases people might type to find you in search engines. Phrases are usually much better than single words alone. Search engines prefer domain names that describe the site and are loaded with keywords. Once compiled, you can start to add prefixes & suffixes to create relevant domain name ideas.
Suppose you are launching an insurance website, for instance. In that case, you might start with the words “insurance, auto policy, affordable rates, agent, finance, Houston insurance” from there, play around until you find a suitable match. Example: Houston Insurance Agency.
Is it easy to type?
Does the domain name require you to pay considerable attention to spelling, or is the length off-putting? Does it contain unfamiliar words or sounds? If so, this could cause you to lose an essential aspect of your branding and marketing. Try avoiding words with excessive”q,” “z,” “x,” “c,” and “p”).
No hyphens and numbers
Simply put, these will be difficult for people to remember.
Do your research
Only choose a name if you can register multiple spellings. If there is a direct competitor with a very similar name, don’t buy it. Instead, invest in various versions of your name. Example: your domain name is thebluestripe.com; buy bluestripe.com and thebleustripe.com; consider purchasing the flopped word versions stripeblue.com and stripebleu.com. In addition, you can have all of them direct traffic to your primary domain, thebluestripe.com, without any missed traffic from misspellings or flopped words.
Make it short and sweet
You want a domain that will be easy to type and remember. Word-of-mouth marketing and SERP dominance marketing (where your domain consistently appears for industry-related searches) rely on the ease that a domain name can be remembered. There’s no point in having a great website that no one remembers.
DOT.COM only!
If you’re serious about name recognition or branding, you need a .com domain. In addition to .com, you can also get .net and .org sites to direct traffic to your .com site. Acquiring all of these could lead to more traffic for your website, so don’t limit yourself.
Domain name should be your website name
Having a completely different name (logo name) on your website would be very confusing. When people think of your website, they will think of it by its name. Thus it should be exactly the same or very close. For example, we have a client with a web domain Thebbx.com and the business name is The Black Business Exchange; this is acceptable as it’s an abbreviated, much shorter version of the name.
Don't pick a name on a demographic
Don’t pick a name with a specific demographic attached to it, like dallasdesign.com. For example, you may decide to relocate your business. You can always add demographic keywords to your website.
trends die, don't follow
Just because everyone else is doing it, it doesn’t mean you need to. Avoid uninspiring short adjectives (ex: best…com, top…com), odd misspellings, and multiple hyphens.
Avoid Trademark Infringement
Too many people make this mistake. Before spending your money, ensure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes with trademark infringements. Try running the name on copyright.gov.
If a name you want is taken, you could buy it through a brokerage service.
These are considered premium domain names that typically cost a premium to acquire because of their search engine optimization (SEO) potential, which might be worth the potential branding and web traffic.
Are You Ready To Be A Game Changer?
Our business & brand development agency is happy to provide you with further information regarding choosing the right domain name for your website. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We would love to assist you with coming up with a name that will help grow your business or your design project.
So call us at 1-844-207-4745 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch.
