How to choose a good domain name
You decided to create your own website. Congratulations! Now you need to decide on decide on a domain name. Before you just randomly pick a domain name, you might want to consider the following guidelines.
1. Make your website name the same as your domain name
If at all possible, you want to make your website name the same as your domain name. This might sound like common sense, but if your site name is the same as your URL address, people will know exactly where to find you and they won’t go to the wrong site by mistake. For example, when people think of my other site, Phils Baseball, they don’t have to wonder what URL to use to get there. The name of the site is also the URL.
Now imagine that you have a business called “The Apple Tree,” but somebody else has that domain name, so you decide to name it “example.com”. When your customers want to buy something on your website and they type “theappletree.com,” they will get somebody else’s site. That’s not good.
What if your domain name is not available? That depends on how bad you want it or need it. If you are trying to create a website for a business you already have, it makes sense to at least try to get that domain name. When you go to a domain name registrar like GoDaddy, they will provide the contact information for the owner of the site. Contact the person listed and see if they are willing to sell it, but keep in mind they can sell for whatever price they want.
If you are just starting your site, a better option is probably to pick a good domain name first and then name your site. That’s what I did with this site.
2. How long should my domain name be?
Domain names can be as long as 67 characters. Here are some thing to keep in mind about the length of your domain name.
I generally think that you should get the shortest domain possible. Shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type, and it’s harder for people to make mistakes. A site like “maids.com” would be a lot easier to remember and type than “peoplewhocleanandcookforyourfamily.com”. However, there is no need to make your site name short just for the heck of it. A short domain name with a series of unrelated letters like “mbahp.com” will be harder for the brain to remember than using the full company name of “MomsBakeAtHomePizza.” Also, if you have a long domain name that has your site keywords in it, search engines might give it a slight advantage.
My advice is simply to use common sense when choosing your domain name. Just try to think of what is the easiest and most logical domain name that people will find the easiest.
3. Hyphenated Names?
Normally, I would suggest that you stear away from hyphenated names. First of all, Hyphenated names are easier to forget. If your domain name is “moms-bake-at-home-pizza.com”, people will probably still refer to it as “Moms bake at home pizza dot com,” and when people type that into a web browser it won’t work. In that case, it doesn’t make much sense to use hyphens. And it’s just annoying to type dashes anyways. However, if you really like a name and it’s already been taken, at least you will get close to the domain name you want.
4. Using slightly different forms of the domain name
If you go to a domain registrar and a name has already been taken, they will suggest The slightly different alternatives. If you wanted philsbaseball.com, they might suggest other names like
thephilsbaseball.com
yourphilsbaseball.com
philsbaseballs.com
It actually is not the worst idea to accept one of these forms of the domain name if you like it. Just make sure that whenever you advertise your site, you advertise the full domain name. If my site was “thephilsbaseball.com”, I would advertise the full domain name rather than Phils Baseball.
You might get in trouble if you use a plural version in your domain name like examples.com. By doing that, you are guaranteeing that some people will make mistakes with your name. Do it at your own risk!
5. Using .com, .org, .net, etc.
One other obvious possibility if you can’t get the domain name you want is to try the “.net”, “.org” or other country-specific top level domains available like .de, .nu, .sg, etc.
Since endings like “.net” and “.org” are now pretty common, it might not be a bad alternative to “.com” if it is not available. But you should still consider other options first, because certain people are likely to type .com by mistake. In some cases, if you want to let people know that you are a non-profit, “.org” would work. For example, Word Press can be found at “wordpress.org”.
One final point: Most browsers will go to “.com” by default. For example, if you type walmart, you will be taken to walmart.com rather than walmart.net. That is definitely something to consider.
6. Finally
Get your domain name before you start your site if at all possible.
If it is too late for that, do your best to find a name that is as close as possible to your site or business, and just use your common sense!
If you want help in actually obtaining that domain name, read the article, how to register a domain name. It will walk you through the steps you need to take provide you with a list of domain registars and their prices.
