The 2017 Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Domain Name.

When taking your business online, along with choosing a web host it is important to get a domain name. Registering a domain name gets you an official address for your website on the World Wide Web so that the rest of the web can find you. The name needs to be unique, just like your home address is unique in the real world. There cannot be any duplicate addresses on the Internet, otherwise, no one would know where to go! In other words, domain names are unique addresses on the web.

The domain name is a representation of your business online. It should give an understanding of what your business is all about. It is a key component of your business brand image. The creativity you put in deciding on a domain name will show results in SEO ranking, presence on the web and the profits your business earns. Here we bring to you 2017’s ultimate guide to choosing a domain name –

Make it a brandable but relevant domain name.

A general rule that is followed while selecting a name is that it should not be confusing about your business offering, and at the same time should help your business establish as a brand. Brandable- meaning, when you hear the domain name – it should sound like a brand and not be generic.

For example, if you have or planning to start a food company that sells some related products online, and if you name it food-shop.com, it’s not brandable, it is generic.

We would also suggest not to use generic keyword strings. They are tough to remember and also don’t help in making your brand memorable.

When we started thinking of some domain name for a food company, we had

FoodOnline.com – but we would stay away from something like that, it is a bit generic.
BestFood.com – maybe a bit better, but we can get something more.
Foodolicious.com – it sounds brandable, but a bit challenging to say. But it’s unique!
FoodLabs.com – it is very brandable, unique, easy-to-remember and stands out as well. It’s fantastic and one might actually think of buying this domain.

Make it easy to remember and pronounceable.

You might think, why is this important – people are going to either type or click on the link?

Well, studies have shown that humans have more positive associations with things that can be easily said or remembered, and that also includes pronouncing in one’s own minds. If a person is not able to pronounce the name or others don’t understand the name – you lose the memorability and all your efforts in creating a brandable domain are in vain.

Keep it short and simple.

The length of the domain matters. This can just be considered as an extension of the above point related to the human tendency of remembering pronounceable names. The less number of characters a domain name has, the easier it is to remember and thus, easy to type. The long domain names usually get compressed and might not show up fully, or the URL might get cut off or at the end, you will use an URL shortener. So go for something short as it is definitely better, and remember that while making it short your brand should not lose its value.

A ‘.com’ domain

Practically speaking there is really no difference these days between .com, .net or .org . Search engines don’t discriminate between a ‘.COM’ address and a ‘.NET’ address. The only thing you might consider is that people tend to type in ‘.COM’ automatically since it was the first publicly known domain extension. So when registering a domain name, I would go for the ‘.COM’ first and if it was taken, I would then try for any of the others. (.net, .org, .tv, etc.)

Select names that do not infringe any trademarks

This is to avoid getting into any legal trouble. You should stay away from names that already have a trademark. Before purchasing a domain, checking its social availability is also important. Having the same name across domain and social network is important for brand building.

The name you choose, think long-term about it. Changing a domain name will cost money, branding and SEO rankings. You will have to start from scratch and it’s a huge pain.

Conclusion

Your domain name has a great impact on the success and potential of your website. So, make sure to put some careful thought and hard work when choosing yours – and we hope you use these tips while choosing the best domain for your business.