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Things to Consider When Selecting a Domain Name for Your Website

Selecting a domain name is crucial for branding your site online. You need to perform in depth research to choose an effective domain name. The domain name is your business's identity online. In this article, we will discuss things to consider when selecting a domain name for your website.

Author: John Ward
Date: Dec 22, 2014 - 5:23:37 AM

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Selecting a domain name is crucial for branding your site online. You need to perform in depth research to choose an effective domain name. The domain name is your business's identity online. In this article, we will discuss things to consider when selecting a domain name for your website.

The domain name should resemble your business name
If you make the domain name resemble your website, it becomes easy for your audience to remember and find it online. This is because, even if a visitor forgets your domain name, they can access your web page searching for it with your website. When people find it easy to remember your website, it becomes easy to promote your website through word of mouth. It also helps your business website in boosting search engine rankings because your domain name contains popular keywords used in search engines' results.

Should be unique
Avoid choosing a domain name that's similar to an already existing one. Choosing such a name could lead to needless confusion and annoyance among your audience. It is also likely to redirect your traffic to a site other than yours.

Avoid using characters, digits, hyphens
Ensure not to include symbols (hyphens, etc.), digits, characters, etc. in your domain name. Such elements may make it difficult for your audience to remember the domain name or may lead to confusion. Assume a business's website is onewebsite.com. This can always be much simpler than 1website.com, 1-website.com, or one-website.com. Thus, by keeping it simple, you avoid the domain name being misinterpreted.

Use words (in the domain name) that are easy to type and remember
Make sure that the domain name has simple and easy words. Thus, if the name of your business is long, you could use the shortened name. For example, you could take the domain name xyzwebdesign.com for xyzwebsitedesignservices.com. This will make it easy for visitors to remember the domain name and to type it in search places in search engines or anywhere else when searching on the Internet.

The name should not be lengthy
Ensure the domain name you choose is short. It is a good idea to limit the number of characters in the domain name to 5 to 15. This makes it easy for your audience to type and remember.
Choose a name that is simple and straightforward. This will help your audience avoid errors while typing the name.

Avoid using tricky names
Make sure to use original words. For example, if you use 2 for to, ur for your, etc. in your domain name, it may lead your visitors to wrong web pages or nowhere, which may negatively affect your business.

Another important point is your domain name should indicate clearly what your audience is likely to get from the website. For example, assume your domain name is xyzwebsitedesign.com and your business is in designing and developing websites for small businesses, the name shows the job of your business. On the other hand, if you have the name as xyzwebtechnologymanagementservices.com, the name might not be convincing to your audience who are looking for website designing/development.

Copyright issues
You might have thought of a domain name that belongs to a large business. However, you should be aware that choosing such a name, one that has been in use by another business/company/individual/people may result in copyright violation. Therefore, it's logical to check before you adopt the domain name so that you avoid the trouble in future.

Make it discoverable through your branding in name
A discoverable domain name is one that your audience is likely to use when they do not know your domain name when searching on the Internet for your products/services.
A brand name makes your business distinct from other businesses in the niche and makes it easy to attract your audience. Therefore, ensure your domain name is easily discoverable so that it becomes easy to promote your domain name.

Use country specific TLD for local targeting
Having a country specific TLD helps attract traffic from the specific areas of the globe. Therefore, it's helpful for your business if you are targeting the audience of a specific geographical location.

How it works?
Search engines segregate the search results according to the locality of the user (as per the IP address of the user).

To conclude, when choosing a domain name for your website, ensure to check if the domain name you are opting is helpful in establishing your business as a good brand/website online.

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View all articles by John Ward

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