There is no arguing that your favorite domain names are long gone. Even if you want a domain name you prefer, you will have to pay a huge amount of money to acquire it. Due to many websites that are launched today, finding a perfect domain that suits your business is very difficult. These 5 points, which I have given below, will help you solve some of your doubts and help you choose your domain name.
Table of Contents
Domain Name and Website Name
It would help if you chose a domain name, which is the same as your website name. It would help if you did not have a domain name that is not similar to your website name. This may seem a bit obvious to many of you. But there are plenty of websites which are named different from their domain name. For example, if you have a website named “Amazon,” which sells products online, your website domain name is filpkart.com. When your customer decides to buy something online and decide to purchase from your website, they will remember your website and type amazon.com, which will take your customer to your competitors.
You cannot expect your customers or visitors to remember both your website name and domain name. Choosing a domain name for a new website or business will not be difficult. Still, if you are launching a website for an existing business with a brand name that you have tried hard to build, you might find it difficult to get a domain name, which is the same as your business name. You will have to buy the domain name from the person who has already bought the domain in this case. You will have to pay a higher price for that domain name. Check whois information of the domain name that is already registered to find the owner you might negotiate the price.
Brand Name
Suppose you are in the business of selling a particular product; say, for example, you are selling mobile phones. You might want to get a domain like mobilephone.com, as this will be the first name that comes to mind of people searching for a domain name. And also, these domain names are straightforward to remember. But most often (unless you are in a market where that particular product is not yet popular with many, for example, you are selling Nanorobots, it is not difficult to get nanorobots.com as that particular product is not well known with many) will not be available. In this case, it is best to choose a related name like Nokiamobilephones.com, iphones.com, or buymobilephones.com, etc. Try not to diverge too far from your brand name and choose buycars.com for a business where you are selling mobile phones.
Domain Name Length
By domain name size, I mean the number of characters in the domain. You are permitted to have up to 67 characters in the domain names. Choosing a long or short domain name has its own advantages and disadvantages. Short and meaning full domain names are easier to remember than the long one, but short domain names should be meaning full one. For example, suppose you have a mobile phone store named Acme; in this case, amps.com (Acme mobile phone store) is difficult to remember then acmemobilephones.com. In the above example, you can see that a longer name is better than a shorter name. Another example; getit.com is much better then connecttomywebsiteandobtainit.com. But the problem with this shorter meaning full names is that almost all of them are long gone. It is tough to find a short and meaning full domain name. Another advantage of long domain names is that longer domain names can include your website keywords, which will help increase your website’s better ranking by the search engine.
In my personal opinion, I would go for a shorter domain name if I could get a meaningful one, but another wise, I will go for a long one. But in no way will I go for a long one, which includes close to 67 characters.
The hyphen in Domain Name
Nobody likes a hyphen in the domain name; hyphen domain names are difficult to type. Most visitors may forget to remember the hyphen and end up using your competitor’s website instead of yours. Even when a visitor suggests your website to someone, they will not use the hyphen in conversation. The only reason someone would choose a hyphenated domain name would be the nonavailability of domain name, which they desperately needed. The hyphenated domain name also gives the advantage of including your keywords in the domain name. In my opinion, a hyphenated domain name should only be used in unavoidable situations.
Choosing Between TLD
Deciding to use .com, .org, .net or country-specific domains like .us, .uk etc depends on many factors. Suppose you are running a local community business, it is ok to have a local country domain. Still, if you focus on international customers, it is better to go for the .com domain instead. Some may also feel that if you get a domain of your choice in .net, .us, .was, etc. extension,s it is ok as long as you have your perfect domain name. Others may feel that .org and .net extension are ok as they are not country. Some may never settle for anything less then .com, as they argue that .com is the extension used by browser and computer to automatically fill the domain name if only the name is typed in the browser.
There are many relevant points above, but my opinion is that if you choose a domain name other then .com. Make sure you create and promote your brand name as ****.org or ****.net etc. Do not forget to add an extension to your website name.