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How to Select a Domain Name

Pickin g a domain n ame is a very importan t aspect of your site creation , because your ch oice can in fluen ce h ow h ard an d lon g youll h ave to move to th e top. Plus its g oin g to be th e bran d n ame th at your customers an d prospects will fin d you by. Th ats wh y its importan t to kn ow h ow to select a domain n ame in th e proper way. Ive collected a few tips th at sh ould g ive you an idea about wh at factors to keep in min d wh ile selectin g a domain n ame for your on lin e busin ess. I tried to create th e list in descen din g order but th at is a very subjective th in g in man y cases. So, don t rely on th at too much . Just see wh ats most crucial for your particular case.

Screencast on How to Select a Domain Name

I made th e screen cast for you g uys if you don t like readin g stuff. So, you can eith er just watch th e video or read th e article. Wh atever works best for you. By th e way, th e slidesh ow th at I used in th e video is at th e very bottom of th e post.

The WebDesy Podcast

Wh ats more, I laun ch ed a podcast so th at you can just down load th e episode you like an d listen to it wh ile commutin g or workin g out in th e g ym. You can click th is lin k to subscribe via iTun es.

Dot-Com it!
You defin itely n eed to make sure th at your domain n ame is a .com TLD (Top Level Domain ). Th ats because most people assume th at it sh ould be like th at. For example, if somebody memorized th at your site is called WebDesy, th eyll most likely add .com in th e en d. So, wh en ever possible even if you h ave to sh ell out a bit just buy th at domain n ame, because doin g so you make sure th at you don t lose your customers.

On ce you g ot your .com n ame, you also n eed to obtain th e .n et an d .org version s of it, because you may also lose customers if some of th em g o to .n et or .org for some reason or oth er. Th e fun n y part is th at WebDesy did n ot g o th at extra mile an d did n ot reg ister n eith er th e .org n or .n et version . So, if I really g et on your n erves some day, you may wan t to reg ister th ose domain n ames so th at I g et less customers an d mon ey. It was a joke actually. Ag ain , don t g et me wron g an d don t do th at. Please Seriously speakin g , th at proves on e more time th at you n eed to learn h ow to select a domain n ame BEFORE you actually do it.

Easy to Type
On e more th in g to keep in min d is th at your domain n ame sh ould be easy to type. For starters, if its n ot, your prospects can g o to a differen t site (let alon e a competitors). Secon dly, th ey can just see a broken pag e (if th e domain n ame is n ot taken ), decide th at your busin ess h as g on e belly up, an d turn to your rivals, ag ain . Th irdly, in case your domain is easy to type, people are more likely to do it. Just remember th at we are all lazy bon es. I person ally would n ot type in a domain n ame if Im pretty much sure th at Ill mistype someth in g . I g uess we just really g ot used to clickin g th in g s rath er th an typin g . An d if you must type, it sh ould be someth in g really sh ort. Like Twitter.com an d th e like.

By th e way, Im n ot sure if on ly I do it like th at, but wh en Im lazy to type some web address correctly, I just do it carelessly rig h t in th e Goog le search area an d th en just click on th e correct version th at Goog le prompts me. Is it just me or you g uys out th ere do someth in g similar?

Easy to Remember
Wh en your site an d con sequen tly bran d g ets more or less well-kn own , people will start talkin g about you. Th ats wh y you n eed to en sure th at your n ame is easy to remember so th at Joh n can easily recall th e website n ame th at Jack g ave h im th e oth er day. Oth er th an th at, it just makes sen se th at people sh ould be able to effortlessly keep your website n ame in th eir min ds an d refer to it wh en n eeded.

Keep it Short
You n eed to keep your website n ame sh ort because you wan t people to easily type it in th eir browser address bars (especially if your audien ce likes usin g smartph on es). Plus it makes your domain n ame easier to memorize. An d youll be able to place your domain n ame on your busin ess cards or an y oth er bran ded stuff. Oth erwise it can be an issue if you wan t to put your bran d n ame on some office supplies.

Make Spelling Guessable

Its a big th in g as well, because you wan t people to be able to spell your domain n ame if th ey h ear it somewh ere (in a podcast or someth in g like th at). In th e case of WebDesy.com, I actually stumbled upon an issue th at I still n eed to take care of. Th e poin t is th at its h ig h ly likely th at you can misspell WebDesy.com

an d type in WebDaisy.com in stead. Th e problem is th at WebDaisy.com actually exists an d th eres a n ice daisy imag e in th e middle of th e h ome pag e. It soun ds th at Ill h ave to con tact th e own er an d buy th e domain from h im. Its n ot really crucial at th is poin t because th eres less th an 10 mon th ly search es for webdaisy n ow, but you n ever kn ow wh at will h appen wh en I promote my site an d prospects start g oin g to Webdaisy.com in stead of Webdesy.com . Sin ce th e own er does n ot seem to be doin g much on th e site, I h ope Il be able to talk h im over.

Neither Hyphens Nor Numbers

Usin g both h yph en s an d n umbers can cause con fusion an d youll h ave to explain every sin g le time h ow to properly spell your website address. Just stick with words put tog eth er if you wan t to h ave two or more words in your domain n ame. Back in th e day, I used to work in a compan y, wh ich h ad a domain n ame with a h yph en . An d wh en talkin g over th e ph on e, I h ad to always explain h ow to properly spell th e n ame of th e site (if th ey n eeded to fin d a specific in fo an d wan ted me to walk th em th roug h step-by-step). Th ey were askin g all th e time, Is it a dash or a h yph en ? An d stuff like th at. So, apart from SEO issues, it can cause pretty major con cern s in terms of makin g both your site an d domain n ame user frien dly.

Commercial Appeal
Th e idea is th at your bran d n ame an d website address sh ould look g reat in terms of commercial use. It sh ould be sh ort, memorable, an d vivid. You sh ould h ave n o problem with placin g it on billboards an d city lig h ts, advertisin g on th e radio or TV. Make sure th at you are 100% con fiden t th at your bran d n ame is n ot causin g an y n eg ative h in ts or assumption s in th e lan g uag e of your targ et audien ce. Some car man ufacturer called th eir car Nova, wh ich mean s n o g o in Span ish (n o va). Th e ch an ces are its n ot th e best slog an for a car. It g oes with out sayin g th at th ey h ad n o big success in th e Span ish -speakin g world. So, you n eed to double-ch eck wh at your bran d n ame (or website n ame) mean s in th e lan g uag e of th e coun try wh ere you wan t to do busin ess.

Numeral Substitutions
Nowadays its pretty often an d n ormal (to an exten t) to see ph rases like 4 you, g r8, m8, etc, but its most defin itely n ot a g ood idea to use such g rammatical con struction s in domain n ames, because itll cause a lot of con fusion an d misun derstan din g of h ow exactly to spell your domain n ame. If youre really tempted to use someth in g like th at, just th in k wh eth er its worth it. Use it an d lose a portion of your customers or n ot use it an d g et more customers for your busin ess. Wh at do you say?

No Slang
Just like in th e case of usin g n umerical substitution s, you sh ould avoid slan g words like u (in stead of you) an d so on . Th oug h it may soun d really cool, odds are usin g such words can con fuse your prospects an d th e last th in g an y busin ess wan ts is a con fused customer. Th ats because a con fused customer does n ot buy stuff.

Be Careful With Discoverable Domains

Discoverable domain s (also kn own as exact match domain s) are th ose th at h ave keywords in th em. For in stan ce: www.purses.org www.teeth wh iten in g .com Th ey used to work pretty well back in th e day, but th in g s h ave ch an g ed sin ce th e Goog les EMD update. Th e update struck h ard low-quality sites th at used keywords in th eir domain s n ames. Ag ain , low-quality sites on ly seem to h ave suffered from th is update. It mean s th at if you wan t to use such a domain n ame, you n eed to en sure th at your site is a h ig h -quality on e at all times. Th at boils down to

th e fact th at Goog le just removed th e advan tag e th at EMD own ers h ad before th e update. An d th ats about it.

What the EMD Update Changed

Before th e update, if a n ew website own er could n ot fin d a g ood domain n ame (with keywords in th e website address), h e would g et upset an d it made certain sen se, because h avin g a keyword in your domain n ame mean t better ran kin g s, but its n ot importan t an y more. As a matter of fact, you n eed to create h ig h -quality sites in an y case (reg ardless of an y Goog le updates), but in th e case of an exact match domain , youll h ave to make sure th at your site is of really top n otch quality, because oth erwise youll most likely be h it h ard by almig h ty Goog le.

Brainstorm
On e of th e best practices of comin g up with domain n ame ideas is to select about 5 keywords th at your site will be about an d just try to create a n ame based on th em by mixin g an d match in g . In case you wan t to use a discoverable domain n ame (exact match or partial match domain ), you just n eed to see h ow you can combin e your keywords so th at th ey make sen se both for th e user an d Goog le. If WebDesy wan ted to g o th at route, we would try to combin e words like web desig n , webdesig n , compan y, bureau, web desig n ers. So th e domain n ame would most likely be someth in g alon g th e lin es of webdesig n bureau.com or someth in g like th at.

If you wan t to make a bran dable domain n ame just like we did at WebDesy.com you n eed to use your keyword to create a domain n ame th at is memorable an d at th e same

time it sh ould be obvious rig h t off th e bat wh at your site is all about. Oth erwise people will leave it in a matter of millisecon ds. We just took th e webdesig n word an d modified it so th at its a un ique n ame, but th e user won t h ave to th in k twice wh ile fig urin g out wh at we actually do. We do webdesig n . Nuf said.

Update
As a matter of fact, Im ch an g in g wh at Im g on n a write about on th e blog an d wh at services Ill be providin g on th e site, because Im takin g over th e wh ole site (my former partn ers decided to do oth er th in g s) an d I th in k th at it makes sen se to write about wh at I can do best. An d sin ce Im in con ten t promotion (aka SEO) n ow, Ill focus mostly on th e topics related to search en g in e optimization . Th at proves on e more time th at bran ded domain n ames allow you to easily ch an g e th e ran g e of topics th at you wan n a cover on your blog .

Uniqueness
You n eed to strive for bein g as un ique with your domain n ame as possible. Don t just use a misspellin g or th e plural form of a well-kn own website n ame. In th e first place, its just lame. Secon dly, if you wan t to be a respectful compan y, such a domain n ame will preven t you from becomin g on e. An d th at brin g s me to th e closin g portion of th e article wh ere you can fin d a slew of th e tools th at h elp you come up with a g reat n ame for your website.

Domain Name Generators

Th e followin g tools will h elp you g et started with g en eratin g ideas for your domain n ame. You may wan t to try all of th em, because th ey work based on differen t prin ciples, an d th en just see wh ich on e g ives th e result th at fits your n eeds an d provides th e look an d feel youre lookin g for. Domjax.com Domain tools.com Domain sbot.com Domai.n r Dotomator.com Bustan ame.com Domize.com Squurl.com Dn scoop.com (allows to value wh at your site is worth ) StuckDomain s.com (ch eck for expired domain s) NameBoy.com (with a rh ymin g feature)

Slideshow
An d h eres th e slidesh ow th at I used in th e video (th e screen cast at th e top of th e pag e). You may wan t to bookmark or save it for furth er referen ce.

Conclusion
In order to really compreh en d th e idea on h ow to select a domain n ame, you n eed to

th in k wh at is best for your visitor. An d just g o from th ere. Your user wan ts your website address to be un ique, easy to memorize an d spell out. Plus th e n ame of your site sh ould make it totally clear wh at you offer on your site (services or products) so th at th e visitor does n ot h ave to waste h is time tryin g to fig ure th at out. So, user frien dlin ess first an d SEO last. Wh at can you add to th e list of tips on h ow to ch oose th e best domain n ame? Do you kn ow someth in g I did n ot cover?

Get Your SEO T ips (weekly tips)

Youll g et th e most up-to-date SEO tips th at you can easily apply to your site for better ran kin g s. As a con ten t promotion expert, I keep track of everyth in g worth y in th e world of SEO. So, Ill reg ularly email you th e con ten t promotion (SEO) tips an d tricks th at really work. Youll bump up your ran kin g s real h ig h ! You may also wan t to subscribe to my podcast via iTun es.

Kenneth
I love blog g in g about web desig n , web developmen t, an d SEO. In oth er words, all th in g s web. I stron g ly believe th at WordPress combin ed with clever SEO is th e best solution for most site own ers on th e Web. More Posts Twitter Facebook Pin terest YouTube Related posts: 1. Domain Value Calculators vs. Profession al Domain Appraisals (9.4)