How to Choose Your Domain Name – Ultimate Guide
When you start thinking about the new website you will create, you will have some doubts. One among them is –
How will people access my website?
That’s a good question; I will answer it.
Every website will have its unique URL to access. To be more accurate, every website will have its own domain name. For example, you are reading this post at this URL: https://blogheist.com/how-to-choose-a-domain-name/.
Here blogheist.com is the domain name.
Suppose you are interested in checking out our coupons; you will have to visit – https://deals.blogheist.com/ (Just an example. The actual URL no longer exists)
Here deals are the subdomain name.
If you notice, in both these URLs, I used .com. We call it a domain extension. I will explain this domain extension in detail later in this post. So, I hope you have understood what domain and subdomain are.
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Why is Domain Name Important For Your Blog?
Now, you’ve understood what a domain is and its utility; however, if the domain is essential, how will it benefit your website? And it is necessary to choose the perfect domain at the beginning itself.
Let’s answer these questions below points.
1. Domain is The First Impression of Your Website
A domain is the first thing a visitor sees on your website; creating a perfect domain name can help you make a great first impression. Visitors instantly judge your website by your domain name.
For example, Canva.com is a website for photo editing; nowadays, it is also a primary editing tool. The word Canva comes from the word Canvas; in photo editing, it is known as a blank page.
That’s why the recall value of this domain name is excellent; once the person has edited any photo from this website, the next time he wants to edit the image, he will instantly search for Canva.com.
A simple, easy-to-recall domain name can help you in retaining your visitors.
What if the domain name is example1997kumarwebsite.com? Can you remember this?
I don’t think so.
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Most of us don’t realize we only remember simple and striking names.
2. It is Good for SEO
If your domain name contains a word for the product or service you sell, your ranking will be good on Google, as domain names also play an essential role in scale.
For example, suppose your website is about Cricket (Sports) News for India, and your domain name is cricketnewsindia. In that case, it will be easier for you to rank on Indian cricket news because Google will think the search term is somehow related to your website.
Writing quality blogs for ranking is essential, but a domain with a keyword gives an extra advantage.
You have some restrictions on choosing the domain name with a keyword. I will explain this to you as you go through this post.
3. It Gives You Brand Identity
A domain name is not just a URL for your website, but it helps to give your business a brand identity. Simply put, it separates you from the competition and gives you an online identity.
That’s why your brand name and your domain should be the same. In that way, your social media profiles are easily searchable, and promoting your brand name means promoting your domain name (website).
But can you choose anything as your domain name?
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No!
You need to choose the right one for your website. If not, it will turn out to be a nightmare. So, I have got some tips for choosing your domain name.
How to Choose Your Domain Name – 9 Practical Tips
I will be explaining to you a lot of tips for choosing a domain name. These tips will be varied, so you have to follow the ones which suit your business/brand.
1) Your Domain Name Should be Easier to Pronounce
You probably want your visitors to come to your site again, but what if your domain name is hard to recall. You won’t be searchable; one tip to make your domain name easy to remember is to make your domain easier to pronounce.
Think of some of the top domains – YouTube.com, Amazon.com, Google.com, WordPress.com. And you might find one common thing in them – they are short, easy to pronounce, and don’t have complicated words.
So, the first point is don’t create a complicated domain name. It should be easier for visitors to recall the domain name. This brings us to our second point: making a short domain name.
2) Keep Your Domain Name Short
A short domain is easy to recall and pronounce, easier to pronounce, and easier to promote a temporary part. If your domain name is short, word-of-mouth marketing will quickly promote it.
Example –
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Suppose you have a website name – HowToMakeMoneyOnlineInIndiaSittingAtHome.com.
How many of you have read the entire domain name? and will you recall such a domain name? Although the domain name is easier to pronounce, it is too long.
Research made by Gaebler shows that your domain name impacts the popularity of your website.
The top 50 websites have an average domain length to be 6 characters. Overall 1 million popular websites have an average domain length of 10 characters. So, it is recommended that you don’t choose a huge domain name.
Recommended Read: How To Generate The Best Post Titles (8 Tools)
3) Add Keywords to Your Domain
As I already mentioned, using a keyword in your domain name is good. For example, consider, Problogger.com – A website that offers blog tips and helps you make money online.
As I google for professional Blogger.
I could find ProBlogger’s Homepage listed on the first page of search results. Look at the SERP carefully. The Keyword Professional Blogger was not used in the meta title and description. But, still, the page can rank on the first page, outranking millions of competitors.
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Looks interesting, right? But how does this happen?
Websites get a lot of natural links to their homepage. These natural links usually have their domain name / Business name as their anchor text. In our context, ProBlogger is actually an LSI Keyword for Professional Bloggers. (LSI keywords are nothing but relevant words used for the same term. Just like for the term car, we can use words like automobile, wagon, vehicle, etc.)
Whenever someone links to their homepage, their HTML would look like this,
<a href=”https://problogger.com/”> Visit Problogger </a>
These links with anchor text are positive signals for Google. Since many Trustable websites are linking to this page for the term ProBlogger, Google will think it is a vital resource on ProBlogger (LSI Keyword for Professional Blogger). That made this page rank on the first page for this particular keyword.
So, using a keyword on your domain name is an added advantage. But that said, you should not take it for granted. I will tell you how you should not use Keywords in your domain name in #9.
Q: How to brainstorm good domain names with keywords?
A: There are some tools to suggest good domain names with the keyword you want. As you keep reading, I will list those tools and explain them to you.
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4) Target Your Area
Competing with millions of websites on the internet is hard, but in that situation, local SEO will help you. Local SEO will cut the competition for you and show your website at 1st ranking.
So, how you can use the local SEO for your benefit. If you are a local business and want to rank locally, then just add the name of your region to the domain name.
For example, suppose you are a website that stores information for Chennai (City) Restaurants. If you add Chennai to your domain name, e.g., chennairestaurants.com, your website will rank if anybody searches for restaurants in Chennai.
And you’ll not rank if anybody from Mumbai searches for restaurants in Mumbai. Use this local SEO power carefully; only add a region’s name if you want to rank for that region only.
5) Avoid – Numbers, Hyphens, and Plurals in Domain Name
I will not recommend picking a domain name with numbers, hyphens, or plurals. Because it will make users finding your domain to be complicated.
When your friend asks, what’s your website name?, you spell it as (30 minutes pizza dot com), but your friend will be typing,
Thirtyminutespizza.com
What will happen?
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Your friend will not find your website, and you got your visitor will be abandoned. And such types of domains can be easily duplicated, you will use numbers, and the other fake website will use spellings, and both websites will spell the same.
Another classic example of this type is,
eBook.com
e-Book.com
EBooks.com
E-Books.com
I avoid using numbers, hyphens, and plurals in my domain name.
6) Keep Your Domain Name Memorable
Make sure that your domain name is memorable. Don’t choose a domain with too many letters, as I already mentioned. Similarly, try to choose a domain name with words. Don’t choose anything like –
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Fgsaisdg.com
I can never remember the name of such kinds of websites, and obviously, I will look for an alternate site.
So, before you choose your domain name, say it to your friends and get to know if they could remember it or not?
If they can’t, you should choose another domain name.
7) Use the Appropriate Domain Name Extension
You could have noticed domain names ending up with something like .com, .in, .net, etc. These are called domain name extensions or Top Level Domains (TLD). These Top Level Domains have some importance and meaning. They have some classifications which we need to understand.
Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD):
.com – Mainly used for commercial entities. It is an open TLD, and any person or entity can register a domain name with this extension.
.org – Refers to an organization. This is also an open TLD.
.net – It refers to the network. Used mainly by websites acting as a portal. It is also an open TLD.
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.info – It refers to an informational website full of information and resources.
Different Generic TLDs are available, but it is wise to go with .com. Because it is a human tendency to assume the website to have a .com domain extension. It will also affect your link-building process.
For example, In a link analysis made by SEO Expert Peter Kent, it is identified that many webmasters tend to link to .com extensions.
examplegadget.net – 90% of links
examplegadget.com – 10% of links
The original website actually had a .net extension. Only 90% of the webmasters were adequately linking to the .net websites. It was found that 10% of the links were made to the .com extension, making the hard-earned backlinks go on in vain. So, who is interested in losing all the backlinking efforts? That’s why it is preferred to go with a .com domain.
Q: Apart from the linking problems, what are the other issues associated with not choosing a .com extension?
A: The other problem you will encounter is losing your customers and potential readers. You might be aware of Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger (You just came across this site in an example). Initially, he had his place at problogger.net. But, he realized he was losing many visitors because his visitors were searching for problogger.com. So, he had to move his domain to problogger.com
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Generic Restricted Top-Level Domains:
.biz – Restricted for Business
.name – These extensions are reserved for individuals
Sponsored Top Level Domain (TLD) :
.gov – Used for government websites. It is reserved exclusively for the United States Government.
.edu – This extension is widely used by educational institutions. The usage is restricted.
Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD) :
.in – Refers to Indian websites
.us – Refers to websites from the United States
.uk – These websites are from the United Kingdom
.jp – Refers to websites from Japan
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Q: Which is the advantage of using Country Code Top-Level Domains?
A: Let us say you get a domain name cafetoday.in. Search Engines will understand on seeing your domain that you have a Cafe Business in India. So, when a person from India is browsing for Cafe related keywords, this website will be shown more often than websites with .com or .net or any other country-level domain extensions.
Q: What is the disadvantage of using Country Code Top-Level Domains?
A: Your website’s .in domain extension restricts your audience to India. You cannot think about your website being shown in Search Results for a user in the United States. If you don’t want to restrict your Business, you must get a Generic Top Level Domain (.com or .net domain).
I have just mentioned some of the commonly used domain extensions. You have a lot more. You can find out from this post if you are interested in knowing all of them.
If you are starting a website to earn money from it at any time, I recommend you choose a .com domain.
Q: I am just starting a website now. I will go with some .org or .in TLD right now. Later, if my Business becomes successful, can I change it to .com TLD?
A: Yes, you will be able to change it. But only if your domain name with .com TLD is still available. If a business starts to see some success, many people register the same domain name with different extensions just to confuse the audience and benefit from it. These websites with varying domain extensions can even become your potential competitors.
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8) Protect and Build Your Brand
Do you know?
If you visit www.fb.com, you will be redirected to www.facebook.com. You might be aware that Facebook is also popularly called FB. So, there is a possibility that new users will try to access the domain name www.fb.com rather than www.facebook.com.
Hence, Facebook purchased that domain name too.
Just like Facebook clearly built its brand name by purchasing relevant domain names, you should also buy appropriate domain names and build your brand as time passes.
Apart from relevant domain names, you should also consider purchasing Domain names with appropriate domain extensions.
Suppose your domain name is www.yourdomain.com; the most relevant domain names you will have to register are:
www.yourdomain.net
www.yourdomain.org
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www.yourdomain.info
You must register these domain names and redirect them to the original site.
Why should you do that?
There are instances where the .com and .org extensions can represent different businesses. One classic example is,
WordPress.org and WordPress.com
They both have the same domain name WordPress but vary with their TLDs. And they are two different businesses too.
Can a domain name with a different extension affect my Business?
Over time, many .net businesses have died while .com companies have survived while both have the same name. A classic example,
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Rent.com – Still in Business
Rent.net – No Longer Exist
So, it is always essential to register your business names with other domain extensions too. Only then can you avoid unnecessary competitors. You must also consider registering your relevant domain names with dashes, similar spellings, and plurals.
9) Don’t Pick an Exact Match Domain:
Earlier, I mentioned the advantage your business can get by using a keyword in your domain name. But let’s talk about the opposing side.
Many people tried to misuse this method. They purchased domain names with long tail keywords, posted relevant content, and ranked higher.
For example,
buy-seo-services.com
buy-backlinks-online.com
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Google noticed this trick, which created many low-quality websites, and then they released an “Exact Match Domain Update” update to take care of this.
How can we use Keywords in domain names without getting penalized?
This update clearly tells about two terms,
Exact Match Domain (EMD) – If your domain name is precisely matching the long tail keyword, it is called an Exact Match Domain.
For example, let’s say “Apple iPhones 2019” to be the long tail keyword we are considering,
Then www.appleiphones2019.com is an exact match domain.
Partial Match Domain (PMD) – If you have only a part of this keyword in your domain name, it is called Partial Match Domain.
Considering the same example, www.iphonesguru.com is a Partial Match Domain. It still has a part of that keyword considered.
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Google’s Exact Match Domain update penalizes only Exact Match Domains, not the Partial Match Domains.
Till now, I have explained some essential factors to be considered while choosing a domain name. Next, I will help you develop unique domain names using some tools. But, before that –
How a Brand’s Domain Name Should Be?
Your domain name will affect your branding and Business a lot. To understand how this affects, let’s see a classification of Business names.
Types of Business Names
1. Fanciful
Fanciful Business names are just made of words. They don’t have any meaning. These words are created just to represent the Business. Some examples are Starbucks, Kodak, Udemy, eBay, etc. The word Udemy does not have a meaning. But, the company made its own branding to make a robust online learning platform.
2. Arbitrary
These are actual words but are used in an unrelated context. For example, McDonald’s, Subway, Apple, and Amazon. The word Apple denotes a fruit. But Steve Jobs has made us remember Mac and iPhone for the Brand Apple. Similarly, Amazon would be referring to the Amazon Forest. But Jeff Bezos made us remember the eCommerce platform.
3. Suggestive
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These are not direct words but are used very close to the meaning. For example, Burger Barn, Travelocity, Home Depot, etc.
4. Descriptive
These Business names actually denote what the Business does. For example, First Bank, Auction Web, etc. Just by hearing the name Auction Web, you could say it is an online platform for Auction products.
5. Generic
These are exact names describing what the Business is about. Some examples include Rent.com, Books.com, Realtor.com, etc. Most of these generic names have already been taken. And it is not recommended to go with those names.
Forbes Most Popular Brands
Having said the different types of Business names, let’s look at the Forbes Most Valuable Brands 2018.
Look at the list of the Top 15 Brand names.
Most of them are Fanciful and Arbitrary Brand names. So, when choosing your Business name, it is recommended that you select a Fanciful, Arbitrary, or Suggestive Brand name. It is not recommended to go on with Descriptive or Generic Names.
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Consider rebranding if you already have a Descriptive Business name and feel it affects your branding. Rebranding works if you have the right strategies.
In 2013, Rand Fishkin made a clever decision to rebrand SEOmoz.org to Moz.com and succeeded. But, remember the difficulty in rebranding an established business.
But why make a mistake today and correct it in the future? It involves a lot of costs and effort.
So, choose the right Name for your Business while registering your domain name itself!
Tools to Choose Domain Name
If you browse Google, you will get many tools to find unique domain names. I will list some useful ones.
1) DomainTyper
DomainTyper is an exciting tool. If you enter the domain name you want, it will check all possible extensions.
It will let you know which extensions are taken and which are free.
I entered “neilpatel” and got the following search result.
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It does not stop with that. It will modify the name you entered and suggest more words.
Today social media is so powerful. So, it is essential that your business needs to have social media accounts.
Social media accounts are so easy to create and are entirely free.
Many people start their businesses on social media platforms without getting a domain.
Now, you are going to buy a domain name. After you purchase the domain name, when you plan to create social media accounts for that domain, what if you find someone else is already using that name.
You will land up disappointed, right?
So, before you purchase a domain, you must check if the username is available on social networks.
But how to do that?
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This tool will take care of that work too.
Continuing with the exact “neilpatel” search, you could see on which platforms this username has been taken.
That’s why I told you this tool is beneficial.
2) WordTracker
WordTracker tool will help you find long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are the ones with less competition. They are easier to rank and also get some traffic.
I searched for the keyword “affiliate marketing” and got the following result.
The column “volume” indicates how many searches this keyword gets monthly.
And the column “Competition” indicates how difficult it is to rank for that keyword. The greater the value, the more difficult it is to organize.
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By using this tool, you can get some low-competition keywords, try to make it a Partial Match Domain name, and check for availability.
Just a reminder: Don’t get overexcited. Keep the domain length in mind and choose a good size.
If you are looking for an alternative to this tool, go with Semrush.
3) Gamestation
Just enter the keywords you want in the domain name, and this Domain Name Generator tool at Namestation will come up with hundreds of name suggestions.
I used the exact keyword “affiliate marketing.”
And this tool generated 4872 domain names. Of them, 2627 domain names are discarded as they are already taken.
The specialty of this tool is it will give you as many Partial Match Domain names as possible. So, you don’t need to worry much about Google’s Exact Match Domain Update.
Using these tools, I guess you will choose a good domain name for your Business. Also, check these tips before registering a domain name.
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You will have to register this domain name with a domain registrar.
Recommended Domain Name Registrars
Domain registration is one Business that you can start with a low investment. That’s why you can find so many domain registrars online.
But I recommend you go with the best one at a reasonable price.
I will recommend you register your domain name with either one of the two services.
1) GoDaddy
GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar. They have more than 17 million customers. They even allow bulk domain purchases (500 domain names at a time).
This shows how reputed the company is.
You can refer to this tutorial to register a domain name at GoDaddy.
2) Namecheap
Namecheap is a popular and leading domain name registrar accredited by ICANN.
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Recently, Namecheap announced that the company has 8 million domains under management.
So, it is a trusted and excellent company where you can register your domain.
Recommended Read: How To Run WooCommerce Flash Sales and Increase Sales?
Frequently Asked Questions
Should Your Domain Name Match Your Company Name?
Your domain name doesn’t need to match your company name; however same domain and company name will help in SEO and get you more traffic.
How to Choose a Domain Name for a Personal Website
To help you decide on a better domain name, we have created seven steps process to choose the perfect name for your domain.
1. Your domain name should be short, simple, and easier to pronounce.
2. Stick with the .com domain extension
3. Add a keyword to your domain name
4. Avoid using numbers, hyphens, or plurals in the domain
5. Your domain name should represent your website and the content of the website
6. Your domain should be easier to write
7. Lastly, think of long-term rather than short term
Best Domain Name Generators
Here are the top 10 best domain name generators –
1. DomainWheel.com
2. GoDaddy Domain Name Generator
3. InstantDomainSearch.com
4. Shopify Free Domain Name Generator
5. Namecheap Domain Name Generator
6. BusinessNameGenerator.com
7. Nameboy – Domain Name Generator
8. NameIdeasGenerator.com
9. BlogTyrant
10. NameMesh
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Related – Here’s how to make money with Amazon Affiliates
Wrapping Up
I would like to summarize this entire post in a few lines.
A domain name is significant for your Business because it helps you with branding and Search Engine Optimization.
When you choose your domain name, make sure it is attractive, short, user-friendly, and targets your niche.
Choose a partial Match Domain name with a keyword for SEO advantage.
Make sure you choose the domain name with the correct extension.
If you can’t develop domain names, use tools to generate domain names and check the username availability on social media.
And finally, register your domain name for a low price with a good domain registrar.
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That’s it.
I have covered all basics, tricks, and tips you need to know when you choose your domain name.
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Nichy says
Hey Nirmal
your tips and guidness about choose name of domain was very awesome , i just found very good domain name following to you,,,
thank you for sharing nice post
Nirmal Kumar says
Thanks, Nichy. Your domain name is cool 🙂
Lora Empson says
Domain name choosing seems to be very easy but most of the people don’t that the domain will always relay on your future plan. So, you should be very conscious at the time of domain choosing. Domain should contains lesser characters and this is what I experience in last 2-3 years of marketing.
Nirmal Kumar says
You are exactly right, Lora 🙂
Sayan Jana says
Very nice article. I think namecheap is a trusted and a very good company.
Nirmal Kumar says
Yes, Sayan. Namecheap is a very trusted company. I have been using their hosting every time. Now, I consider buying domains too using Namecheap only.
Dieter says
Yes, congrats. This is what I call a complete guide. Marketing agencies earn a lot of money on re-branding exercises and one of the most common things which are made is: shorting the brand name which means also shorten the domain name.
Nirmal Kumar says
Yes, Dieter, the main objective of many rebranding exercises is to shorten the brand name and come up with a new catchy name that will suit their business.
Joma from OutwitTrade says
Cool to see you link to Namecheap. I’ve used them for 13 years now and my experience is that they’re great for registering domains, but not the best for hosting. Are you using Namecheap for hosting this website?
Nirmal Kumar says
Hey Joma,
I am so glad to see your comment here. I have been using Namecheap for 4 years now. I have tried both their domains and hosting. During the starting stage of this blog, I was using Namecheap as hosting. They did offer some good hosting in terms of customer service and performance was decent, even if not the best. And I was using shared hosting at that time.
Once my website has grown to a good stage, I thought I have to move to an even better hosting to make my website competitive in terms of performance. And so, I switched to Cloudways. Now, I love Cloudways like anything. It’s a cloud hosting and super fast. And as good as Namecheap in terms of customer service.
Till today, I am using Namecheap for domain registrations. My domain OnlineRockersHub.com is still under Namecheap. I have even tried switching my domain to GoDaddy, but their price was very high for me.
In my opinion, Namecheap is best for domains. But for hosting, they still need to improve their performance.
Peter Brown says
Informative article!!! Namecheap is a reliable company.
BlogHeist Support says
Hey Peter,
Thanks for dropping by!
We’re glad to know that you have had good experiences with Namecheap.
Choosing a domain name can be a difficult task, and we believe the article was able to provide you with some useful information and help you in your decision-making process. Thanks again for your comment!
Should you’ve any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at https://blogheist.com/contact-us/
Dev Patel says
Choosing a domain name is really important when you are making your own website. Thanks for the blog.
BlogHeist says
Hey Dev!
It’s good to know that our articles prove to be of helpful.
Reach us at: https://blogheist.com/contact-us/ for any assistance.