Tuesday, March 26, 2024

How Good Is My Domain Name

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Avoid Following The Latest Trends

How to Choose A Good Domain Name

Website names that rely on bizarre misspellings , multiple hyphens or short, generic adjectives arent always the best choices. Look at how many people have started their company name with AAA over the past 50 years just to be listed first in the phone book. How many Fortune 2000 companies are named AAA Corporation? None!

Names Should Tell Stories

Basically, weve partially covered this topic in a previous section. But there are still important naming rules youd better consider before deciding to buy a domain.

Its name should be easy to remember and spell. Keep it simple avoid additional characters, numbers as they will complicate the name entry process for users and create additional opportunities for human errors. Moreover, double-dashed domains such as best-restaurant-texas or buy-car-in-usa associate with intentions to trick the search engines and get high rankings.

Also, try not to exceed the 15-character name length, shorter is always better.

Regarding the use of non-English symbols in the domain name, John Mueller from Google said in a recent video that using non-English URLs for non-English websites is fine and that Google is able to crawl, index and rank them.

Here are a few more tips on domain-naming:

Do You Need A Web Host And A Domain

Its common for domain registrars to offer web hosting services. Its also common for web hosting providers to offer domain registration.

These bundles might seem tempting, but in most cases, you should keep each service separate.

This gives you a lot more flexibility with changing web hosts and/or domain registrars in the future. It also improves the quality of service on both.

Id only recommend registering a domain and getting hosting with the same company if youre not planning to buy more domains in the future.

If youre going to bundle your domain and web host, you should use Bluehost. They are the only provider that is able to nail both of these services.

This is a great option for something specific and simple, such as a blog or small personal site.

Recommended Reading: Register Domain Privately

Look For Short Domains

Shorter domain names are inherently worth more.

Why?

Because theyre easier to type in and easier to remember. With that said, you might find that these domains are more expensive up front, so youll want to determine how much you might be capable of selling it for before making your purchase.

If youre capable of finding a short domain name, its best to purchase it before someone else does. These domains can be scooped up in a matter of seconds, so its worth a shot.

The majority of short domains have already been acquired under the .com extension, however as other extensions become more popular this provides tremendous opportunity.

For example, a short domain like sidehustles.co could be a top tier domain even though it doesnt end with .com.

When Your Domain Name Is Taken What’s The Alternative

How to choose a good domain name

This is a guest post from Joseph Peterson to explain how to rank the best domain name alternatives, when the preferred domain name for your business is already taken.

Joseph is a thought leader on naming and domain names, weekly contributor at industry leading blog DomainNameWire and has participated in our two expert roundups on the new TLDs .

As a branding consultant he continually meets businesses which aren’t able to get their ideal domain name. So now what? In the following he walks us through the “fallback options” to take an analytical approach how to pick the second best domain name.

Listen, Im sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your Brazil travel agency will never live at Amazon.com. Apparently some e-commerce outfit got to the rain forest first. Now what? Time to consider your fallback options. Within this article, I wont tell you which domains are bad or better or best, which you ought to use or care about. Individual situations differ. A doctor writes prescriptions one on one. But here I will say something obvious: People do rank their choices. Equally obvious: Societys habits change over time. So Ill drop some hints about how domain preferences have changed, havent changed, and most likely will and wont change in the future. Beyond that, I propose a less obvious thesis: How other people rank their domain choices will affect how you rank yours … and how they rank you.

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Secure Your Domain Name Fast

Domain names sell quickly. Thankfully, theyre also inexpensive, so register a domain name as soon as possible. If youre having trouble finding an available name, domain registrars like GoDaddy will suggest alternative names during your domain search to help you find the perfect domain name. This is probably the most important of our domain name tips if youve found one you like, get it as soon as you can or someone else might snap it up!

Tips For Including Keywords In Your Domain Name

Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when choosing a domain name with keywords:

  • Always try to include your business or brand name in your domain name
  • Consider adding one or two additional keywords that you are targeting
  • Domain names should be short, catchy and memorable
  • Long exact match domain names are not as effective as they once were
  • A keyword rich domain alone is not an SEO strategy, but it can be beneficial as a part of your overall, integrated SEO strategy

Read Also: How Much Is It To Buy A Domain Name

Its Highly Important To Choose The Right Place To Sell

Although there are so many different places online to sell domain names, its important to stick to the best ones always.

One of my favorites is Flippa. Once you list your domain on Flippa, you may buy some targeted traffic to advertise your domain listing page.

Read Where Should You Start Your Domain Flipping Business?

The above article describes some of the best online platforms to sell a domain name. Hopefully you would make a profitable sale.

But still you should remember to write a great description that focuses on the value of your domain and why someone should purchase it.

Write a description that answers all the questions that an interested buyer might have in mind. Be realistic and dont make false promises.

Visit Flippa and read the descriptions of some of the recently sold domains.

This will help you write your own descriptions.

Selling domain names? Heres a few more domain marketplaces for you.

Afternic

List Your Domain on a Domain Marketplace

Many domain marketplaces attract repeat buyers who search through domain listings each and every day looking to find new domains to add to their domain portfolio. Several marketplaces also utilize domain name distribution networks, allowing them to partner with registrars and increase the visibility of your domain listing around the world.

Sell it at Auction

Similar to eBay, these sites let you create a domain listing, minimum opening bid, and reserve price. Some even allow you to set a buy-now price.

Flippa

What Is A Domain Name Registrar

How To Choose A Good Domain Name For Your Online Business

To put it simply a domain name registrar is a service that lets you register and purchase domain names. Domain name registrars have been accredited by ICANN , which is a non-profit who has been delegated the responsibility to manage the Domain Name System.

Without the domain name system all we would have is confusing and hard-to-remember IP addresses, instead of the easy to use and remember domain names we have today.

For example, lets say youre planning on selling custom Google Pixel cases and you want to build a site around that. Youd head over to a domain name registrar and register the domain name custompixelcases.com. Of course, you could only register this domain name if it is still available.

During this time youd also choose the top-level-domain for your URL. This are the extensions like .com, .org, .co, .io, etc., that follows your custom domain name.

Most domain name registrars today make it dead simple to purchase and renew your domain names, still you need to choose wisely, as each register has their associated positives and negatives. Below well show you what you need to look out for when choosing the right domain name registrar for you.

Recommended Reading: How Much Does It Cost To Register A Domain

Gtlds: Generic Top Level Domains

A generic top-level domain is an extension that does not rely on a country code. There are no specific criteria to get a gTLD. However, some extensions are sponsored by designated agencies or organizations.

Some generic TLDs are restricted to specific types of registrants. For example, an academic institution can use .edu, and a governmental agency can use .gov. If your domain does not fall under particular categories or institutions, you will not be able to use the extension.

Choose A Brandable Name

We all know that branding is crucial to long-term success, but what exactly makes a domain name brandable? There are many factors that come into play here, but the most important ones are as follows:

  • A brandable name has no specific meaning .
  • Its unique your competition doesnt use anything similar.
  • Its easy to memorize not too wordy, no complex vowel combinations.
  • Its easy to pronounce and dictate over the phone.
  • It sounds trustworthy some names can be a little shady by definition, for instance, WinTheLotteryToday.com may be too bold, but Lotterio.com sounds way better.

To make the brainstorming process easier, you can experiment with some combinations of actual words and random suffixes, like I did with the Lotterio.com example above. The main goal here is to create a potential for the domain name to build brand value over time.

In other words, as much as possible, try making sure the name has a good ring to it. It should be fun to say out loud, and not difficult to memorize immediately. Think about the likes of Uber: Its short and snappy, and theres no confusion as to how to spell it even when mentioned in passing in a conversation.

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Always Register Your Domain Name Yourself

Its a good idea to not let anyone else register a domain name for you. Even though its slightly less hassle that way , it can lead to trouble later on.

If someone else registers the domain, youre giving them a hold over you and your website. If you ever want to move away from their services, you can encounter trouble in terms of them not being too eager to transfer the domain over to you and give you full control of it.

Just to name a few bad things that can happen: They may take an awfully long time to complete the transfer, they may try to extort some fees from you to do that, or they may decline completely .

Plus, perhaps most importantly, if the agency/person goes bankrupt or loses access to the domain registrar for whatever reason, you could lose your domain name entirely.

Long story short, always register your domains on your own. Its not that difficult anyway. Heres our step-by-step guide.

What Is Domain Privacy And Do I Need It

Choosing A Website Domain Name Guide

Domain privacy and security is as important to us as it is to you. Without domain privacy, your private and sensitive information may be collected and displayed in ICANN’s WHOIS database when you register your domain. Domain privacy ensures that these details are hidden from the public view. Our Domain Privacy + Protection package will make ICANN display our contact information in lieu of yours.

Read Also: How Much Does It Cost To Register A Domain Name

Choose One Or More Keywords That Represent Your Site

There are a lot of ways to start generating ideas for a domain name. You can simply base your sites domain on your own name, or on your existing business. However, a key ingredient of a truly effective domain name is a strong keyword.

Using keywords in your domain name is smart for the same reasons using them in your content is. The SEO benefits can bring in more traffic by helping your site rank more highly in search engine results. Plus, keywords can help potential visitors better understand your sites focus and niche.

Fortunately, the process of researching keywords for your domain name is the same as finding effective keywords for other uses. You can use tools like and KWFinder to search for terms that have both a high search volume and low competition. Just remember that in this case, youre looking for a keyword that represents your website and content as a whole.

Register Your Corresponding Social Media Handles

Social media is key these days whether we like it or not.

The average web-connected human , and, in total, a month. Thats BILLION.

What Im trying to say is: People are much more likely to check whats going on with your brand on Facebook than by actually visiting your website. This is just one of the reasons why you absolutely have to have your professional profiles set up on the most popular social media sites.

Whenever possible, get the same handles as your domain name. If these are taken, be creative and use some suffixes or prefixes. Some options: now, daily, hq, get, app. For example, my fictional Lotterio.com brand could go by LotterioHQ on Twitter.

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Other Domain Name Types

We focused on the different extension types above. The following are the different available structures of domain names:

Second-Level Domains

Second-level domains are below TLDs in the domain name hierarchy. An SLD is the section of a domain name located on the left side of the last dot. Take www.hostinger.com, for example hostinger is the SLD, and .com is the TLD.

Some domain name registries use an SLD to indicate a specific type of entity registering. For example, academic institutions in the United Kingdom mostly register websites under .ac.uk.

Subdomains

A subdomain is a separate division from a larger domain but still shares the same servers. There is no need to purchase and register a subdomain. Technically, the www on most URLs is a subdomain that indicates a site is part of the world wide web.

The most common use for a subdomain is to organize and divide web content into separate sections. For example, Google uses developers.google.com to provide specific information for developers.

Another use of a subdomain is to create another website with the same name but different languages. Take Wikipedia as an example, which has a separate subdomain for each language. It uses en.wikipedia.org for the English version and es.wikipedia.org for the Spanish one.

Free Domains

A free web address often uses the same structure as subdomains. For example, instead of hostingertutorials.com, it would be hostingertutorials.wordpress.com or hostingertutorials.blogspot.com.

Help Yourself To Some Domain Name Generators

How To Find A Good Domain Name For Your Business

This is another kind of helper that you can use if youre finding it hard to come up with a cool domain name, and thus, by extension, your business name as well.

These tools are very simple to use, but also surprisingly helpful. All they need is one keyword from you a seed keyword and, in return, they give you tens or even hundreds of suggestions, full of valid and available domain names that you can register right away.

The best such tools include:

  • Business name generator by Shopify works similarly to the above, and also helps you build a Shopify store with the domain name of your choice.
  • Nameboy is a bit more old-school especially in its design but its still useful. This one needs more specific input, and does a better job once you have a general direction you want to follow with your name.

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