Shorter Is Always Better
As weve been saying, shorter is better. If you cant get your domain name down to one memorable word , then consider adding one or a maximum of two more words. Combinations of two words work great for memorable names like LifeHacker.com or GeekSquad.com. Also, dont use an acronym. People will never remember the letters unless its a highly catchy name.
Avoid Confusion Through Research
Its ideal to use the same name in your domain and social networks to establish your business as a brand. Thats why its important to perform thorough research before choosing a domain name.
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Check if the name is registered to someone else, and if its available on social media. Always stay away from trademarked names to avoid legal issues. If the name already exists, find another name to create original profiles on social platforms.
Check If Your Domain Name Is Available
Click the link below to check if your name is available find the best name for your blog
A domain must be associated with your page and distinguish you from your competition it should be short, simple and leave a good, lasting impression. It is all about helping a user, who has accidentally found your article, to remember your webpage address and come back to you. If it goes this way, then you have a great domain.
Lets not pretend that choosing a suitable domain name is an easy task. It requires giving it some thought, but do not get discouraged others could do it, so can you! Dont give up and get to work!
Do you want to start your blog? Ill help you get started. All tips on how to do this you can find in my article: How to start a blog. Start today. It is effortless!
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Dont Be Afraid To Abbreviate
Many of the most popular websites use abbreviations in their domains. Two well-known examples include:
- amazonaws.com: AWS stands for . As a standalone domain, amazonwebservices.com sounds a bit awkward. By abbreviating the AWS component, the domain remains short and well branded.
- nytimes.com: The New York Times is one of the best-known publications globally, and NY is a common abbreviation for the city. That means the company can use the shortened version in its domain name.
Abbreviating part of your domain works best if you have a long business name . Its best to keep domain names as short as possible so that theyre easier to remember and dont take long to type.
That data holds true if you look at the most popular websites in the world. Almost all of the 100 most popular sites globally have domain names with two or three words.
Shorter domain names might not guarantee success, but theyre common for the most highly-ranked websites:
Source: Moz.com
While coming up with potential business names, consider possible abbreviations. One-word titles are ideal, but you may have to build a brand from scratch.
Take The Social Media Names Immediately
This is also a very important thing that you need to take action on. Once you defined your domain name and your brand, you need to take all the social media account names. For example, if you created a brand named bweey.com, you need to take the Facebook and other social media names @bweey.
Because people can create a social media account that has your name and use this against you. You need to prevent this issue you need to take all the social media accounts you have. Even if you will not use this as a social media account, you need to take it.
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How To Choose The Right Domain Extension
With a variety of domain name extensions to choose from, how do you know which one is the best for your business? The simple answer is to use the .com extension if its available. I say this because .com is by far the most valuable and used domain extension. According toThe GrowthBadger Blog, its 33 percent more memorable than websites with other top-level domains.
If youre unable to secure the .com extension, the next best alternatives are .net or .org. The latter is traditionally used for non-profit companies, so if that isnt appropriate, you should opt for .net. Alternatively, if you are a smaller company in a certain location, registering a country domain extension like .ca or .uk might be a logical move.
You can also get creative and try some of the newer domain extensions instead of .net or .org. For example, registering the .STORE domain extension would immediately make your ecommerce store stand out from the rest. Whether you have an online store or a brick-and-mortar outlet, newer extensions like these can be a crowd-puller for your business. You can view the list of all available extensionshere.
How Do I Search for a Domain Name? When learning how to find a domain name, there are several things to look into to help you figure out what the best domain name for your brand is. Here are a few tips for finding the perfect domain name:
It’s Okay To Append Or Modify It
If your domain name is not available, it’s okay to go out and add a suffix or a prefix. It is okay to use an alternate TLD extension, like we talked about previously, and it’s okay to be a little bit creative with your online brand.
For example, let’s say my brand name is Pastaterra. Maybe I’ve already got a shop somewhere maybe in the Seattle area and I have been selling pasta at my shop and now I’m going online with it. Well, it is okay for me to do something like ThePastaterra.com, or PastaterraShop.com, or even Pastaterra.net.
With these rules in mind, I would love to hear from all of you about your domain choices, domain name biases, and what you think is working in 2016. Hopefully, we’ll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
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Use The Main Keyword In The Domain Name
This is very much essential for SEO benefits. For example, this blog is all about technology and that is why this domain name has the word Tech in it.
This will help Google to understand what sort of content the blog may have. To get the most out of your domain name, it is preferable to use the keyword at the very beginning of the domain name.
Tip 5 Avoid Silly Mistakes
- Check and respect trademarks – Make sure your chosen name isnt already in use by another company, copyrighted or trademarked. The last thing you want is your brand being confused with another site or brand, or worse, infringing on an existing trademark. An organization entitled People Eating Tasty Animals was once using peta.org. This might have been a coincidence, but the domain was suspended on the grounds of domain name infringement.Even if the address and content were an honest mistake, Its not only confusing for your visitors, but its also confusing for search engines. People searching for your domain name might find their search engine results are full of irrelevant links. On the other end of the spectrum, registering a domain to sell to the trademark owner is not only unlawful, but its also illegal. Thanks to the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, the company Zero Mico software registration of microsoft.com was suspended after Microsoft filed a protest.
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Has The Domain Been Previously Registered
Some domains have been previously registered.
This may or may not be an issue.
Since the old days of SEO and up to the present time, there is an issue with penalties that stick to a domain name.
What happens is that sometime in the past, a spammer used a domain, burned it causing the spammer to let it drop so that the domain becomes available again.
What sometimes happens is that when the next business registers that domain they will find it impossible to rank it for anything meaningful.
The site might pop into the bottom of the top ten once a month for a few days but then it drops back to the second, third page of the search results or worse, nowhere.
Before registering a domain, its wise to visit Archive.org where entering the domain name will show whether the domain has ever been registered.
If the domain has been registered, Archive.org will show an interactive timeline that can be clicked to view previous versions of the websites associated with that domain.
As I understand it, Google does not provide a way to remove a legacy penalty from a domain that received a penalty years earlier.
The Google Search Console will not report that there is a manual action.
So there is no way to submit a reconsideration request for a penalty that the Google Search Console does not acknowledge.
The first time I heard of this happening was to a newbie SEO professional around 2005 who couldnt figure out why his SEO site didnt rank.
Help Yourself To Some Domain Name Generators
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:
- LeanDomainSearch, created by the guys at Automattic . For example, this is what you get when looking up coffee:
- 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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Choose A Content Management System
If you havent already decided which platform youre going to use to build your site, then the first step is to choose a content management system . The reason being is that how you host your site will depend on which platform your site is built on. For the average person building a site, the decision comes down to two main types of platforms: WordPress or an all-in-one website builder, such as Wix, Squarespace or Shopify.
The key differences between WordPress and website builders are ease of use, customization capabilities and cost. While WordPress is a free, open source CMS, it does require third-party web hosting. Its far more flexible giving users the ability to create just about any type of site with just about any functionality. However, it is far more complicated to use and does involve a fairly steep learning curve. Whereas, website builders are designed to make building websites easy. They include web hosting so theres no need to buy and connect web hosting from a third party.
Go For Brandable Domain Names
No domain name strategy list would be complete without talking about the importance of branding.
77% of customers make purchases based on the brand attached to the product. Whats even crazier is that 90% of those decisions are thought to be made subconsciously based on brand associations with positive feelings.
Examples of highly-branded domain names include Amazon, IBM, and Tesla.
Unfortunately, choosing a brandable domain name isnt quite cut and dry as our other tips, but a good test is to say it out loud and see if it sounds like a brand. For example:
- Does: lularoe.com
- Does: doreimefashion.com
- Does not: doreimefasolatido.com
But if youre struggling, there are marketplaces for this, albeit at a pretty penny. Brandpa is one such marketplace. Its lowest ticket item will run you $1,000.
On the plus side, you get a logo with your purchase. Something users form an impression on within the first ten seconds of viewing.
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Tips For Naming Your Tech Business
There are numerous tech businesses out there, with a wide variety of names. Because of that, its all the more important that you come up with a business name that will stand out. Many tech businesses try to use their name to begin painting a picture of a future where whatever your business offers is absolutely key to daily life.
In modern times, there are often two key ways to come up with a quality tech business name that will stand apart from the others. The first is using a brandable name, while the second involves combining words to get the point of your company across.
A brandable name is typically a word that has no real meaning until your company gives it meaning. These kinds of names are great because they are unique, less likely to be already in use, and they give your business the opportunity to define a word that no one has used before. If you need some examples of solid brandable names, consider examples like Xerox and Spotify.
Otherwise, you can also list a variety of words that relate to what your business is about and try combining them in different ways. Some examples of this include Netflix, Advantech, and Comcast.
Use Keywords In Your Domain Name Search
Keywords play a valuable role in the domain name. Keywords in the domain make your website more searchable in search engines like Google.
Using keywords in the domain name, you can target a specific area, category, or niche. It is hard to find a good domain with your target keywords not already taken.
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Choose A Domain Name You Can Actually Legally Own
Infringing on a trademark can mean a really bad day. And, while I realize hardly anyone registers a domain name with the intent to infringe on anything, those things do happen every once in a while.
Therefore, as a rule of thumb, whenever you have a nice domain name idea and youre just about to register it, simply google the name and look through all of the first and second-page results. What youre looking for are businesses that already use this name and operate in a similar market or niche.
If you find anything, you likely need to pick another domain name.
Research Social Media Handles
If you have plans to engage with your visitors or customers, chances are youll want to create social media accounts that are linked to your domain name and website. Therefore, its wise to check your preferred social media sites to see if your domain name is available in handle form.
Alternatively, you can check to see if a variation of your domain name is available. This is a common practice.
If youre not planning to use too many different social media networks, you can easily do this manually. However, if you want a bit of help, is a great way to see all available social media handles at a glance.
This handy tool can provide you with useful information about trademarks. It can also help you manage dozens of social media accounts.
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Use Domain Name Generator
If you have a very difficult time coming up with a unique, and clever name. Or the names that came to your mind are not available and you dont have any other ideas, do not get discouraged! Use Domain Name Generator.The Generator will help you gather the best ideas and it will add some new ones.
Its a great tool, which generates many new domain names based on your indications, and thus stimulate the mind to think and create. You are not obliged to use the names that will be generated. You will see that new ideas will come to your head.
When should you use a Domain Name Generator?
- you dont have any ideas,
- you are in despair because every name that you want to choose is already taken,
- or you want to start a new blog and are looking for purposes to name it.
On the Internet, you will find a lot of domain name generators. Use some of them but dont get attached to just one. It will be enough if you enter the free domain name generator in your browser.
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Register Your New Domain Name
When you find a perfect domain name, make sure you register it so that no one has the opportunity to do it before you.
There are two ways to do it:
- If you dont plan to create a webpage, you may register just your domain name this way you will be sure that no one will take it before you .
- However, if you want to start your webpage immediately and start blogging, you may do it by buying your domain together with hosting. All necessary information is available here: how to start a blog.
Read the article what is a blog to learn more.