What’s A Good Domain Name

Avoid Hyphens And Numbers In Your Domain Name

When choosing a domain name for SEO, its always better to avoid hyphens and numbers.

Hyphens and numbers make it harder to pronounce.

Lets take Apple.com as an example.

Apple.com is a very short domain name and is easy to pronounce. More than that Apple.com sounds like a brand.

What if there were any hyphens or numbers in the name like App-le.com or Number1Apple.com, of course, the company could not have spread so promptly if that was the case.

So, if you are finding a domain name for your new website, always keep it simple and avoid hyphens and numbers.

Tips To Choose An Seo

Choosing the right domain name is crucial for your new website. Its the initial step to build a brand online where most beginners fail.

Picking an SEO-friendly domain name is not as easy as it sounds. It takes time and a lot of consideration.

If you pick the wrong domain name, you may end up losing search traffic, revenue, or the worst that can happen, Google will mark your website as spam.

But dont worry. Ive got you covered.

In this article, I will share eight tips that will help you choose an SEO-friendly domain name for your new website.

Dont have a website yet? Read this guide on How to Start a Blog!

Do Your Domain Name Research

Once youve narrowed your search down to a few candidates, you can use a research tool to determine if its available.

However, just because the domain name is available doesnt mean someone else doesnt have a valid claim to it. To be safe, youll want to perform a trademark search before making your choice.

Its also best to make sure you can secure appropriate social media handles. If you cant get an exact match, try finding something that makes sense with your domain name.

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Develop A Competitive Edge

A personal domain name puts you on a more even playing field in comparison to big companies, helping you compete alongside every one of your competitors even if theyre much bigger.

To put it bluntly, every well-known business has an independent domain name these days. As such, a unique domain name is just part of the process of starting a business in 2019. It can form a big part of your growth, and might even be the first step to your businesss long success.

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.

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Stay Unique Specific And On

With all of these things to keep in mind, it can be hard to brainstorm a domain name that is clear and concise while also remaining unique and true to your business.

But it’s certainly doable. Keep your business name and what you sell at the front of your mind, and dig into your niche to make sure your domain name is also attracting the online audience you want.

Select The Best Domain Name Based On Some Simple Criteria

At this point, youre ready to narrow down your shortlist and finish out the process of how to choose a domain name. Part of this process is subjective after all, its important to choose a domain name you like. However, there are also some simple criteria you can use to make the decision easier.

For best results, youll want to pick a domain name that is:

• Concise and clear. Long and confusing names are harder to remember and easier to mistype.
• Creative and memorable. The more unique you can make your domain name , the more memorable it will be.
• Easy to read and pronounce. Avoid numbers and special characters because theyre confusing when spoken aloud. Its also worth asking your friends to pronounce it as well, so you avoid accidentally ending up on this list.

Finally, its also important to carefully consider your domain names Top-Level Domain .

In simple terms, this is the part at the end .com, .org, .net, and so on. For many sites, .com is the best choice, since its what most visitors will expect and is easiest to remember. However, its getting harder and harder to find quality .com domain names, and users are becoming more accustomed to other extensions. So if you absolutely love a non-.com name, go ahead and buy it.

The only thing to be careful with is TLDs that apply to a specific region . to help goetarget websites, so only pick those extensions if you really do want Google to geotarget your site.

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How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Personal Brand Website

By on July 22, 2019

Are you a personal brand whos just getting started? Are you wondering what would make a great domain name for your personal brand website? This is a question we get asked a lot by our clients and by the members of our membership, Make Your Mark Online. So lets look at some of the options available to you.

How To Come Up With A Good Domain Name

In this article, you will learn how to come up with a good domain name for your blog or website. Youll find out what the best domain extensions are, how to choose a good prefix, and when to go premium.

You will also learn how to buy a domain name, and what questions to ask when buying one.

Finally, you will find out when it is worth it to buy a premium domain name, and when it is better to go with a free domain.

First things first

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Shop Around To Find The Best Price

Even though all domain registrars offer the same product they register a domain name on your behalf the pricing can sometimes be very different. For that reason, its always a good idea to shop around with different registrars and compare the prices of the domain name you want to get.

Just to give you an example, if youre after a .co domain extension a fairly popular choice these days youll find out that the same domain will cost you:

• $11.99 at GoDaddy
• $6.88 at Namecheap
• $32.50 at ENOM, and so on.

Now, Im not saying that Namecheap is always the cheapest, because its not. The price always depends on the specific TLD you want to get, so always go to multiple registrars and see whats up.

Also, just a general note: Always keep your login credentials to the registrars user panel very secure. If anyone gets access to that panel, theyll be able to transfer your domain to their account .

Which brings me to:

Avoid Hyphens Numbers And Doubled Letters

Each of these elements is another hurdle for users to attempt to jump just to access your website. It’s not exactly intuitive to keep these characters in mind, and doubled letters can make the domain name messy and hard to read.

Not to mention, all of these elements are susceptible to becoming typos as users try to search the internet for your business website. If you’re sharing your website via word-of-mouth to clients, it’s also much harder to convey the domain name clearly when it is jumbled with hyphens, numbers, and the same letters back-to-back.

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Avoid Cutesy Names And Abbreviations

Dont use cute shorteners like 4U and 2U in your domain names because:

• Theyre hard to remember.
• They look unprofessional.
• Only Prince could get away with that, and 4 real UR not Prince.

If you think people might have trouble remembering long URLs, know that theyll have a field day trying to remember your text-speak domain name! Steer clear and look for alternative domain names that convey your companys brand messaging without resorting to tricks like these.

Make Sure Its Easy To Type And Memorable

Finding a domain name thats easy to remember is very important to success online.

If you have a complex domain name such as jjkmysitee.com it is very hard for users to type. Its also very hard to remember for them.

Now think, if your users want to revisit your website, your domain name will confuse them, and if they mistype your domain name, they will end up visiting another website. Not to mention, this way you will lose your visitors as well as revenue.

Just think how successful sites or companies choose their domain name. For example, Google, Facebook, BBC, Twitter, Yahoo, etc.

One thing they have in common is that theyre all simple to spell.

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Why It Pays To Put Some Thought Into Your Domain Name

Your domain name is your websites home address on the Internet. And while its not the only thing that affects your sites success, there are tons of reasons its important to choose a domain name carefully:

• A unique, memorable name is more likely to stick with visitors and encourage them to return.
• Your domain name can immediately give new visitors an idea of what your site is all about.
• Domain names have an impact on Search Engine Optimization .
• Changing your domain name after creating your site can lead to time-consuming complications.

Names have power this is as true for a website as for anything else. Picking the right domain name should therefore be a careful process, and youll want to consider all of your options before settling on a winner.

Be Descriptive And Interesting

While it does not pay to create a domain name thats as long as your browsers window, when it comes to thinking of engaging URLs or a real estate domain name that has keyword value, the more the descriptive you can be, the better.

For example, if your real estate business is centered around helping clients buy and sell lakefront properties, or you strive to assist older couples in downsizing to more manageable spaces after they retire, your domain name should reflect that.

For example, take a look at the commercial real estate website design ideas for these sites specializing in buying a restaurant or franchise business. Their real estate website domain name says exactly what theyre about.

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Okay Im Ready To Choose Whats The Next Step

Consider all of the points raised here to help you come up with the best strategy for your online presence. Dont just jump in blind and possibly waste time and money or worse set yourself up for failure. Think of your domain name as a billboard for your brand. Dont you want it to be well-lit, credible, and instantly recognizable?

A higher quality domain name speaks to a higher quality brand. Its how people talk about your business, how they find you on the internet, and how they will remember you. More than anything, you want your domain name to tell the story of your business one of trust, reliability and longevity.

Visit Verisign.com today to discover the next chapter in your online story.

This content was produced by WIRED Brand Lab in collaboration with Verisign.

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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Use Domain Name Generators For New Domain Ideas

There is no wonder that most of the good domain names are already registered.

Luckily, there is a way you can generate hundreds of thousands of domain names. Thats where a domain name generator comes into play.

Basically, a domain name generator automatically adds relevant and most common suffixes.

NameCheap is a great domain name generator tool. Heres how to use this tool to generate an unlimited number of domain name ideas.

Keep Your Domain Name Short & Simple:

It will also help people to remember your website if you keep the domain name concise. The websites mentioned above all have relatively short names.

In fact, most popular websites only have one or two words.

If you try to make your domain name sound like a passage straight out of Shakespeare, then you wont have much luck with generating traffic.

Basically, do not create a name that is overly complex. Instead, focus on creating a title that is not only easy, but short enough to be remembered.

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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: