But The New Tlds Have Actually Entered The Fallback Hierarchies So Don’t Miss Out
Below those upper rungs on the ladder, however, everything is up for grabs.
As we descend farther and farther down the hierarchy, domain styles become more vulnerable and rankings more volatile. In the nether regions, we triple the word count, introduce hyphens, deform the name with misspellings, and rely on more obscure suffixes. All sorts of domain names are jockeying for position. .XYZ and .LINK and .CLICK and .PW and .ENTERPRISES and .GURU and .BUZZ and hundreds like them cant displace .COM per se. Theyre like crabs in a pot, dragging any upward climber back down again. That said, these new TLDs are, in fact, gaining ground relative to awkward, cumbersome styles on the left of the dot.
Last week, for example, I reported the rebranding of City.
- Church, which I was happy to call a tremendous improvement over its old address.
- .SPACE may evict a 4-word domain name.
- .PLACE may displace a misspelling.
- And if .BUSINESS or
- .LINK can persuade us to forget older suffixes like .BIZ or .INFO, then theyll claim a small but significant victory.
You Have The Right To Pick Choose And Refuse
The domain name you choose can make or break your business. This is the first impression your prospective customers will have of your business identity, what your brand is about and what products and services you will offer. This is not something you can just throw together it takes careful thought. And while you may have spent a lot of time gruelling over what your domain name was going to be in the first instance, luck would have it that someone beat you to the bunch.
This just means you need to put your thinking cap back on and rearrange your domain name strategy. Your domain name is your digital fingerprint. It is the identity card that will follow your brand and company everywhere so it needs to be concise, memorable and always on the tip of your audience lips.
Try these few tips to help you remix the domain name you already came up with:
Make it Rich with Keywords:
You want to help your website rank high with search engines and represent not only your brand but the products or services you intend to offer. So, search for popular keywords within your industry or effective keywords that pertain to your products or services. Write a list of the highest-ranking keywords. Use Ahrefs, SERPS, Google Correlate, or any other keyword search tool to help you compile a list. Choose the best keyword with the highest ranking that best describes the category of your business, its products, the services or a combination of all.
Keep it Social:
Have Other Options Available:
Look At Alternative Tlds
In most cases, if your domain name is taken, it means the .com is taken. Often, the other TLDs arent taken, so you could technically opt for one of those.
But wait! Dont rush off and buy whatever TLD you can find.
This is a complicated decision.
Here are some of the factors to keep in mind.
First,people trust .com URLs more than any other TLD.
The .com extension has a lot on its side. Its familiar, its been around for a while, and its been the gold standard of TLDs for years.
Second, many people think some TLDs are spammy. People tend to think of .com URLs as safe and other TLDs as unsafe or untrustworthy.
Obviously, thats not always the case, but some people will think that no matter what. They cant get their heads around the idea of a trustworthy site that doesnt end in .com.
Third, alternative TLDs have no SEO advantage. No TLD is inherently better than any other.
That information :
So what does this mean for you?
If you want to use a TLD thats not .com, you can do so without losing any SEO power.
However, your audience might not trust it.
It helps if the TLD is directly related to your business or niche. Twitch, a site that broadcasts users playing video games in real time, smartly uses the .tv TLD:
In the end, you have to consider how easy its going to be for your users to remember your URL and whether or not theyll trust a domain thats not a .com.
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Services Overview And Comparison
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of the most popular domain registration services. GoDaddy is very easy to use due to a large number of video tutorials available on its official YouTube channel. For example, you can watch a step-by-step domain name registration guide on GoDaddy here. Users of all levels are able to easily register domains on GoDaddy.
GoDaddy provides hosting services with unlimited storage and traffic, as well as MySQL database support. GoDaddy provides a website builder and a one-click installation.
GoDaddy features the largest domain name auctions.
Pros
- Long waiting time on phone tech support
- Cannot change themes without losing content
Audience
- Users with little experience and simple projects
Bluehost
Excellent service, it also offers domain registration services along with hosting. Even beginner users can get support using detailed video tutorials for all occasions on its official YouTube channel. For instance, this guide helps you quickly navigate and begin domain registration on Bluehost. Bluehost is designed so that all users can quickly view the demo and understand Bluehost domains and how its services work. Bluehost has a simple and intuitive navigation system, and you can easily configure your email and hosting settings in one click.
Pros
- Convenience and ease of use
- 24/7 tech support
Cons
- Short-term cooperation is not the cheapest
- Lack of tech support by phone
Audience
- Beginner users and professionals
How Do I Find The Best Available Domain Name
If you have an idea for the name you want, start by searching for that. If the name isnt available, well show you our best recommendations for similar, available domain names. Or, if you dont have a specific domain name in mind, just type in keywords that describe your website or project, hit search, and check out the suggestions.
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What To Do If Your Dream Domain Name Is Already Taken
Why is it so hard to find a domain name thats not already taken?
Part of the answer is that years ago business owners, hobbyists, and investors snapped up the obvious ones such as food .com or pets .com.
Another issue is that there are more than 1.9 billion websites now, which means getting your first-choice domain name is not guaranteed.
If your top choice domain name is taken, you can still end up with a great domain name. Here are three solutions to consider based on your goals, your budget, and your willingness to be creative.
Think Outside The Com Box
If youre like most businesses, you prefer to have the .com at the end of your domain name. Right? As you may have guessed, however, many .com names might be unavailable. Dont stress. While .com domain names are still the most-widely used top level domain , generic top level domains are increasing in popularity . To illustrate, heres an example. Lets say your aforementioned idea of bestberlinrecycling.com ends up being taken. Instead of throwing in the towel, why not register that same domain name with another extension? The result could be something like bestberlinrecycling.net or bestberlinrecycling.co.As you can see, alternate TLDs are the perfect way to keep your original brand intact while still remaining searchable. So if you cant register that coveted .com domain name of yours, its not the end of the world. Registering your domain name with another top level extension might not have quite have the visibility of a .com name, but it can still be a great alternative.
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Youve Contacted The Domain Owner Now What
Thats up to you, really. First, you need to see if the person is interested in parting with the domain. Its a good idea, when youre looking up the WHOIS details, to check the date on which the domain was registered. If someone has had the domain for a decade, there may be pretty good odds that theyre not interested in getting rid of it.
That said, its possible the person registered the domain hoping to sell it, but the right buyer just hadnt come along until you did. And, as weve previously mentioned, just because there is no website up for the domain doesnt mean its not in use or not wanted. There are a lot of ways to use domains that dont involve publicly accessible websites. cant just take it for you.)
All you can do is contact the owner and hope they receive the message and reply. If they dont reply, or they say no, theres not much you can do. If they are interested, then you have a chance. And typically, if someone is interested in selling a domain, theyll make it quite easy to contact them.
Add Your Country To The Domain Name
Have you heard of the Nissan domain name lawsuit?
Back in 1994, a company called Nissan Computer Corp registered the domain nissan.com.
It was headed by an entrepreneur named Uzi Nissan who had used the business name since 1980.
Then in 2000, Nissan Motor sued Uzi Nissan. The goal: To get the nissan.com domain name.
The famous car company didnt end up getting the domain. If you type nissan.com into your search bar, youll see Uzi Nissans site:
So what did Nissan Motor do? They added USA to their URL:
This last resort strategy is actually a solid option if youre having domain name problems.
It can actually look quite nicenissanusa.com isnt a bad URL at all, and it still has the brand name in it.
You can also use your city if youre local to a major metropolis. The company Loud Marketing uses Barcelona in their URL:
And The Eugene, a luxury apartment building in New York City, uses the abbreviated NYC:
Its best to use this strategy if you provide services within a certain country or city.
You can use your country in your URL to designate where youre from, but some of your users may think you only work within that country. Think about it carefully before you pull the trigger.
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Change The Domain Ending
So maybe the .com version of your domain name isnt available. Thats not too surprising. After all, .com is far and away the most saturated domain ending, which is to say, youre far more likely to find any given .com registered versus any other domain ending.
If the domain you want is taken, then one option you have is to register it with a different domain ending. But not all domain endings are created equal. There are three main types you can choose from, and you might choose each for different reasons or to serve different purposes. Lets take a look.
Wait For It To Expire
If the owner of a domain name really isnt using it, they might decide to let it expire, at which point the domain name becomes available to anyone to register again. This option is really only available to you if you have time to wait domain names have a minimum registration period of one year and a maximum registration period of 10 years, so even if a current domain name owner isnt interested in keeping their domain name, it could be up to a decade before it becomes available again.
You can also use the Whois to tell when a domain name is set to expire.
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What To Do If The Domain Name You Want Is Taken
If youre doing a domain search and the domain name you want comes up as unavailable, it most likely means that someone already owns it and:
- is using it for a website
- is planning to use it on a site thats not launched yet
- is only using the domain for email addresses
- is keeping it because the name is similar to a domain he/she is actively using and the domain is being redirected to their site
- has an idea for the future and registered the domain in advance
- is just fond of the name
- wants to prevent other entities from using his/her name or brand
Ugh, right? Trying to get the perfect domain can be really frustrating, or, at the very least, really expensive. There are currently 137,510,404 domains registered with .com alone, and as of 2016, were looking at 326.4 million domain names in total. Maybe youll find a diamond in the rough, but its getting harder and harder every day.
Whats a person to do? Well, here are your options.
Wait For The Registration To Expire
If the domain you want is actively being used by the owner, its registry expiration date wont matterthe owner will almost definitely renew the registration. However, if its a parked domain, you might be able to swoop in and buy it right after the current registration expires.
The WHOIS database is where you can find out the expiration date. If its not long from now, you could shelve your domain name decision until you find out if the one thats about to expire is getable.
You can time the domain purchase attempt yourself, or you can pay a domain backordering service to handle it. Companies like NameJet have processes in place that let them automate an attempt to acquire the domain, so it occurs as close to the expiration date as possible.
You can never know the owners plans for the domain. The reasons for parking a domain can change over time a formerly important domain name might lose its value to the owner, compelling them to release it as soon as the current registration expires.
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees when youre waiting out a domain expiration. As with most of the approaches that involve doggedly pursuing your first-choice domain name, your mantra should be, Hey, its worth a shot!
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What Should You Do When Your Com Isnt Available
Before digging into alternative ways of registering your domain name, its important to take a step back and think about your plan on bringing traffic to your website.
If your website will primarily be used in offline advertising like TV commercials, billboards, or business cards, it is critical that your domain be easy to spell.
Inventing a new word might seem like a fantastic idea and an easy way to get your perfect domain, but it can have unintended consequences. One older yet infamous example is that online photo service Flickr lost 3.6 million unique visits a year to Flicker.com.
On the other hand, if organic search is going to be the primary way visitors will find your website, having that perfect domain might not be as important.
On mobile search, domain names arent even visible in organic search results, so that great domain idea wont even have the opportunity to factor into the decision to click on your results.
Even on desktop search, the domain of a result isnt listed in the most prominent way.
For paid marketing channels social or search the domain name will be a very minor factor in the performance of a marketing campaign.