5 Tips for Selecting the Perfect Domain Name

How hard it could be to find a nice domain name?

More than a few budding internet marketers think that finding a relevant and catchy domain name is easy-peasy. All they need to do is come up with an attractive name and it will be theirs to have.

Do you think that’s true?

If you said yes, you couldn’t be more wrong.

When you actually get to registering a domain name for your website, you are likely to realize what you considered a stroll in the park is an exhausting hike.

You see, there are more than 333.8M registered domain names. In all probability, any name obviously linked to your business is already taken.

So, what should you do then?

Get Creative

How do you find the right domain name?

Get creative. Think of a descriptive name that will give visitors a fair idea of what your site is all about. That said, make sure that your domain name is not awfully long and doesn’t contain foreign words, hyphens, and numbers.

Another strategy is to opt for a brandable name that may or may not be linked to your business. Brandable names have a nice ring to them when you pronounce them, and hence are easy to remember.

What else should you keep in mind when choosing a domain name?

Here are 5 important tips for picking a domain name:

 

1. Opt for the dot-com

There are many top-level domains (TLDs), meaning whatever follows after the “dot” symbol (dot-com, dot-net, etc.). However, as the following infographic shows, dot-com is by far the largest TLD, used by 133.9M websites. 

While other fancy TLDs may look tempting, the most popular TLD is recommended. There are two reasons why picking dot-com is almost always advantageous.

People are very familiar with it. Most assume that a website automatically has the dot-com TLD at the end and type it in the browser by default.

Almost 75% of Fortune 500 companies use TLD. Overall, nearly 47% of all sites end with dot-com. All these websites can’t be wrong, now can they?

But what if your ideal dot-com is already taken? Then what?

You should either choose another name or get in touch with the owner of that domain name to check if they are interested in selling it. However, purchasing a domain from its current owner, especially a reputable one, is not cheap.

 

2. Sometimes another TLD makes more sense

I know. You are going to say I’m contradicting what I said earlier.

But, the thing is, every rule has an exception. Sometimes going for the dot-com TLD just doesn’t make sense.

For instance, let’s say you are building a blog site that caters exclusively to a Spanish audience. You will benefit more from picking a local TLD, which in this case is dot-es, than the global dot-com TLD.

Picking a local TLD will help you build awareness and also trustworthiness. Seeing the dot-es TLD, users will understand that this blog is by a local person (that is a person residing in Spain or a Spanish citizen) for Spanish speakers only.

 

3. Buy other main TLDs too

Securing your main domain name extension is just the first step. You should also purchase other popular TLDs and set them to redirect viewers to your primary TLD.

For instance, if your primary address is contentking.com, you should also consider purchasing domain names such as:

• contentking.co
• contentking.net
• contentking.in
• contentking.org, etc.

Buying these extra domain names mean extra expenditure, but this strategy can help prevent trouble in the future.

Imagine what will happen if your competitors start using the same domain name with another TLD to piggyback on your success?

 

4. Purchase the most likely misspellings of your registered name

Needless to say, this will further increase your domain bill. Still, you might benefit from buying the most common misspellings of your domain, particularly if your domain name can be spelled differently or is a little tricky to spell.  

 

5. Avoid a clumsy coined name

Sometimes inventing a coined name by mashing two words may work to your advantage if the new word sounds and appears smooth. However, using a coined name just to appear different can do you more harm than good. Clunky coined names, such as Teaosophy, are not only difficult to spell but also sound unnatural.

Overall, choosing the right domain name requires creative and strategic thinking.

It is well worth the time investment, though. Read on to see the true power of domain names.