Do you know how to choose a domain name for business..? A domain name is your website name. It is the address that internet users type in to access your website. The domain name is used to find and identify computers on the internet. Each computer has an IP address, this is a series of numbers but theyre not so easy to remember so to assist in the ease of finding websites, domain names were developed to be used to identify domains on the internet rather than the IP address.

Tips on Choosing a Domain Name

1. Choose a traditional TLD (Top Level Domain) – Well I say choose a traditional TLD, thats really only a .com. Its the default that people expect regardless of which country you are in. The .com is the main accepted TLD and when looking for a domain name, I would be looking for one that is .com…. unless…. you are targeting your own country with your products. Maybe you are selling large products that really are not going to be exported outside your country, so a local TLD would work perfectly. When I first started out in business, I ran a cake design business – www.toonicetoslice.co.uk – I was based in the UK and this worked well for me as I was never going to be shipping my cakes outside the UK so a local TLD was fine.
2. I know I just said to use a traditional TLD, but there are times when a non traditional TLD might actually be better. A non traditional TLD is one like .shop, .club, .store, .blog. Not every domain registrar offers the full compliment of TLD but shop around for the best price. Go Daddy and Namecheap both offer a wider choice of TLD. The non traditional TLD’s are usually more for the local website but they do look unique and unusual and may make your chosen domain stand out above the rest. Even using the TLD creatively like Microsoft Translator did – www.translate.it – the whole domain! How cool! It makes perfect sense and really easy to remember. Adds gravitas to your domain name.
3. Choose a name that resonates with what you are using your website for, make it memorable. To make it a little easier, as this is really a mammoth of a task – I changed mine 3 times until I hit upon a Domain Name Generator which was super helpful. Try Namemesh, its free and will give you hundreds of permutations of your keyword choice. Plus they also show Search Engine Optimised domain names which is really icing on the cake !
4. Its crucial to your success to choose something that is brandable. Something that is unique, easy to pronounce and remember and instils trustworthiness ….. www.noscamhere.com sounds rather iffy, and doesn’t fill anyone with confidence, but www.beatthescams.com is much more trustworthy.
5. Research your chosen domain name, see if there is any domain sounding similar to yours, see what your competitors have used and ensure that your domain isn’t sounding like theirs.
7. Something short and predictable without underscores, hyphens, complicated words, punctuation that will trip up your audience and give them any chance to type it in wrongly. For example www.robinred.com – straightforward and can’t be got wrong so an ideal domain but www.robynred.com would be a real mistake – that is never going to get spelt correctly, its not intuitive and guaranteed for disaster.

Other Tips To Consider

1. Do you want to avoid competition with the domain you have chosen? You might want to consider buying other TLD’s to stop others having a similar domain to yours – .co.uk/.net/.biz/.org – it would contribute to your domain bill but prevents others competing with your domain name. You can redirect any traffic to your main website and avoid mix ups and confusion with your audience.
2. What about mistypes – these could also be worth looking at. Misspellings of a domain name will lose you traffic, you can redirect it to your main website.
3. Don’t stress if your perfect domain is taken. You can see who is using it, whether it is active and if not, and has been parked, approach the owner and see if you can purchase it. Be prepared for a hefty price though. If you can’t get it, go back to Namemesh and try your perfect domain in the generator to see what it brings up that will be good, or better ! Get a similar domain for a much cheaper price for now. www.sumome.com was highly successful but later changed to www.sumo.com for a $1.5million price tag.
4. Make sure you register the corresponding social media names.

Got The Perfect Domain Name?

Once you have found your perfect domain name, you need to go purchase it. There are two ways of doing this….

A. Purchase from a Internet Domain Registrar and Web Hosting Company

This would be a company like Go Daddy or NameCheap. They will sell you a domain name, frequently for only a few dollars, nothing really for most domain names. The really catchy ones or ones spelling out something else will be super expensive, but you’ll see that and decide for yourself if you are willing to pay the price.

Go Daddy And Namecheap also offer web hosting for your website but after that you are on your own as far as building your website, content, SEO, links etc. So if you are a whizz at that, these would work well for you. There is a yearly charge for web hosting.

B. Purchase From a Web Platform Such as Wealthy Affiliate

You can purchase your domain name through Wealthy Affiliate, at no greater cost than doing it through Go Daddy or Namecheap. They will host it automatically without having to get involved with DNS servers etc. They will also install wordpress – the content writing platform, no code required, they will maintain it, offer support, community, webinars, tutorials to enable you to build a successful website. All this is included in a monthly fee that equates to what you would pay anywhere else just in hosting fees.

If you want to try out Wealthy Affiliate for a free week, follow this link and make a decision for yourself as to whether this is the kind of support your want.

Recap On The Points

1. Easy to remember domain name.
2. Easy to type.
3. Keep it short and neat.
4. Target your area.
5. Avoid numbers and hyphens – clearly some make sense – www.sweets4you.com.
6. Make it memorable – www.toonicetoslice.co.uk
7. Research your domain name – check its not like anyone elses.
8. Use appropriate domain name extension.
9. Use the domain name generator.
10. Reflect what you do.
11. Futureproof your domain and put it on auto renew.
12. Get the variants and misspells.

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