domains

How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Business

Last modified: January 13, 2020

Cloudways

Securing a good domain name is essential for a business website. It’s a big step when you’re about to begin working on a new project and that should reflect your company’s identity while also improving your site’s SEO as well.

In this article, you will learn how to pick the most fitting domain name for your business and how it benefits your website overall.

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Why is a Good Domain Name Important?

Owning a fitting web address will help your target audience stick to your brand, especially if the domain name is unique and memorable. It’s the first thing your audience will come across when accessing your website, so first impressions are important.

Here’s what you should look for in a good domain name:

  • Brand recognition – distinguishing yourself from other competitors by coming up with a creative name for your brand. Memorable and easy to pronounce are key elements.
  • Site identity – your domain name should reflect your company’s overall direction and goal. You want to give a basic idea of what your brand is all about.
  • Improved SEO – allowing target keywords related to your business, that way your website comes out as relevant to your target audience’s queries.

Keep in mind that these benefits can’t be solely achieved using a good domain name alone. For that, you still need to implement branding for your site and SEO practices.

How to Choose a Good Domain Name

If you want to get a good domain name easily, try using a domain name generator. These tools suggest a list of domain name options based on the keywords you type in. Most of the time, they allow you to purchase a domain name right away.

Check out the following list for more information about domain name generators – https://hostinger.com/tutorials/domain-name-generators/.

Overall, choosing a domain name can be tricky. Here are some tips on where you should begin.

Find Keywords Representing Your Brand

Putting keywords related to your niche in the domain name will help visitors understand your business. To find the right keywords, you can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest. Ideally, you should pick a keyword with low competition and high search volume.

For example, if you’re selling bread and pastry, you might want to put the word “bakery” in your domain name. To check whether it has a good amount of search volume, use the keyword research tool.

Ubersuggest

If it does, you might want to consider using it. However, keep in mind that randomly adding keywords to your address won’t do your site any good. It’ll make your domain name look unprofessional. Google even disapproves of keyword stuffing for both the domain name and its content. Keep in mind, that if a keyword has high volume, its difficulty will most likely be fairly high as well.

Make It Stand Out

It’s important to make your domain name one of a kind. Make it short and concise, so try not to go over the 12 character range. It ought to be catchy and should mirror your brand’s character and image.

Try to avoid using numbers and hyphens, otherwise, it’ll be difficult to spell the address. For example, address like firstsiteguide.com is easier to spell than 1st-site-guide.com.

Be careful when using vowels and consonants. Make sure your visitors won’t mistype “i” as “y” or “f” as “v”. Go ahead and ask your team or your potential visitors about the clarity of the domain name. If it gives them a hard time to remember, you might want to change it.

Pick the Right TLD

It’s essential to choose the right top-level domain or TLD for short. One of the most well-known TLDs is .com and arguably the best choice due to its familiarity and availability.

However, if it’s unavailable or you want to pick a different extension, there are other options you can choose from. For example, .net, and .org are among the most common ones.

Back in the day, TLDs were used to identify a website by its type. While that still applies to some domain extensions such as .gov for government or .mil military websites, nowadays TLDs are not as defined as they used to be.

You might even want to consider using a Country Code TLD (ccTLD) if your business is targeting a specific market. For example, .uk (the United Kingdom), .de (Germany), and .ca (Canada) to name a few.

domain extensions

Abide Trademark Laws

Your domain name should not infringe on any trademarks of other brands. Otherwise, you might get sued by the company or run into any other legal issues.

Therefore, it’s important to give a unique distinction to your address. For example, if you plan to use johnsbakery.store, but another brand is already using johnsbakery.com, your best option would be to find another name.

Using a similar name, your visitors might get confused and enter your competitor’s website instead. This will affect your website’s traffic rate or simply make your site appear unoriginal

Check out this website for more information about whether your domain name infringes on any current existing trademarks.

Conclusion

Owning a good domain name is a crucial step when building a website. It offers better brand recognition, clear site identity, and benefits your overall SEO. It just might become the forefront of your online marketing strategy, so it’s better to think of one now than changing it later.

In this article, you’ve learned how to choose a good domain name for your business. Here’s a quick recap:

  • Keywords to represent your brand – look for keywords related to your niche in the domain name, but avoid keyword stuffing at all costs.
  • Make it stand out – choose a short, concise, and catchy domain name.
  • Pick the right TLD – select a TLD that will both provide your website with more traffic and will fit your site’s overall purpose.
  • Abide trademark laws – check whether your domain name infringes on an existing trademark.

That’s about it! Good luck and we hope you’ll find the best domain name for your website.

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