The choice of the domain name is an essential step for the creation of your website. Ideally, you should combine this search with the creation of the company itself, as it is preferable to have the same name for the company and for the website. This can be more complicated when you create the company first, before looking for a domain name. So how to choose a domain name?
It may happen, for example, that all the domain names linked to your company name are unavailable. It is also possible that you manage to find an available domain name, and compatible with the name of your company, but at a very high price. In order to avoid this situation, we propose you to discover here, a detailed guide that will be useful for you to choose your domain name.
The search for a domain name: a difficult task
For a company that wants to ensure a good visibility on the web, the choice of a domain name is very important. Unfortunately, this is sometimes a very difficult task, as it requires a real effort of reflection. Indeed, for your site to be successful, you must find a perfect domain name, not choose just any available one.
To do this, you will have several steps to follow in order to make the right choice. You will have to respect a few rules and tricks, including keyword research, theuse of a domain name generator, etc. In addition, there are several essential criteria that you will have to take into account when making the final choice. It is for all these reasons that the search for a domain name sometimes takes several weeks or more. Given the importance of this name, you must absolutely take the time to choose it well.
Understanding the importance of the domain name
It must be said that even today, some site creators struggle to understand the crucial importance of the domain name. What you need to know is that the domain name represents the address of your site on the Internet. It is the home of your company, which means that it must be easy to remember, so that your customers can find you easily.
This way, even simple visitors will find it easier to come back and make purchases or order services on your site. It is also important to choose an address that suits you perfectly when you create your site, to avoid having to make changes in the future. It is important to note that changing your domain name after the creation of your site can cause major problems, including the total loss of your traffic.
Secondly, the domain name is an element that can inform Internet users about the theme of your site. New visitors or potential customers, who would come across your site by chance, will have more chance to know your field of activity, if you take care to choose your domain name.
Moreover, let's not forget that the domain name can even have an impact on the referencing of your site. It is for all these reasons that the domain name research phase for a website must be considered as a serious and essential task. It is therefore necessary to take the necessary time, and follow the different steps, in order to find several domain name options that may be suitable for your site.
Some tips and tricks to choose your domain name
There are a multitude of domain name options that one can choose for a website. However, given the importance of your web address, you need to make sure you make the best choice possible. To do so, here are a few rules that will be very useful in choosing your domain name.
Make a list of 5 key words
To choose your domain name, you must make sure that it is in line with your company's activity. To do this, you will need a few keywords related to your field of activity. You will need to think of a few words or groups of words that best describe your website's activity. With this list of keywords, you will be able to start creating domain names that may be suitable.
Add prefixes and suffixes to create the complete address of your site, and get an idea of the final result. In the case of a company specializing in pregnancy items for example, you can choose keywords such as pregnancy, baby, mom, delivery, etc. You will then just have to put them together in different ways, until you find the perfect domain name for you.
Choose a unique domain name
To find a good domain name for your website, you must make sure that it is unique. Indeed, if you choose a domain name that looks like the address of another website or a well-known brand, you can be sure that your business will not take off.
You will simply go unnoticed on the web, because even your customers will tend to go to the address of the brand with more notoriety and existing long before you. For this, it is essential to choose a unique domain name. Some people simply misspell the address of an already known site, or simply use a plural or singular version, depending on the words used in the pre-existing domain name.
This is a very bad idea, because without meaning to, you are redirecting all your traffic to another company. So, even if it is more difficult and time-consuming, you should make sure that you create a totally unique address for your website, not similar to any other.
Choose available domain names with the .com suffix
For those who wish to create a brand with potential, and have chances to obtain a great notoriety, it is essential to choose domain names with the .com extension. This is essential to have a successful website, which can be successful in the long run.
It is important to know that for a few years now, there have been several other domain name extensions besides .com. However, these extensions do not offer the same notoriety or the same seriousness as the flagship extension of the web which is none other than .com. Therefore, if you want the address of your website to be easy to remember, and ranked among visitable sites, choose a domain name with the .com extension as a priority.
Choose a domain name that is easy to remember
Another essential criterion for the choice of a domain name is the ease of memorization. As you probably know, in order to obtain a great notoriety and to be quickly known, word of mouth is a very important weapon.
Indeed, it is thanks to the first customers of your company, their comments and their recommendations in their entourage, that you can quickly enrich your customer database. Obviously, for these people to talk about you, they must be able to easily remember your address on the web.
Otherwise, you'll just be the very interesting website whose name no one can remember. Under these conditions, no publicity is possible from your community, even if it had the best intentions. So choose a domain name that can be easily remembered, not only to facilitate word of mouth, but also to allow your community to find you easily online.
It should also be noted that from an SEO perspective, having a domain name that is easy to remember is also a real asset. Indeed, even if you have the best SEO tips and practices to make your brand known, your long-term results will be biased because of a domain name that is difficult to remember.
Choose a domain name that is easy to type
If your domain name must be easy to remember, it must also be easy to type. In other words, choose a spelling that is as simple as possible, to avoid typing errors for Internet users wishing to visit your site. Ideally, the domain name should be spelled the way you mean it.
Also, choose very simple words that everyone knows how to spell. As for the length, this can also be a problem, because nobody wants to type the address of a website indefinitely. So make sure you choose a domain name that is short enough, and easy to write.
Choose an intuitive domain name
Ideally, in the statement of your domain name, we must be able to understand the nature of your services or products. This name should be able to inform about what you offer on your site, either in terms of content or service. This rule is particularly important for new businesses that do not yet have a good reputation.
So, for a company that specializes in car insurance, make sure you have a domain name that is sufficient to understand that your site allows people to sign up for this kind of service. However, if you already have a well-known and well-established brand name in the market, all this may not be necessary. In fact, if people already know you, you can choose a domain name that has no specific connection with your business. This is the case for example with Amazon.com, which no longer needs to be presented.
Choose a domain name as short as possible
As mentioned above, the domain name to choose for your website must be easy to remember and easy to type. For this, the ideal is to opt for a word or a group of words really short. Apart from that, with a short domain name, you will be able to enjoy a better fit on social networks, and during your various marketing campaigns, whether online or offline. Let's also not forget that the length of the domain name can have an influence on the number of characters available in your URL and in the SERPs. The shorter the domain name, the more characters you have available.
Create a brand image to put yourself in the spotlight
To have an effective domain name, the ideal would be to be able to stand out with a brand image. To do this, the first step is to choose a unique domain name. This allows you to easily create value for your business. It is not a matter of simply choosing a combination of words, but you must be able to put them together in an original way, to have an address that inspires professionalism and seriousness.
Do not fall into copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is a mistake that many companies make, especially those who want to quickly become known. Indeed, if you decide to create a website in the form of a blog, to offer content related to an existing product or brand, you should avoid using the name of the brand or product in question in your domain name.
In other words, for the creation of a website aimed at helping consumers to shop better on Amazon for example, one could choose as domain name: Amazonforbeginners.com. This is very tempting, but it would violate Amazon's copyrights. This is a mistake that can sink your business before it even starts.
Drop the hyphens and numbers in your domain name
To successfully create an effective domain name, you must avoid at all costs anything that could be perceived as a complication. As mentioned above, your address must be easy for Internet users to type. It should also be easy to remember. Therefore, including dashes or numbers would be a big mistake.
Furthermore, with symbols or numbers in your domain name, you will unfortunately have a poor ranking in search engines. This also means a reduced performance, as far as your company's brand image is concerned. Moreover, it will be difficult for you to get direct traffic.
Avoid blindly following new trends
We can see today many companies, create their website with domain names quite atypical. We can see strange spelling mistakes, adjectives without interest or a multitude of symbols or hyphens. All these habits are far from optimal for the creation of an effective domain name. Keep in mind that these practices are not necessarily better, because they are new or because many people are doing them.
Steps to follow to choose and reserve your domain name
To choose the most suitable and effective domain name for your business, you will have to follow a few steps.
Choose keywords related to your website
The very first step in the process of creating or choosing a domain name is choosing keywords. As we mentioned above, this step is essential to find a domain name that will provide the maximum amount of information about your business to Internet users. You must therefore find keywords related to the subject of your website.
Not only will you make it easy for people to understand what your site is about, but it could also help Google in the same way. This way, you will have a better chance of being listed on the search engine. For this step, you can use websites or software that work as domain name generators. All you will have to do is to enter the keywords related to your business, in order to get interesting domain name suggestions.
Take into account simple criteria to choose the domain name
Once you have a good selection of domain names likely to interest you, you must make an effective choice. To do so, you can base your choice on very simple criteria. Even if the choice to be made is rather subjective, there are some parameters that can help you find the best domain name for you. These are mainly :
- Find a clear and concise domain name
- Find a domain name that is easy to read and pronounce
- Find a creative and easy to remember domain name.
Find a relevant extension
The third step in choosing your domain name is the extension. There is also a multitude of possible choices at this level. You can choose the most popular ones such as .com, .fr, .org, etc. Most often, the .com extension is considered the best possible option.
It is the extension that is easiest for Internet users to remember, and it is also the extension that gives the most serious image possible. Unfortunately, it can happen that you can't find a domain name related to your activity, with the .com extension. In this case, you can eventually turn to the other options available. For example, you can opt for a geolocalization extension, like .fr for France, .ca for Canada, etc. This can also be an excellent choice for your site.
Reserve the domain name
After all these steps, you should have found the perfect domain name for your website. When you have, you should reserve it immediately. Since it is difficult to find the right name with the right keywords and the right TLD extension, you should not let it pass under your nose. So you should book it and buy a web hosting package for your site right away.
How to choose your domain name: in summary
As you have seen, there are several tips and rules to consider when choosing a domain name. So make sure you follow the tips listed here, to have a better chance of creating an effective domain name for your website. It is on this condition that you can be sure to stand out on the web, and make your company known in a short time.
