Today I’m going to show you how to go about choosing a domain name. So you have an idea for a blog or website and you are ready to start looking into buying a domain name. Today we are looking at what you should be aware of when thinking about buying a domain name. We’ll give you our top tips for getting your online asset off to a great start.
Table of Contents
What To Look Out For When Choosing A Domain Name
Choosing a domain name is not always as simple as it sounds and the name of your website is often the very first impression that your site gives, so it’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
1 – Simplicity
When choosing a domain name you should ensure that the name of your site is something that is easy to remember and easy to type. If you have a complicated or long domain name, it’s likely that people will either just forget it or not bother to try and type it, if it’s too long or too complicated.
2 – Keep It Short
Two to three-word domains are ideal for most webmasters, although some of the best sites online are just one-word domains that are simple and easy to remember. Think of the search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo. Simplicity in very few words is often the best way to achieve an easy to remember domain name.
3 – Consider Branding When Choosing A Domain Name
Depending on what sort of website or blog you are looking to create, forward planning could well be critical. If your brand is going to be an essential part of your website, then it’s something that you need to plan when selecting your domain name. What are the components of your brand, what will your brand name be and are you able to purchase that domain name?
4 – Does it have to be a dot com?
There are people that have argued for a long time that dot com domains are the best. We are here today to clear up the facts! In terms of search engine optimization, a dot com domain is no better than any other type of domain extension. The major benefit of having a dot com domain is the fact that it’s generally the first thing that people think of when searching for a specific site.
5 – Should I choose one of the New Domain TLD’s?
There are now loads of new top-level domain extensions, or TLD’s that you can choose from. Google has confirmed that they will treat these domain names in exactly the same way that they would treat any other type of domain. This gives anyone looking to purchase a new domain a whole range of branding choices and the ability to purchase domain names that might otherwise not be available. For further help with this subject visit our page on: Which domain extension should I choose? (opens in a new window).
6 – No Numbers or Hyphens!
Unless numbers and/or hyphens are required as part of a clever way to make people remember your website, then don’t use them. In general, adding numbers and hyphens to your domain name just makes the name longer, more complicated to remember and harder to type. When choosing a domain name that is similar to another that already exists, never add numbers or hyphens just to make the domain available.
7 – Make It Easy To Type and Spell
Some niches use specific terms or phrases only used within that particular niche or circle. It’s often really good to use niche-specific terms or words within your domain name, but are they easy to spell for everybody? Making your domain name easy to spell and easy to type is a consideration that you should think about, especially if you are using special words or even a made-up word that you might be using to brand your site. Is your domain easy to type and spell?
8 – Be the One and Only
Wherever possible you should try to choose a domain name that is totally unique to you. This will save confusion when your visitors try to remember your site name and try to return to your website. If your name is very similar to another site, you could end up losing some of your traffic, even worse you could be giving traffic away.
9 – Copyright
When selecting a domain name it is very important that you do your research and ensure that you are not breaking copyright laws. If you are in any doubt, don’t purchase the domain! Go back to the drawing board and think again rather than risking the future of your online business.
10 – Keywords
Your domain name should say something about the site that the user is about to visit. When choosing a domain name you may wish to consider using a keyword or phrase that is associated with the niche that your website is targeting. Although targeting keywords within a domain name has very little impact on the search engine optimization of your site these days, using a well-known niche phrase can often make your site more memorable.
11 – Target Your Locality
You might want to consider targeting your local area if you are creating a website for a local community or particular country. Even if you are just creating a personal blog, it’s worth considering the opportunity to perhaps add your location to your domain name, either as a prefix or suffix. For example, you might choose something like “The Las Vegas Blogger” or “Blogging Las Vegas”, you get the idea?
12 – Does your domain name deliver?
It’s important that your domain name actually delivers what it promises too. Depending on the subject of your site, you need to choose a domain name that captures what your site is all about. Visitors won’t stay around on your website for long if they look at your domain name and expect one thing but get another. If your domain name suggests that the website is all about “golf training” then that is what the visitor should find within the site.
13 – Don’t buy a domain for traffic purposes
A couple of years ago, people would buy domain names for their exact match high traffic keywords. Buying a domain name just for the purpose of ranking an exact keyword phrase is a little out of date now and should not be considered. You can still purchase exact match keyword domains, but don’t expect any special treatment from the search engines.
14 – Do Your Research When Choosing A Domain Name
If you are purchasing a brand new domain name you will not have any issues here. However, if you are buying a domain name that has been used previously used then it’s essential that you do your research and ensure that the domain has not been used for anything unethical in the past.
I would love to hear what you have to say about this article! Do you have any experiences or questions that you would like to share? Just enter them in the comment box down below and I will reply or assist you in any way that I can!
Thanks for joining!
I really enjoyed reading your website. It was very informative I also really enjoyed the videos, thank you for putting them on. This is my first day with wealthy affiliate and after reading your material I’m scared because I don’t know if I will be nearly as good as you are. I just pray that I will be able to do this I needed something to take my mind off all the stress I have in my life and believe I think I picked the right thing because I was not able to think about anything cause I was so caught up in reading and watching videos.
Hello Tracey! I’m really sorry that you have a lot of stress in your life right now. I know other people that have taken to creating an online business for various reasons, including needing a distraction. If I could offer you one piece of advice Tracey before you continue your Wealthy Affiliate journey it would be to not compare yourself to anyone else. If you have already joined Wealthy Affiliate then that’s great, you are on the right tracks. But Wealthy Affiliate is very good at distracting you from what is really important when you are building an online business. Sure you can make friends, you can chat about building websites and you can get all your questions answered very quickly. But its also very easy to start looking at other peoples work as I did when I first started and then you start to doubt if you can reach the same level. You should also take very little notice of the Wealthy Affiliate rank, as this is absolutely no indication as to how successful that person is! In fact, take a look at this link – Getting Started With Wealthy Affiliate. This is the advice that I give to everyone that is new to WA. If you would like to connect with me inside WA, you can do so by looking me up under my user name: Andrew-74
I wish you the best of success within WA and I’m glad that you found my article useful too.
Speak to you soon,
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
Those are some excellent tips when considering a domain name for your website. It can be very tricky when coming up with a domain name. I know it took me a while to come up with them. Great point on not getting caught up with a certain domain to try to attract traffic or the SEO’s. I definitely agree with you on trying to tell what your site is about through your domain name. Great article! Very informative!
Yeah I think its always best to give your readers some kind of phrase or easy to remember name that they can then relate to your website. I see sites all the time and some of them have the longest names with lots of hyphens. It must be a nightmare for some of them if they have to tell anyone their domain name!
Thanks for posting!
Thanks Andrew,
I found this list really useful! I am currently struggling to find a good memorable domain name and keep feeling I am banging my head against a brick wall. You have given me a lot of really good direction and I hope I will settle on a name soon!
I looked around at some of your other pages on here and you have some really excellent advice to give. I will definitely be visiting regularly!
Thanks Brian! I’m really pleased that you found this article useful, it can be hard to find the right domain name for your website. I know the feeling but it’s an important decision to make. A while ago I took over a week to come up with a domain name for a site that I was helping someone with. I would try to think of all the related terms that are associated with your niche and then try to build something from that. Think outside the box and try to mix things up a bit, you will know when you have found the right name! One lesson that I learned was to never pick something that I wasn’t totally happy with. If you choose something that you are not entirely happy with, it will always annoy you. You need to work on your website for a long time, so you need to be really happy with the choice that you make.
Good luck with your search! I look forward to seeing you on here again soon.
Regards,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Very helpful tips you are sharing here about how to select a domain name! I wish I had read this article when I was picking my first domain. Mine was certainly keywords, but too long and hard to remember, I had to change it to something else down the road.
As you pointed out, having keywords in the domain does not affect your rankings nowadays. I think something simple and brandable, one that is easy to remember is the best choice.
Yuko
Hi Yuko! Thank you for commenting. I think it’s quite a common mistake to try and go after a keyword within your niche, only to find that you have chosen something too long or over complicated. Having a keyword in the domain name can have a small effect for SEO purposes, but very minimal. Your rankings with come from the content that you create within your website. As you said, short, simple and brandable is the way to go if possible.
I did have doubt with my domain name years ago when I purchased it and wish I had your check list then. All went well with my site except it didn’t get listed on the first page of Google. I’ve learned that it is not so much about the keyword ranking used in my content, it is the content itself must be relevant, original and valuable. I’m not against Google ranking algorithm but I never did follow the rigid advice of SEO gurus.
You have composed a really informative check list and it could have saved us making many unnecessary mistakes! Wish I had read this before I started.
I think sometimes its important to know when things are not quite right. If you are not confident with your domain name for a start then perhaps you need to go back to the drawing board? The domain name isn’t the end of the world, even if its not quite what you had hoped for, its more the quality of your content like you say. I get the feeling that you might be happier starting over with a fresh site? Sometimes we all need to look at the reality of our situation ad learn from our mistakes. SEO is quite important for a site too, you do need to at least know the basics. Sure I agree that you shouldn’t listen to hype and short-cut methods within SEO, but you still need to optimize your site in order to get it ranking well.
I wish you success for the future. Let me know if need any further help.
Great tips Andrew.
I think people get too focused on trying to get the perfect exact match domain name and forget the far more important aspect of online marketing which is producing high quality sites and content.
All the bells and whistles really mean nothing if the content doesn’t give readers any added value and they bounce right off the page.
This is very true, but every good website starts with a good domain name too. In an ideal world, the best scenario is to have both! I think its good to take your time and try to find a domain name that you are happy with. Choosing a domain name can be difficult and its a task that many people get stuck on. Chances are you will be working on your website for a long time, so its not a good start to have a domain name that you are not happy with. My opinion is that people should take their time and be happy with their decition.
I LOVE your article with the 14 tips for choosing your domain name. You included videos that really made those points easier to understand. I like the way you started off your website with “start here” I haven’t seen that done before and I think the two subcategories you included are brilliant. Great review by the way on Wealthy Affiliate – you didn’t miss a beat – the page looks amazing and your content is fantastic! overall I would rate your site as awesome!!
Well thank you Shannon. I’m glad that you found my site so useful, I hope that we will see you on here again.
These 14 tips are really helpful for people looking into building a website. I have found that people typically worry too much about their domain name right off the bat. It is relatively easy to buy a new domain in the future if you come up with a new domain and then just transfer your old website data to the new one. I usually just spend 10 minutes thinking about a name and just go for it!
-Alex
Wow, this is a very bold method of choosing a domain name. Everybody has their own opinion on how to do it, but I like to do a bit more planning than ten minutes! Glad that you found my guide useful, have a great day.
These are all great tips for choosing a domain name. This has helped me no end because I am in the process of choosing my domain now.
Great informative article! Looking forward to more tips on how to make money online! Thanks!
Hello! Thank you. I’m pleased that you liked my article. If you are looking forward to more tips on how to make money online, just stick around because we have lots more information to follow. I wish you all the best and hope that you manage to find the right domain for yourself.
Good article,
Even though I have created my own website now, I enjoyed the recap and verification through this information that indeed, I did do the research and set up right.
For anyone starting up their websites, I highly recommend following Andrews advice. It is a very good checklist for domain research and choice.
All the best.
Beth
Brilliant, thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate that. Glad that you enjoyed my tips and I wish you the best of success with your website Beth.