One of the most crucial aspects of the website creation process is deciding on a domain name. A domain name is just as important as a company’s name, logo, or product. It should be one-of-a-kind, short, and easy to remember all at once.
The domain name is like the introduction. It serves as the first impression of the brand in question. Therefore, choosing the right domain name becomes a necessity. If the domain is difficult to remember, it might affect the business as prospects would not want to waste their time searching websites. Luckily, domain names are not that difficult to pick. It can be done by conducting some much-needed research and some help from experts.
Keep reading this blog to learn how to choose an effective domain name.
Table of Contents:
- What is a Domain Name?
- 5 Best tips to choose an effective Domain Name
What Is a Domain Name?
A domain name is a website’s unique address. It appears after ‘www.’ in the web address including a unique extension.
It is used to recognize one or more IP addresses. In simple words, a domain name is a text that a user types into a browser to reach a particular website.
The domain name is the address that a DNS (Domain name system) uses to find the websites on the server.
A domain name is unique and cannot be shared with other websites. A single website can have a single domain name.
5 Best Tips to Choose an Effective Domain Name
To grow a business in this digital era, one needs to have a strong online presence for which a website is required. But, just having a website does not guarantee success; it has to be unique and memorable and has to provide some sort of value to the visitor. The first step to building a unique website is to get a good domain name.
Below are the 5 best tips to choose an effective domain name:
1. Keep the domain name short and simple
If the audiences are having trouble remembering the domain name, they are more likely to have difficulty finding the site or abandon their search altogether.
A short and simple name is always easy to remember and straight to the point. When you compare short and simple domain names with the long and complex ones, you will find that shorter ones are more convenient and memorable.
A short, crisp and plain domain can make a business look more professional and exclusive; it is more brandable compared to larger and complex ones. You can see some of the giants in the business have very short and simple domain names such as; Nike, Adidas, Apple, Amazon, or any other major business.
2. Use a domain name generator
Sometimes, it gets hectic to choose a domain name. Businesses do not have much time to invest in deciding on domain names. However, a domain generator can be an effective tool in these situations. It can provide several names with the click of a finger.
Nameboy, Domain Wheel, and Network Solutions are some of the websites that help in generating domain names.
In addition, some web hosting providers are also out there to help a business with domain names. They assist businesses throughout the whole process.
3. Try to reflect the idea with keywords
To tell a brand’s story or purpose, businesses should include the brand idea in the domain name. As a result, they would likely get better engagement. Domain names that contain keywords have a higher chance of engagement with prospects compared to domain names without keywords.
For example, if a business supplies sports goods, they can use ‘sportsgoods.com’ or ‘sportshub.com’.
4. Choose a suitable domain extension
Think about websites that you know are using .com, .org, and .net. Each of these extensions has a different meaning and we expect them to be different. It’s important to choose a domain name with an extension that properly conveys the type of service or organization.
Businesses can choose it at .com. However, due to the limited availability of .com, it is often not that easy. If you can’t protect your favorite domain with the .com extension, you can use another domain extension option to increase the popularity of your site.
5. Avoid using numbers and hyphens
Using hyphens and numbers may seem attractive in domain names, but unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to understand. Audiences can get confused and may not understand the text properly as remembering the place of hyphens and numbers is much more difficult than remembering spellings.
Conclusion
The domain name plays a big role in the strong online presence of a business. When choosing a domain name, use short and simple words. Using a domain generator can help save time. Furthermore, avoiding numbers and hyphens can be very effective. Domain names can also be brandable conveniently if they contain keywords.
Here’s a fun pro tip: Stick with the domain name you had chosen initially as changing the domain name again and again can invoke negative results for the business.