3 Tips for Choosing the Right Domain Name

We see a ton of new domain names each day– some good, some great, some…well, you know.  Regardless if it’s a blog,  personal website, or a full-scale enterprise presence, choosing the right domain name is crucial in creating a successful website project.

Registering your domain name may be a piece of cake, but deciding on a name isn’t always so easy.

Below are a few simple tips for choosing the right domain name:

1) Make it Relevant – When at all possible, choose a domain name that closely matches your project purpose.  If you’re a business, use your business name when possible.  For personal sites and blogs, focus on your core theme or brand goals when choosing a name.  Remember- your domain name should always relate to and be cohesive with your overall business and brand strategy.

2) Consider your Searchability – Choose a name that is rich in key words that describe or relate to your project/business.  This will help indirectly increase your site visitors as Google will see links that use your domain name.  The benefits are two-fold– you’ll have a domain name that not only reaches your audience but also lands you a little higher in search results.

3) Keep it Simple – Choose a name that people can easily remember.  Avoid unnecessary numbers and lengthy words. If people have to write it down, chances are that it’s too long and they’ll easily forget it.  Heed the basic marketing principle “keep it simple, stupid” and avoid any unnecessary complexities.

With these guidelines as a start, you’ll be well on your way to choosing the right domain name for your business or project needs.   And to our more seasoned site managers, do you have any additional tips to share?

8 Comments.
  1. Good, simple tips here. I would add one more… probably falls under “keep it simple” but think about saying the URL to someone. Do you have to spell it? Does it sound like something else? Does it have dashes? You should be able to tell someone your domain name in, say, a crowded bar and that person should be able to find it the next day.

  2. Brenda

    Thanks for the comment Josh! Definitely agree on the simplicity part. People are more and more bombarded with information and you’ve got to make it as easy as possible for them to remember it.

  3. norbert

    Nice read, thank you both for this 🙂

  4. Drake

    about the simple – the most difficult part is finding a simple AND relevant domain name.

    i dont know about you, but every name i ever searched for was already taken – even when thinking of enigmatic words juggled together from 5 other words, ended up in “that domain is already taken”

    so i dont know about you, but i think domains should be restricted per country and max. 2 domains per topic

    i know people that have some kind of stupid idea and then they register 30 domain names for 1 webpage

    what i want to point out:
    ok after IPv4 we can moove on to IPv6…
    but what do we do when we dont have any letters left for our domains? will we have to write an entire sentense in the future, instead of 1-2 words?

  5. Jake

    I agree great tips, just one add tho, make sure you are going to stick with a project for a time, there is nothing worse than naming your website one thing and then having no use for something that name 2 weeks later.

    This is proberly most relevent of people looking to purchase domains for games and gaming servers.

  6. Michael

    Agreed… using the digit “4” instead of the word “for” is a formula for disaster, for example. Another tip that wasn’t mentioned here is:
    If someone else already owns the .com version, don’t buy the .net version. A classic case is Rent.com vs. Rent.net. Rent.net spent millions on advertising and Rent.com’s hits went up immensely. Only one of them made it – guess which one. (Rent.net is now part of Move.com.)

  7. name

    josh, you have too many words in d.name and images in w.site 🙂

  8. Trevor

    I think a big thing people are missing, is look at it when it’s spelt out, and make sure it can’t be misread.

    A prime example is therapist.com

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