Introduction
A domain name isn’t just the address of your website. According to Handy, a domain name is your brand, your story, and your online identity. With millions of domain names already registered and more being generated every day, you need to stand out. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you choose a name for your website:
The Details
- Choose something that represents your brand and tells what you offer – You don’t just want a name that reflects your website. It should also match your brand name. This is really important since your potential clients or other business opportunities may find you through your website. Even if they don’t have your company card or address for your website, they would be easily able to find your website if it coincides with your brand name. If you use a name that isn’t associated with your business, visitors would be confused and may move on.
- Creative, concise, and memorable – You don’t want a website name that is long, hard to remember, and difficult to pronounce or write down. For that, you don’t want to include numbers or complicate the name in any other way. You want something unique, but easy to remember. You want clients who search and type in your website name to have a smooth experience. Don’t choose website names that can have several variations. For instance, if your website name is “GenericPillowsForYou.com”, it can have variations like “GenericPillowsForU.com”, “GenericPillows4You.com” and more.
- Use keywords for SEO – With good keywords in your website name, the ranking of your website increases on search engines and your website makes more sense to your customers. For instance, if you have an e-commerce website that sells specially designed pillows and mattresses, you may consider adding those keywords to your website name. Your website gets optimized for search engines and it tells people who have no clue about your business, exactly what the website is about.
- Don’t limit yourself and think in the long term – As a hypothetical let’s say you sell pillows and mattresses through your website. “JerrysPillowsandMattresses.com” may sound like a good idea at the moment. However, what if your business gets a significant online boost and you want to expand to furniture or household linen products? Thus, it is important to leave a bit of room for growth and choose a domain name that isn’t too specific and limiting.
- Use the right domain name extension – When it comes to domain extensions, “.com” has an edge over everyone by an unbeatable margin. It’s easy to remember and people automatically assume you have a “.com” extension after your website’s domain name. However, they can be difficult to find. You can consider other extensions like .biz, .info or .net if you can’t find your desired domain name with the .com extension.
Conclusion
Handy suggests that you keep the above things in mind when you choose a domain name for your website. The goal is to make it easy for people to remember and associate with your brand and get a good ranking on Google search.