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How to choose right domain name when registering



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How to choose right domain name when registering

Many people assume that as long as the domain name is easy to remember, relevant to your website and that is enough. That is not wholly the case. You have to bear in mind that your domain name only represents the online identity of your business. You may have great products or ideas for your website but picking an appropriate name for your site is one of the daunting tasks you have do, and it can be rather be challenging.

6 reasons why careful consideration should be given to the Domain Name you choose.

Your domain name is also your URL

Many people often seek a domain name that match a keyword of a product they’re selling right into their browser, for example if you’re selling baby toys and you’d want your URL to be “baby toys dot com” and it is therefore stands to reason that your URL should reflect the product or service you are selling.

Well, let me tell you that is not really necessary. Don’t get me wrong; having a keyword rich domain name can help with search engine rankings. However don’t base your domain name purely on keywords as you may want to expand with more products or services later on your site. Buying Australian domain name may be a better choice for you in some instances, if you target customers from Australia, you don’t want to buy a dot com, but a .com.au and such URL tend to go for less money, it depends where you make the purchase.

Hyphenated or not?

Disadvantage: Spelling typos occur easily. If I say to a friend that I visited the “free-digital-marekting” site and he should try it. He may try “freedigitalmarketing”. So you see how the hyphens in a domain name might not be advantageous because it is easy to forget the hyphens and generally it can be a pain in the neck.

Advantage: Search engines can distinguish your keywords better if they are hyphenated as they stand apart and the name you want may no longer be available in non-hyphenated form.

The shorter the better

A shorter name is easier to remember, less chance of spelling mistakes when typing it into the browser and good for word of mouth.

It MUST be relevant to your website

If you choose a domain name that represents your product or service you are offering, you are setting a solid foundation for the success of your business.

Trademarks

Be careful not to pick a name for your online business that already belongs to someone or a company. It could result in a legal battle! I’m not talking about an URL name, there’s no way you’d be able to buy or register it anyway.

Choose the right domain extension for your market or country

For instance, if you aim to launch a website and your target is in Canada, then you might want to pick a domain with .ca ending which is a Domain name Registration Canada.

I want to add that personally I like having my domain name registered with the same hosting company, but some might differ. Conduct a domain name search campaign and good luck with finding the most appropriate one for setting up your online presence. You’re going to have to come up with a unique name for your site by yourself.

Comments

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Everett
I would like to also point out that before registering your domain, do a little "background" check and see if the domain was registered in the past. This is to help you understand if the domain was used as part of a business, or personal website. This can also help you understand if there is any backlinks, or even if the domain was involved in any scam or spam activity.

How to find out if the domain was previously registered?
  • Search the domain via Google, see if any WHO IS records show up, or any other activities suggesting the domain was once registered before
  • Go to Wayback Machine, enter your domain, and see if there is any history

This will help you in the long run, and you won't have any hassles if something were to occur at some point in the future.



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anwebservices
That's very much true. In the past i was so happy to find one of domain names available to register because it was very good keywords in it. But after i realized that previously it had fake Pagerank and it was banned by Google search, so after all it was waste of money and time, so your suggestion is right and some more research should be done, beside searching for available name



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augusta
This was really insightful though I had read almost a similar piece before buying my first domain name, it very important not to bear same name with a renowned company out of ignorance one can be sued and really true domain names should be Short and not hyphenated.



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Cristian
I agree, your domain name must somehow ring a bell about the niche of your business but having long keywords in your domain name is long gone from an SEO point of view, so stay away from those, Google seems to prefer brand names, so even if you don't find anything related to your business you can always create your own brand name and if you are good enough Google will actually associate your brand name WITH relevant keywords in your industry.



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Lynne
I am learning more and more about how your domain name can benefit you or maybe be not so great. I have two websites that have long domain names but they are related to my niche on that website.

I can only learn and do better in future with my choice of domain names. I have a new website that I am going to be building soon and I have found the perfect domain available so I am really excited. It was the first domain name that I wanted and it is right there for the taking... so excuse me if I don't share what it is LOL.



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EliteWriter
Several good points made here about domain name registration. It is very important to consider all of them to make sure you choose well. After all the domain name is practically as important as your business name. It needs to be meaningful but memorable, and not too long. You need to consider various things such as whether there are any similar names, and whether you could end up practically copying someone else's name.



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coolavender
I'm taking this business name-domain name connection seriously. My next project is to set up a corporation with me, my siblings, and some friends as incorporators. I'm searching for a registered name and a domain name that will match each other and it's not easy. Thankfully, I can just use the internet to try to search for unclaimed legal name and domain name. Even then, it's taking me some time to find a common name. I believe that having the same name for both registration can help boost each other's credibility. A new company with an online presence can certainly benefit from the exposure.



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Scholarkin
Great insight there. We should always not be in haste to register any domain name. Careful research /investigations must be done so as not to lead us to the law court as a result of infringement.



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vinaya
The domain name should contain your primary keyword. If the keyword you want for your domain is already taken try to break down it into a niche. For example, you want to register travel.com, however, it is already taken. You break down the niche. Your travel website focuses in traveling to Nepal, you go for travelnepal. You find, this name is also taken, you again break down the niche, you go for NepalTrekking.
Your domain should also be short. Do not use stop words, or special characters. You might use number though.



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