Get your own domain name


Your domain name is the most important element of your website.  It represent how you will be presented on the web and the key word that your clients or future clients will use to find you on the web.  Your first step is to verify the availability of your domain name and ensure your brand is protected.

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How to chose a domain name?

There are many point of view about what is a great domain name.  But here are some guidelines:

  • Keep it Short – The shorter your domain name is then the easier it is for your visitors to remember, the easier it is for your visitors to type, and the easier it is for your visitors to tell others about your domain name.  All of these are good things.
  • Easy to Type – The easier the domain is to type then the better the domain will be.
  • One Possible Spelling – Try to find a domain name that only has one possible spelling.  Make it easy for your website visitors to remember by choosing a domain name without a confusing spelling.
  • Commercial Appeal – Think of how your domain name will look good in a commercial or on a billboard.  This is especially important if you are looking for a business domain name but it is of course important for personal domain names as well.
  • Easily Understood – When someone reads or hears your domain name for the first time then they should be able to easily understand what your website is all about.  Of course, there is often a give and take between trying to find a domain that is easily understood and one that is brandable as well.
  • Copyright Issues – Stay away of domain names that are infringing on an existing copyright.
  • Unique – The more unique a domain name is then the easier it is to remember.  Stay within the constraints of the other rules when searching for a unique domain name but if you can be clever and pull it off then finding a unique domain name can pay off for years to come.
  • No Hyphens – If possible, avoid using a hyphenated domain name. Sure, many businesses will use a domain name with a hyphen but the main problems with hyphenated domain names is that people forget where the hyphens go (or forget them altogether) and hyphenated domain names can lose traffic to similar domain names that do not have hyphens.  A hyphenated domain name can often seem like a cheap substitute for the same domain name without the hyphen in the eyes of many visitors.  You don’t want to send the message to your website visitors that you are settling for second best and not the better domain choice.
  • Singular or Plural – Chose a domain name that makes the most sense when choosing between the singular and plural of the words in your domain name.  One thing that you definitely should do is purchase both the singular and plural variation of your domain name if applicable and then redirect the not as good sounding domain to the best sounding domain.  Remember that for some domain names the singular will sound better than the plural while with others the plural will sound better than the singular.  But to avoid confusion and keep the singular domain away from your competitors then it would be best to buy both of the singular and plural domain names and then redirect the plural domain to the singular one.
  • Keyword Rich – Choose a domain name that contains keywords that are related to your website.  If your site sells books then try and choose a domain name that contains the word “books” in the domain name.  Use our advanced search option for any of our domain checker tools.
  • Type-In Traffic – Type-In traffic is when someone navigates directly to a website by simply typing in what they are looking for and then add “.com” at the end their URL bar in their browser.  If you can find an exact match keyword only domain name then you have a good chance of receiving some type in traffic to the domain and also receiving some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit to using the domain name as well.
  • Avoid Numeral Substitutions – Numerals in a domain can work ok but avoid substituting common words with numerals as they can often be confusing and hard to remember.  For example, try not to use the numeral “4″ instead of “for”, “2″ instead of “to”, etc.
  • Avoid Slang – Stay away from slang spellings of words for the same reasons that you should stay away from numeral substitutions. It is one thing to think up a great brandable name that is easy to remember and quite another to buy a domain name with “u” instead of “you”.
  • Watch Out for the Numeral “0″ – The numeral “0″ is often mistaken for the letter “O” and vice versa.  Make sure that there is no confusion in your domain name.
  • Brandable – A brandable domain name can be helpful in making your site successful.
  • Use a Thesaurus – If you feel stuck when trying to choose your domain name then bring up 2 different tabs: open up a Thesaurus web site in one tab and then our domain checker tool in another tab.  Type in the word or words that most closely describe your website into the thesaurus and then as your find good synonyms then start entering the word combinations into our domain checker tool to instantly check the availability of the domain.
  • Search Dropped Domains – Dropped domains are domains that have just recently changed from registered status to unregistered status.  Many times a company will go out of business, someone is not able to afford the domain registration renewal fee, or someone will just forget to renew their domain name.  When this happens a domain is dropped and available for anyone to snap up and register for themselves.
  • Memorable – If you can easily remember a domain name after hearing it just once then there is a good chance that you have found a memorable domain name.
  • Domain Auctions – Domain auctions can be great sources for finding bargain domain names.  Search through domain names for sale by auction from multiple auction sources.
  • Industry Jargon – While it is important to make sure that your domain name is easily understood by everyone who reads it, at the same time a good strategy can be to use industry jargon specific to your website niche for your domain name. Using industry jargon can increase the credibility of your website in the eyes of your website visitors who are familiar with jargon in your websites niche.
  • Brainstorm – Now you have some guidelines, brainstorm and verify if your domain name is available.  Use our domain Domain checker here.

 

What is TLD (top-level domain) ?

The .com TLD (top-level domain) is by far the most widely used extension for a domain name.  If you are looking for a domain name for a business then it is even more important to choose a .com for your domain name because of the credibility boost that a .com domain name brings.  Yes, there are still some very successful businesses that have domain names ending in .net or .org but just think, as a new business do you really want to chance having a lot of your customers forget that your domain name ends in .net and instead type in your domain name + .com when they go to find your website?  There are some exceptions to this rule of course.  If you run a business that is based in a specific country it can be smart to use a local TLD (.ca for Canada, .au for Australia, .de for Germany, .cn for China, etc.).

 

Do I need the other Extensions (TLD) ?

If you find the perfect domain name ending with .com then it usually makes sense to grab as many of the other common extensions (TLDs) that are available as well and then redirect those other extensions to your domain name that ends in .com.  This has two benefits: when people type in your domain name with .net then they will automatically be redirect to your domain name containing .com and also it will prevent other people from purchasing a domain name that is the same as yours but just with a different extension and potentially stealing traffic away from your website.

 

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