Photo credit: Caveman 92223
Why is choosing the best domain name for your website, blog or even forum is extremely important.
I’m pretty sure when you learn about branding is so powerful. Just look at MacDonalds, Ferrari and Nike, they aren’t related product companies but why are they widely recognized worldwide all the time. It’s all about their brand/name.
Alright, let me cut the crap and get down to choosing the best domain name for yourself.
First and most important step, is that you must come up with relevant keywords to your website’s targetting market.
I compile a list of key steps that you will need in order to find your best domain name:
- Keep it short & sweet – Although long names seems unique but shorter names are proven to be easier to remember by many. They look pretty neat and nice on logos and signboards too.
- No difficult words please – Nobody will want their readers/customers to face difficulty in pronouncing their brands/names.
- Hyphens & numbers sux – You would never want hyphens or numbers in your domain names as it will become a catastrophe pronouncing it. Would you rather have your domain name as “www.yourname.com” or “www.your-name.com” and imagine spelling out 7 or seven.
- Dot com rules big time – Always register Dot com domains. Mostly people acknowledge Dot com domains as real deal sites that are worth surfing at. That’s one of the reason why domain companies charge Dot com domains compared to Dot info.
- Thesaurus is your best friend – It’s the best resource book that you can check to come up with catchy and relevant words. It’s also a time-saver for alot of bloggers and copywriters.
There you have it. My small list of how you can apply o choose the best domain name for yourself. If you do have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to write in a comment below and I will update them up here. Thanks!
No related posts.
Diana Freedman (9)
Blog for Beginners (4)
KC TAN (4)
Ben Pei (3)
David Wilkinson (3)
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I try to always get .coms! and love using thesaurus for domain names. In fact I used it for my latest purchase!
Yeah Tom.. I simply couldn’t live with my thesaurus.. My saviour at times..
I hadn’t thought the idea of using a thesaurus to get a domain name that fits with the idea that you want to represent. It sure could assist quite a bit, and now that I think about it, is probably used by numerous site-owners that wanted to be in a category where many sites already were.
I am definitely pro .com and anti-hyphen. The only time I’d get a .net is if the .com was taken and not being used. So, if someone were to type .com by mistake, it wouldn’t benefit a competitor. I would also make sure that the .net would be keyword rich, so I wouldn’t rely on type ins.
I think it’s really important to get a .com URL. Even if you find a great .net domain name, it’s a reflex for people to type in .com at the end of the URL… so that’s a lot of traffic that you’ll be missing out on if they end up confused at a site they didn’t mean to look at.
GoDaddy makes it easy to brainstorm alternatives because of their automatic suggestions. Even though it seems like every domain name out there is taken, it’s not, especially if you get creative.
And @drivelocity, I agree, I’m also anti-hyphen.
@drivelocity – I won’t say I’m anti-hyphen as this blog started out with a hyphenated domain until I bought this this domain eventually.
Hyphenated domains doesn’t really affect SEO any big deals but they do sounds weird if you are telling someone that web domain verbally. I’m pretty sure it sounds crappy.
@Diana – Although it’s a fact that .com domains are highly in demand compare to .net domains but if there are certain domains that you really like but only their .net domains are available, I still think it’s worth a shot.
A very good example will be Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info
Didn’t know about it. Very nice information. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
Yes, short and sweet. Just like your post. Well put. I agree, it’s a dot com world. Ignore this fact at your own risk. I would never seriously market a dot net or dot org unless I also had secured the dot com version. It would be like opening a store on the same street with the same business name as someone else except their store is in the beginning of the street and yours is sitting in an alley way.