How to Choose a Domain Name

You’re all excited now, wanting to begin your online presence with a paid web hosting. But wait! You still have yet to figure out that best domain name for your website.

Picking a good domain name for your website as it will be your identity on the World Wide Web. Find the perfect website name can be challenging as a lot of great names have been already taken.

With these simple steps, you will be able to learn how to choose a domain name for your website:

Step 1 – Reflects your company name or business

If you’re building a website to promote your existing business, then you will need to have a matching website domain name to your company name or business.

Step 2 – Is it Memorable?

If you are starting your website without having an existing business to link to it, then ask yourself…Can people remember your domain name after they have left your website?

The best way to do this is to brainstorm a few names and circulate them to your family and friends to ask them which names they are likely to remember.

Avoid choosing a domain name with words that are spelled wrongly. You should also avoid having any hyphens and numbers in your website name.

Step 3 – Keep it Short

Avoid having a complex and long web domain name. This is because people may not be able to remember a website name that is too long.

Step 4 – Keywords

It’s advisable to use keywords that relate to the key niche of your business or services, especially if this business can be brought offline as well.

For instance, if you would to provide wedding services, then your website domain should potentially have word ‘wedding’ in it. This is so that your potential customers will know what your business is about.

This will also help you to rank better in search engines so that you will get more traffic to your website. The print screen below shows the top three websites that appeared on Google when I typed ‘wedding services’ in the Google search bar.

Step 5 – Include Geographic Terms (only if applicable)

If your business only provides services to a certain geographic area, then you can add the location in your domain name. But if you have plans to expand your business to the whole world and not limit yourself to a certain area, do not include geographic terms.

An example of a domain name with geographic term is weddingservicesmelbourne.com.au (see below).

You can of course exclude the geographic term altogether even though you service within that area. The choice is yours.

Step 6 – Choose a .com…if possible

It’s advisable to choose a .com for your website domain name simply because it’s the most recognisable compared to the other TLD (Top Level Domain).

Step 7 – Research the name

Before you register your domain name, check and be 100% sure that you have not selected a name that is trademarked, copyrighted or used by another business.

Step 8 – Quickly register your domain name

Once you have done all the steps above, quickly register your domain name. If you would go to Bluehost and register your domain name, they will recommend you with alternative domain names if the domain name you had in mind is no longer available.