Choosing a good domain name.

Choosing a domain name.

It is undeniable that you want people to recognise your business AND understand what your website is all about from your domain name. Without going into all the technical guff about google and algorithms, here is my check list on what makes a good domain name.

Choosing a domain name can be put into two categories.

Keywords & Branding.

Branded Domain Names:

Google likes brands because a strong online brand means your visitors are more inclined to click on a link into that website. Getting people to remember your brand, increases your chances they will revisit your website, and thus increasing your credibility and trust value. Your website gain higher Google rankings with a good “trust value”.

Creative spelling, it may seem like a good idea at the start, but not all customers will appreciate your creativity

  • Is it as close as possible to your business name?
  • It is easy to remember and easy to say.
  • Make sure it’s easy to pronounce.
  • don’t include numbers or other non-standard characters
  • avoid unusual spelling,
  • Keep it under about 15 characters

Eg: which link would you trust most to NOT blow your laptop up?

Image From “15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs”

Need to bounce some ideas? DM me on Instagram, I’m always happy to give my 2 cents worth.

Keyword Domain Names:

An example of a keyword domain would be CheapiPhoneRepair.com. This domain name contains the keywords cheap, iPhone, and repair. But unless your business name is Cheap iPhone Repair, this domain name does nothing for your business or brand.

Studies show that if your domain includes one of the keywords they searched for in Google, there is a higher possibility they will click on your domain. This clearly shows it’s important to include keywords, but not to use a domain solely built on keywords (as mentioned above).

Start with your brand name and pair it with a good keyword. For example, if your name is Bob and you run a guitar repair service, a good domain name can be BobsGuitarRepair.com.

Who would you rather buy from “bobswatches” or a spammy keyword domain such as “cheapwatchesonline”.? Only add keywords to your domain name if it sounds natural and matches your brand name.

KEYWORDS

  • Have you included one keyword that helps make it obvious what your business does
  • Avoid using hyphens or underscore (it’s often associated with spam)
  • Is it a keyword users will be searching for?

For more tips and pointers on starting your own website – have you read my article about Stage 1: designing your website.