Guide To Choosing A Domain Name For A New Website or Blog

Some people find it difficult when it comes to making a domain name selection for their websites or blog. This is often expected because most of the nice domain names have already been bought, while most people don’t like buying other domain extensions excepting the .com(s), it becomes difficult to get a nice name for your website.

In this article, I’ll guide you through various things to consider before choosing and purchasing a domain name for your new blog or website. Keeping the below points in mind would help you make a perfect domain name choice.

Tips To Consider In Selecting A Domain Name

1. Your Domain Name Should Be Your Business Name

When choosing a domain name for your business website, it is usually important to choose the name that matches your business name. There are a lot of advantages attached to this ranging from been easy for your clients to remember down to creating a brand for your business. Most people who know you have a website might forget what URL you gave them, but by the time they remember your business name, they won’t find it difficult getting to your website. But if your website is not in anyway related to your business name, then surely would loose your clients to a competitor unless you  know how to go about your promotion in order to keep your brand’s URL remembered by your clients. If your business name’s domain has already been purchased, you can then consider the below points in domain choice making.

• Must Read: Why Your Business Needs A Website

2. Brand Name Domains

This is also similar to the business name selection, just a little bit different. For instance, let’s say you sell cars, most people can come up with ideas such as www.cardeals.com which is such a nice domain to purchase. But what would you do if the domain has already been purchased by someone else? Remember, there are lots of car brands and if you specialize one for sales (let’s say Toyota), you can then purchase the car deals domain with the brand’s name inclusive such as www.ToyataCarDeals.com . This is just an idea of how to choose a different domain name when you competitor already has the domain name you wish to buy.

• Must Read: Tips To Promoting Your Business

3. Length Of Domain Name

There are lots of arguments on this point when choosing a domain name. Most people believe short domain names are easier to remember, while others believe long tail domain names usually stick human memory faster. Well, i’ll give you examples so you can understand my perspective on this.

Long Domain Names: I really love long tail domain names when the phrase used in creating them is quite catchy. For instance, I would prefer buying a long domain name such as www.BestCondenserMicrophoneStore.com  to buying the acronym which would rather be www.bcms.com. The long one tends to stick easier to one’s memory than the short in this situation.

Short Domain Names: Short domain names no doubt are much more used and valued by most webmasters as they think it’s quite cool having a short URL, well that’s true if you use it properly. For instance, if I would prefer a domain name such as www.facebook.com to something like www.FacebookConnectNetwork.com . The long tail domain name sounds awful in this context.

Now you see the difference between a long and short domain choice, it’s up to you to craft short or long domain names that make sense, the length does have little or no effect if properly considered.

• Must Read: How To Write Catchy Titles

4. Hyphenated Domains

I really hate it when people purchase hyphenated domain names because their are a lot of disadvantages attached to it. For instance, let’s say you own a website such as www.my-car-deals.com . Someone referring a client to you would probably forget about the hyphens and direct the client to MyCarDeals.com and that’s one client lost to a competitor. Most times, it is even difficult for people to find hyphens on their keyboards and they sure would go for an alternative.

The truth about hyphenated domain(s) is, they really get people confused, if the domain name you wish to buy has already been purchased, go for an alternative and do not give reasons to place the hyphenated alternative as an option.

5. Using Prefix

Some people prefer to use prefixes such as THE and MY if they domain name they love has already been purchased. For instance, if  I wish to purchase a domain name such as www.CarDeals.com and find out that it has been purchased, I can go for an alternative such as www.MyCarDeal.com or even www.TheCarDealer.com . I hope you see how I altered those two domain names, these prefixes help in adding a different taste to a domain name and makes it easier also to be remember.

Prefix method is one other way I choose domain names for myself, I run three other blogs with these above mentioned prefixes and they get lots of direct traffic because they are easy to remember.

6. The Suffix (Domain Extensions) .com, .net, .org …

There are a whole lot of domain name extensions to choose from when the .com has already been bought by a competitor, but there are a whole lot of things to consider before going for them. For instance if I deal on School information related only to my country, and the domain such as www.school.com has been purchased, I can go for an extension such as www.school.com.ng or www.school.ng since i’m targeting my country traffic alone.

Here are some uses of other extensions such as;

.com – Mainly used for commercial purposes and is widely acceptable by everyone out there.
.net – Usually purchased by networking firms and purposes.
.org – As the extension implies, it is used by non-profit oriented organizations.

Enough said, it’s now up to you to choose which domain name extension suites your new blog or business website. Considering the above points would guide you through choosing a nice domain name for your business blog or website. I hope this helps.