At the beginning of every blogger’s journey, there is a time one has to brainstorm his mind for choosing a domain name for SEO. It needs a lot of thought and consideration.
As it is said, “First Impression is the last impression”, your domain name is also one of the things a user notices and it can affect their impression of your brand. If you have a unique domain name, it will help your brand to become popular and drive more web traffic.
But why does your domain name matter?
1. It adds creditability to your business. Having your own domain name makes your business more professional.
2. It affects SEO. If you have a domain name related to the concept of your business, it may increase your traffic. Having Keywords in a domain name can boost your SEO rankings too.
3. It builds your brand name. It helps in increasing brand recognition. It makes it easier for customers to recognize and return back.
So let’s start from scratch!
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is a unique address of your site on the internet. It is simply a text that a user types in a browser’s URL bar to access your website.
A detailed explanation:
Internet is a giant network of computers connected to each other through a global network of cables. And for identifying, each computer has assigned an IP Address. It’s hard to remember an IP Address, so that domain name was invented.
Domain Name Structure
· Prefix – It is an internet protocol for your domain. (HTTP) – Standard and HTTPS – Secured)
· Subdomain – It is a part of a domain name. It is used to create unique pages and it is easily changeable. The most common subdomain is “www”.
· Domain Name – It is a second-level domain name picked by the owner who is registering the domain name. It has to be unique.
· Extensions – It is the end part of the domain name. It is also known as Top-Level Domain (TLD). You can’t register a domain name without TLD. ICANN, an organization that allocated IP Addresses to those who want to rent a space online. There is a variety of extensions.
Types of Domain Name Extensions
There is a variety of domain name extensions you can use. The most popular categories are:
1. Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLDs)
ccTLDs are country-specific domain extensions. If you have a local business or you are operating in a specific country, you can use ccTLDs.
There are over 200 ccTLDs in the market. Generally, they contain two letters of their Latin alphabet:
· .in for India
· .au for Australia
· .uk for the United Kingdom
· .jp for Japan
· .ph for the Philippines
There is an exception to the rule that IDN ccTLDs (Internationalized Country Code TLDs) can use their native country language. IDNs are formed by using characters from different languages like Arabic, Chinese, etc.
For example, China acknowledges both its ccTLD “.cn” and its IDN ccTLD “.中国” which translates to China.
2. Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD)
Generic top-level domain (gTLD) is used to tell the users what your website is. These TLDs are mostly used on the internet.
There is a variety of gTLDs. And the most common is ‘.com’. For example, .com in Facebook.com shows that it is a commercial website. There are many gTLDs like:
· .co (For company)
· .net (For network)
· .org (For organization)
· .gov (For government)
· .shop (For e-commerce website)
· .biz (For business)
· .edu (For education)
· .info (For information)
But some TLDs are not opened for anyone to register easily. For example, .gov is only used by a government organization and .edu are only used by educational institutions.
So there are many TLDs, and it is not an easy task to choose a perfect domain name. There are many factors we have to consider while choosing an ideal domain name for SEO. So what are the SEO factors we have to consider?
11 Tips for choosing a domain name for SEO
1. Choose a Brandable Name
Your domain name is your digital identity. It is the face of your business. Hence it is necessary to have a name that sounds like a brand. You can use the thesaurus to find a catchy name.
Your brand name should have the following factors:
1. It should be unique. Your domain name mustn’t be similar to other domains. It will also help users not to confuse your domain name with other domain names. And it also helps you because your competition will not be able to create something similar to your domain name.
2. It should sound trustworthy. Do not use shady names. It will create a bad impact on your audience.
Avoid inserting hyphens, numbers, symbols, or anything else which makes it uncomfortable to pronounce. It should also have a bit of a mesmerizing and trustfulness.
The best example is Uber, it is short, simple, sounds like a brand and easily recognizable.
2. Make it Pronounceable and Easy to Type
Your brand name should be easy to pronounce. There should be fluency while speaking your brand name. A user shouldn’t have to think hard while typing your domain.
It should be memorable and have a positive sense. Make sure the name not only represents your business but also easy to find and promote it.
Don’t choose difficult words which are hard to spell. If you choose a word that can easily misspell, so forget about building your brand. And also don’t use slangs or words which can have multiple spellings. The simplest lesson is that it should be easy for your customers to find you!
3. Make your domain name Mobile Friendly
As per reports of the second quarter of 2018, 51.98% of internet traffic is driven by mobile devices. So we can conclude that half of the people will use a mobile device to get your website.
It means that you have to choose a domain name that is memorable and concise while keeping in mind for all the autocorrect victims in the world.
So while choosing a domain name for SEO, first try it on a mobile device. Check if it is easy to type or while typing, see it autocorrects to another word.
4. Always choose .com
When it comes to extensions, always go for “.com”. Because people are more familiar with .com domains than with anything else; they will default to typing ‘.com’ into the browser address bar, and are unlikely to remember your extension if it’s too weird.
Technically speaking, the “.com” extension is one of the domain name extensions. There are also some other popular domain extensions like “.net, .edu, .org, .co” etc. But .com domain is most familiar and memorable by the users.
And in fact, .com extensions are used by 37.16 % of all websites on the web. And if you can’t get .com extensions so change the name or try to contact the owners. If your brand is local, you can also choose country-specified extensions.
E.g. If your business is in India and you’re operating locally, you can choose a “.in” domain extension.
5. Avoid trademark infringement and confusion
Your domain name should be unique. Research the brand name first because it should not be similar to another website or brand. Having a similar or trademarked name can cause a grave danger for you. It can cause lawsuits and forced them to give up the domain.
So you can perform a trademark search to check if there is already a domain name that is already trademarked.
Similar domain names can confuse people and search engines while ranking your website. It can fill with irrelevant links in your name’s SERP.
6. Make it intuitive and Keywords intently
If you are marketing yourself, it will be wise to use your name and last name as a domain. And if not, you should choose a name that tells users about your business.
For example, “cuisineculture.com” is a site related to food recipes and cuisines. So the users can get an idea from the domain name what your business is all about.
In fact, 63% of the top-performing domains have keywords in their URL. So, I think you should always choose a domain name with mentioning keywords which are related to your niche.
Because it will help users to remember easily and it will also increase your rankings in SERP. It will also help in SEO perspective if you mention a keyword in your domain name which is related to your niche.
So first, find the keyword then find what the intent of that keyword is, and then use it as your domain name. But don’t use long-tail keywords; it will hurt your brand.
Make it short. And also don’t use the exact phrase because it looks spammy and low quality. You can also use tools Google Keyword Planner and KWFinder to search keywords that have high search volumes and low competition.
Which domain do you think sounds more professional and trustworthy: Glassrepair.com or Repairyourglass.com?
7. Append or modify if necessary
If a domain name is unavailable, you really loved it, so you can append or modify it to make a unique. You can add some prefixes and suffixes to make it unique. You can also use different extensions like .org, .net, or .co unless it does not conflict with other factors.
Sometimes the good brand names are initially owned by users so that they can sell them at a higher price. If you like a domain name and it is not available, so try to contact the owner and bid the domain at a fair price.
8. Check Social Networks
While choosing a domain name for SEO, it is wise to check the availability of the name in social networks. A customer will not always come to your websites to get the current updates; one will just follow the brand on social networking sites.
So to keep your name constant everywhere and to build a brand value, you should always go with a readily available name. KnowEm is a great tool to check names that are already branded on social networking sites.
9. Get ideas from domain name generators
If you are finding it hard to come with a perfect domain name, use some tools like domain generators. These tools are straightforward, you just have to enter the primary keyword of your name, and they give you tons of suggestions related to that keyword that are valid, available, and brandable.
There are many tools for generating domain names like LeanDomainSearch, Nameboy, name generator by Shopify, DomainWheel, Namemesh, and many more. But the best I think is “LeanDomainSearch” which help me to find the perfect name for my brand.
10. Check the History of Domain
While choosing the domain name for SEO, check whether the domain name has been registered before. Because some domains may have been registered before.
If a spammer has used the domain name which you have chosen, it will have a bad impact on your website. And if it is penalized by Google, your posts will never rank which will cause great trouble.
So it is wise to check the history of the domain. You can visit Archive.org (Also called Wayback Machine) to check whether the domain was registered or something shady was going on. You can also see some previous versions of the website associated with that domain.
For example, if you look at this website, the records are dating back to 2014.
And when click on the records; you will see a snapshots or previous version of the website.
11. Act fast
Domain names sell quickly. They are also inexpensive. There are many domain registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostinger, and many more where you can check and buy the available domain name.
But I would prefer you to buy a domain from Namecheap. In the market, Namecheap is the best registrars to get a domain at a very cheap price. It also suggests you alternate names during domain search that is available which overall leads you to choose the perfect domain name.
Conclusion on choosing domain name for SEO
Whew! That was a lot of reading!
So now, you know everything that a beginner in blogging needs to know on choosing a domain name for SEO.
Just to help you out, here is a glimpse of the listed points.
1. Always choose a brandable name.
2. Make it memorable and easy to type.
3. Always choose the “.com” domain name.
4. Avoid trademark infringement and confusion.
5. Make it intuitive and Keywords intently.
6. Append or modify the keyword to get the perfect domain name.
7. Get ideas from domain name generators
8. Always check Social Networks
9. Make your domain name Mobile Friendly
10. Check the history of the domain
Many users were asking me how I came up with my domain name. So below is my story on how I named my website “The Debrief”.
My Story
While I was starting my blogging journey, it was really difficult for me to find a perfect brand name. And I was thinking to start a website related to news and media niche, a website which tells the user information about an incident what really happened in an accurate manner with facts.
So one day my brother and I was sitting on the couch and was watching “Homeland” and in that series, the word “debriefing” was used many times, so my brother advised me to start a website with a name including the word “briefing” or something like that.
As I mentioned before that “LeanDomainSearch.com” helped me to find my brand name, so I just head over to the website and search the word “debrief” but the domain with that keyword was not available, so it gave me the different suggestion “The Debrief”. So that was my story of choosing my domain name.
So keep reading our blog post and tell me in the comment box what do you think about this guide and which domain name you have chosen.