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August 10, 2021How to choose the best domain Name?. 1
How to choose the best domain name?
Having the right domain name is essential, it is how your visitors find your website.
It appears on your print materials, and it’s also shared both online and offline as your brand recognition increases.
A bad Domain Name:
A poorly chosen website domain name will have a widespread negative impact on your online and offline efforts.
A Good Domain Name:
It should be:
- Relevant,
- Memorable,
- Usable.
1. Must Be Relevant
So let’s talk about website domain name relevance.
Should be relevant to your business.
Typically, it will be your business name, but in some situations, it can be a bit broader.
If your business name is too long, you may need to creatively shorten it, while remaining on-brand.
So for example, if our business name is Vine International Christian Academy (VICA), we might choose the domain name vicacademy.org or vicacademy.com
Now, vicacademy.org is great for our marketing efforts to achieve memorability, but
we might gain more SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value out of using a keyword-rich domain like vineinternationalchristianacademy.org or vineacademy.org In that situation, I would buy all of them.
I would simply redirect vineinternationalchristianacademy.org or vineacademy.org to vicacademy.org, and then build all of my SEO efforts around the longer domain.
You’re really only using the short domain when you’re displaying it in your marketing materials.
Now we’re not suggesting you buy a bunch of domains and redirect them to capture keywords.
That’s actually not going to help your SEO.
You have to pull all of your effort behind the domain name you want to rank.
So just owning them and pointing their places won’t add value.
On the other side, if for example, your business is called, Tony’s Automotive,
We could buy the domain, TonyAuto.com, but KampalaAuto.com wouldn’t be relevant, despite my desire to gain
that keyword advantage. The more relevant your domain name, the better.
Even for SEO. So stick with what makes sense to your target market.
2. Must be Memorable.
Next, make it memorable;
- Keep it short,
- Use simple terms,
- Select the most common suffix.
And you’ll do that by keeping it short using simple terms and by selecting the most common suffix. Now when we mention about suffixes, we’re referring to .com, .net, .org, .co.ug, ac.ug, .edu.
And Now, .com is still king, and most people instinctually type .com, even if you listed .net or .org and they might get typo errors, today when you type VicAcademy.com you are redirected to https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=vicacademy&e=com it means huge domains now owns the authority for VicAcademy.com, Vine International Christian Academy (VICA) to gain ownership must Buy now it at a higher price approximately $2,195. If they bought it initially they would have such a challenge.
It’s ideal to always have .com. So if you choose, for example, vicacademy.org, your competitor might be at vicacademy.com and you’ll be helping drive traffic to their site when your visitor can’t remember the right suffix.
Now some countries have specific suffixes, such as .ug, .co.ug, .za, .mx, or .co.uk. use the one that is most widespread in your region.
If you have difficulty spelling or pronouncing your business name, you’ll end up with a less than memorable domain name.
Instead, you’ll want to try an alternative domain name that still maintains the feel of your brand.
3. Must be Usable for Web Hosting
And finally, the domain should be usable.
If you’re adding in hyphens or leveraging prefixes other than “www”, you might be hampering a visitor’s ability to arrive at your website.
The best domain names are short and free of special characters.
So after you select your website domain name, I recommend buying multiple variations and again about suffixes, we’re referring to .com, .net, .org, .co.ug, ac. ug,.edu to prevent others or domain registering agencies from registering them.
Also if you’re using a number in your domain, it’s not a bad idea to buy the version with the number spelled out, to avoid any complications when sharing a domain name through word of mouth.
If your domain name is unavailable, it might be worth contacting the current owner to inquire about the cost of purchasing it.
If you can’t find their contact information on their website, you can try identifying them by running what’s called a “Whois”.
This will query the registered owner. You’ll find the tools to do this at whois.net, or who. is.
It’s hard to change a domain name once you’ve got your marketing underway.
So evaluate your options and make the best choice for your business.