Your domain name will have a significant impact on the success and potential of your website. So, make sure to put some careful thought in when choosing yours. In case the forest got lost in the trees (or the reverse) in my arguments here, let me reiterate the main point of this article: get that domain name before you start your site or business.

Don’t make the mistake of attempting to retrofit your domain name to your business or website. My first site, thefreecountry.com did not originally start out with that name, and I encountered a huge hassle (and lost visitors) as a result of the URL changes. Don’t make that mistake too.

Here’s the wonderful guide for you to choose a perfect domain name

Generic Names Or Brand Name Domains?

I know that a number of people seem to think that your domain name really must be some generic name like “cars.com” if you are selling cars. Witness, for example, how much money those generic names are being sold for. But seriously, if you were looking for a car, you’ll probably already have some brands in mind, and you’re more like to try out things like generalmotors.com or toyota.com rather than just cars.com.

For that reason, I personally feel that a domain name that matches your brand name is very important. The very name that you use to advertise your product is the name that you will want for your domain, because that is the first thing that people will try in their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember, and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than the obscure domain name.

Creative and brandable are always better than generic.

Remember: Your domain name is how visitors will find, remember, and share your company on the web. It is the foundation of your brand.

Here’s the main difference between a brandable and generic domain name:

A brandable domain name is unique and stands out from the competition, while a generic domain name is usually stuffed with keywords and unmemorable.

For example, do you know the difference between Healthinsurance.net, Newhealthinsurance.com, or Healthinsurancesort.com? Probably not, right?

These are horribly generic. They don’t have any meaning. You won’t hear anyone talking about how awesome “Insurance.com” is. Plus, variants of the word “insurance” will increase the competition and make it blend in even more.

But sites like UnitedHealthCareOnline.com and Anthem.com stand out, because they stand for something. When people hear those domain names, there is a trust factor there.

Here’s how to find a more brandable domain name:

1. Create new words. You can make up your own catchy, new words. That’s what Google, Bing, and Yahoo did.
2. Use existing words. You can use a thesaurus to find interesting words that fit your brand.
3. Use domain name generators. These tools can help you create a unique, brandable domain name from your initial domain ideas and keywords. (We’ll highlight some of our favorite domain name generators later on in this post.)

Long or Short Domain Names?

Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. You don’t have to settle for an obscure domain name like avab.com when what you mean is AcmeVideosAndBooks.com.

Having said that, there appears to be some disagreement about whether a long or short domain name is better.

Some argue that shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type and far less susceptible to mistakes: for example, “getit.com” is easier to remember and less prone to typos than “connecttomywebsiteandobtainit.com”.

Others argue that a longer domain name is usually easier on the human memory – for example, “gaepw.com” is a sequence of unrelated letters that is difficult to remember and type correctly, whereas if we expand it to its long form, “GetAnEconomicallyPricedWebsite.com”, we are more likely to remember the domain name.

Some of these arguments are actually academic. It’s increasingly difficult to get short meaningful domain names. I have not checked, but I’m fairly certain that names like “getit.com” and “good.com” have long been sold. If you manage to get a short domain name though, the key is to make sure it’s a meaningful combination of characters and not the obscure “gaepw.com” in my contrived example above.

Long domain names that have your site keywords in them used to have an advantage in that they fared better in a number of search engines. For example, it used to be that if someone searched for “super fast cars” (note that this is just an example) and those words featured in your domain name, your site was more likely to be listed higher. With the vastly increased sophistication of the search engines today, this is no longer true.

Which would I go for? I’d go for the shorter name if I can get a meaningful one, but I’m not averse to longer names. However, I would probably avoid extremely long names verging on 67 characters. Aside from the obvious problem that people might not be able to remember such a long name, it would also be a chore typing it and trying to fit it as a title on your web page.

Easy to Pronounce

As easy as your domain name rolls off the tips of your fingers, it should roll off the tip of your tongue.

This makes it easier for visitors to share your domain name by word of mouth, and makes it easier for you to share your site with friends and potential customers.

You can test this the same way as with the “spelling”.

Write your domain name on a piece of paper and ask 10 people to pronounce it. If more than a few people struggle to pronounce it, you should simplify it.

Here’s what to keep in mind: You want your domain name to be passed along easily by you and others. And the only way for that to be possible is if it’s 1) easy to spell and 2) easy to pronounce.

Easy to Type

Think of some of the most popular websites in the world. What comes to mind?

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo, CNN…

One big thing they have in common is that they’re all easy to spell.

Your visitors should be able to type your domain name without a problem. If you have to explain the spelling more than once for it to be understood, then it’s too complicated.

The last thing you want is for potential visitors to mistype your domain and end up on a different website!

Here’s an easy way to test this…

Tell 10 people your potential domain name and ask them to spell it. If more than a few people struggle to spell it, then you need to simplify it.

Hyphenated Names? Avoid Hyphens and Numbers

Remember how your domain name should be easy to spell and pronounce? Well, hyphens and numbers make both of these things more difficult.

Imagine explaining Facebook if it had a hyphen in there…

“Have you seen this new site Face-Book? There’s a hyphen in there by the way, between the ‘Face’ and the ‘Book.’”

Facebook may not have spread so quickly if that was the case.

The bottom line? Your domain name should be smooth and punchy, and hyphens and numbers get in the way of that.

Should you get a hyphenated name? There are a few things to consider here:

• Disadvantages
  1. It’s easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Many users are used to typing things like freecpluspluscompilers.com but not free-c-plus-plus-compilers.com. They’ll probably leave out the hyphens and end up at your competitor’s site.
  2. When people recommend your site to their friends verbally, having hyphens in your domain name leads to more potential errors than when the name does not contain hyphens. For example, how do you think your visitors will refer to your site if it is named “acme-books-and-videos.com”? They might say, “I visited Acme Book and Videos dot com yesterday. It was fabulous.” Their friends, remembering that comment later, might type into their browsers “acmebooksandvideos.com”. Oops.
  3. It’s a pain in the neck to type. Enough said.
• Advantages
  1. The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain name you want.
  2. Search engines can distinguish your keywords better and thus return your site more prominently in the search results for those terms. This is not as significant an advantage as you think, since those words will probably also occur on your web page itself. For example, if you sell cars, it will be hard to avoid using the word “car” in your content, not to mention that it would be foolish to do so. In fact, I suspect that modern search engines give a lot more weight to words that appear in the content than those that only appear in the domain name itself.

Personally, I prefer to avoid hyphenated names if I can, but I guess it really depends on your domain name and your situation.

Consider Using Keywords

Keywords can help improve your SEO – but you need to tread carefully here. If you try to awkwardly stuff keywords into your domain, it comes across as generic (like we talked about before).

If you do choose to use keywords, put the keywords at the beginning of your domain. That’s where they’ll be the most powerful for your ranking.

You can find keywords with tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keywordtool.io.

Plurals, “The”, and “My” Forms of the Domain Name

Very often, if you can’t get the domain name you want, the domain name registrar will suggest alternate forms of the name you typed. For example, if you wanted website.com, and it was taken (of course it is), it might suggest forms like:

thewebsite.com
mywebsite.com
websites.com

and the like, if they were not already taken as well. The question is, should you take them?

My personal opinion is that if you take the “the…” and “my…” forms of the domain name, you must always remember to promote your site with the full form of the name. Otherwise, people are likely to forget to affix the necessary “the” or “my”. For that reason, I always advertise my sites as “thesitewizard.com” and “thefreecountry.com” in their full domain name forms, rather than just “Free Country” or “Site Wizard” (without the article).

On the other hand, I would not take the plural form of the domain name (eg, websites.com) if I cannot also get “website.com”, since the chance of the visitor failing to type the “s” in the name is very great. Think about the famous name tussle between etoys.com and etoy.com. Many people wanting to go to etoys.com were apparently going to etoy.com instead. If it happened to them, it can happen to you too.

Use the Right Domain Name Extension

com vs net vs orgWhen you choose your domain name extension, you can be sure of one thing: “.com” is still the best.

According to research from Registrar Stats, 75% of domains have the “.com” extension, second is “.net” and third is “.org”

Why? Well, “.com” is more familiar and easier to remember.

While there are many successful websites with a “.net” and “.org”, your website will probably do better if it has a “.com” extension. It’s the safer bet.

My advice: Go with .com. If that’s taken, try .net or .org. If these are taken too, you’d be better off brainstorming a new domain name. And oh, also avoid those weird extensions like “.club”, “.space”, “.pizza” and so on.

COM, ORG, NET, etc?

One common question I encounter is from people who can’t get the “.com” domain of their choice, but find the “.net”, “.org”, “.biz”, “.info” (etc) or country-specific top level domains (TLDs) (like .uk, .de, .us, .eu, etc) available. Should they try for these?

The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. If your website or business caters to the local community, such as a pizza delivery business or recruitment agency or the like, then it makes sense to get a country-specific domain. You actually benefit from having such a local domain because the people in your country know that they’re dealing with a local entity, which is what they want. After all, if they stay in (say) the United Kingdom, they’re not likely to want to try to order pizza from pizzaparlour.com, which suggests an international site. You’ll have better luck calling it pizzaparlour.co.uk, ie, with a UK domain.

What if yours is a site or business that can benefit from an international audience? There are actually many schools of thought on this. I’ll just mention a few common ones.

The first school of thought goes on the premise that it is better to have a domain name of your choice “myperfectdomain” even if it has a TLD of “.net”, “.org” or some other country specific suffix, than to end up choosing an obscure domain name for the simple reason you can’t get your first choice. Thus they would settle for domain names like “myperfectdomain.de” or “myperfectdomain.net” or whatever. Against this is the argument that if you get a country specific domain, people might think that your business only caters to that country.

Another school of thought finds the alternative suffixes (like “.net”, “.org”, “.biz”, “.info”, etc) to be quite acceptable. For some, the “.org” suffix actually describes the non-profit nature of their organisation (or “organization” if you don’t use British English). So, for example, the famous Apache web server can be found at “apache.org”.

Others settle for the “.com” suffix and no less. As grounds for their arguments, they cite the browser algorithms used to locate a website when a user simply types a name like “acme” into the browser. Apparently, the browser searches for a domain name “acme.com” before attempting “acme.net”, etc. As such, people who do that will be delivered to your competitor’s site if you do not also own the “.com” extension. Indeed, even if people do not rely on their browser to complete their typing, many simply assume a “.com” suffix when they type a domain name, so if your business is “Acme”, they’ll just assume your domain name is “acme.com” rather than “acme.net” or some other such name.

As you can see, there are actually good grounds for accepting any of the above views. My personal footnote to the above arguments is that if you get a domain name with a suffix other than “.com”, make sure that you promote your business or website with the full domain name. For example, if your domain name is “dogandcatfood.net”, make sure that when you advertise your site or business, call it “dogandcatfood.net” not “dogandcatfood”. Otherwise people will assume a “.com” extension and travel to the wrong place.

Think Long-Term

Think long-termAre you ready to marry your domain? You should be, because it will be one of the biggest elements that defines your business and brand for years.

Plus, if you decide to change the domain in the future, it will cost you money, branding, and SEO rankings. In short, it’s a huge pain.

So, when you choose your domain, think long-term.

For example, if your company helps businesses optimize their websites for SEO, you could choose a domain name like, “OptimizedSEO.com”

But if you think there’s a chance you might expand to more general digital marketing services in the future, like email marketing, PPC, etc. then it might be wise to reconsider your domain name.

You don’t want to pin yourself down to a certain niche if you think you might expand out of that niche.

So, keep your long-term vision in mind when picking your domain name.

Check Availability on Social Media Sites and Trademarks

Before you move forward with a specific domain name, check to see if the name is available on social media sites, as well as if there are any trademarks already registered to the name.

To build your brand, it’s ideal to have the same name across your domain and social networks. This builds familiarity and makes it easy for your visitors, fans, and customers to find you around the web.

And to avoid legal issues, you should stay away from names that already have trademarks.

So, how can you quickly check social networks and trademarks for your potential domain name?

It’s quite easy with a tool like Knowem. Search your potential domain name there, and it’ll show you if it’s available throughout over 25 popular social networks, and also if there are any trademarks already registered to the name.

If it’s taken, consider tweaking it so that you can create original social media profiles.

Use a Domain Name Generator to Gather Ideas

Okay, so by this point you should have at least a general idea of some possible words to put in your domain. But, some of those words may already be taken, trademarked, or just don’t have the “sound” you’re looking for.

That’s where domain name generators come into play. These generators can turn your ideas into fresh, available domains.

Here are some of our favorite domain name generators to try out:

1. Wordoid. This tool allows you to plug in a word, and it will come up with ideas that either contain that word, begin with that word, or end with that word.
2. Lean Domain Search. This tool matches your keyword with other keywords, and generates a list of available domains.
3. DomainHole. This tool allows you to search keywords, find expired domains, generate new names, and more.

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