The Exact Steps To Choosing a Domain Name for Your New Business

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Congratulations on starting your new website! Now that you’re ready to make the big step of starting a website or blog, you’ll need to first purchase a domain name (your website’s URL).

Choosing the right domain for your business is a huge step and if not considered carefully, it can affect the growth of your website and your business.

I’ve been creating website for over 15 years and today I’m going to walk you through the exact way to find a domain name for your business. This is an important decision and you’ll need to consider a lot of options.

What is a URL (Domain Name)?

A domain name is the URL or address someone uses to find your website or blog. In order for any business to exist online, they first need to choose a domain name.

Basically, it’s what comes after www. in your browser address bar.

How to Choose a Domain Name for a Website

There’s a lot of research that goes into choosing the right domain for your business. Here’s the 3 step approach I’ve used for my websites:

1. Create a long list of domain name ideas
2. Choose your three favorite domains
3. Check their availability on GoDaddy’s website
4. If all of your three favorite domains are taken, go back to your list and choose your next three favorite and repeat the third step.

How Much is a Domain Name?

Domain names are registered for at least one year and up to as many as ten years. Depending on where you purchase your domain, the cost is around $10-$20 per year. If you are ready to make a long term commitment with your website, I highly recommend buying your domain for at least five years.

Where To Purchase a Domain Name

Your domain can be purchased through any reputable domain registrar. My go-to has always been GoDaddy, but there are other options such as Google Domains, BlueHost, Host Gator and a few others. Since this is such an important part of your business, do not register your domain with a company you’ve never heard of or one that’s suspiciously cheap!

Domain Names to Avoid

Before we talk about how to choose the right domain, let’s talk about the type of domain names you want to avoid. These include:

1. Domain names that are extremely long (ex. johnsbakeryandteashoponmain.com)
   For obvious reasons, a long domain is too hard to remember and gives too much opportunity for typos.
   
2. Domain name with hyphens (ex. the-bakery-on-main-street.com)
   Hyphens in a domain name are confusing and sketchy. You want people to get to your website as quickly as possible and adding in hyphens just makes it more complicated. Also it makes your business look less trustworthy.
   
3. Domain names that don’t make sense (ex. ABCD27.com)
   Using acronyms or abbreviations in your domain can be confusing to your audience. If they can’t tell what your business name is from the domain, it can be misleading or unclear. These types of domains also have poor SEO value.
   
4. Domain names that are extremely short (ex. karinsbeauty.com)
   Extremely short domains don’t say much about your business and won’t help with SEO. While it can be tempting to buy a domain that short and easy to type, you’ll want a domain with a perfect balance of length, description and SEO value.
   
5. Domain names with unusual extensions (ex. .net .beer .wine)
   Don’t be tempted to get a domain name that ends with a strange new extension. The general public is familiar with .com, .net and .org and any deviation appears untrustworthy and will be hard to remember.

10 Tips for Choosing The Perfect Domain Name

Now that we’ve covered what NOT to do when choosing a domain, here’s 10 tips for choosing the perfect domain name for your website or blog.

1. Use descriptive words (ex. brooklynmedspa.com)
   A domain that explains what your business is and even mentions the location (if this applies to your business) is a great choice. If your business is service-based try to include the name of your town or state. If your business is not service-based, don’t worry about including the location. Including words that briefly describe what your business is about adds SEO value.
   
2. Choose a domain that is the right length
   There’s no magic formula for the perfect length for a domain, but an extremely short domain probably isn’t memorable or descriptive enough, while a lengthy domain name is complicated and hard to remember. Finding the perfect balance will be the best option for you.
   
3. Think about the long term
   Choosing a domain that will grow with your business down the road is a smart decision. Changing your domain to a different one can be a big headache and can lead to loss in SEO ranking and site traffic. Let’s say you’re single and want to use your maiden name in your domain name, consider using your first name and middle name instead so there’s no issues down the road if you get married. The same applies if you may relocate one day and your domain name mentions your current location.
   
4. Go with a “.com”
   Unless you business is a not for profit organization or an educational institution, stick with the familiar .com domain extension. There’s other options like .net, .co, etc that are alternatives but .com is still the most common and easy to remember domain extension.
   
5. Choose an easy to type domain
   A domain that has short, easy to spell words are less likely to be mistyped. Try not to use abbreviations or clever tricks with numbers replacing words (ex. go2trips4you.com)
   
6. Choose a domain that’s easy to spell and say
   Imagine yourself telling a person your website address out loud. If it’s can be misunderstood easily, try do a different domain that’s more clear. One of my first jobs out of college was for an agency whose website URL was bigbuzz.com. When saying the URL out loud, people would think it was bigbutts.com!
   
7. Mention Your Industry or Region
   Depending on what your business is about, you may be able to mention your industry, niche or geographic location in your URL. If you’re a photographer you may mention your location or state, if you’re a vegan food blogger you may be able to use “vegan” or “healthy” in your domain. This helps with SEO and attracting the right audience.
   
8. Research Your Domain for Trademarks
   Before you go ahead and commit to a domain, do a little research to see who is using similar domains. Are these sites very similar to yours? Also be sure to check if the domain has any trademarked phrases which could lead to some issues in the future.
   
9. Poll Your Friends and Family
   If you’re having a difficult time making a decision, try getting some perspective by asking friends and family their thoughts on your choices. You may hear some interesting ideas and get more clarity on what your domain should be.
   
10. Remember Your Brand
    Your domain name should reflect your brand and the two should make sense together. For example if your business name is “The Financial Gal” it wouldn’t make sense for your domain to be “bestbookkeepingUSA.com”. The two names feel unrelated which may create confusion with customers. A good domain for that business name would be “financialgalbookeeping.com”

✅ Remember that if your customers can sense YOU are invested in your own business, then they will want to invest in YOU.

What Is The Difference Between .org, .com and .net?

The extension of your domain is part of the naming process. I always recommend to stick with .com for your domain name if possible. When buying a domain name you’ll see options for tons of different extensions, in my opinion this is not a good choice and will make your business look illegitimate.

While it’s not proven that your domain extension can help or hurt your website ranking on Google, SemRush reported that Google claims your domain extension might not directly affect your SEO (search engine ranking), it “might influence the audience’s perception of a brand — therefore affecting the brand’s click-through rate.”

Meaning, people are LESS likely to click on a website URL that has a strange extension like “.coffee” or “.beer”

✅ If you want to create trust, stick with .com.

What to Do if You Want to Change Your Domain Name

If you own a domain name and it’s no longer a good fit for your business you can either stop renewing the domain and let it expire, sell it, or keep renewing the domain and forward the traffic to your new site.

If your existing domain is getting a lot of traffic and you want to switch to a new domain, you’ll want to capitalize on that existing built-in traffic and make sure it gets forwarded to your new site. The worst thing to happen would be for all of your links to go to a dead URL.

I recommend you work with a highly-reputable website host like SiteGround, Kinsta, A2 Hosting or another host with renowned tech support to help you setup domain forwarding and page forwarding.

Should You Buy a Domain Name from A Private Seller?

Domain harvesting is when people purchase domains they plan to resell. They spend years purchasing domains in the hopes someone will want to pay big money for a domain they own. You may decide on the perfect domain only to find out someone else already owns it – but it’s listed for sale.

It’s truly up to you if you want to spend the money on that domain. Most likely you can figure out an alternative solution and get something else, but if the domain is affordable and it’s exactly what you need then buying from a private seller may be an option for you.

What’s the difference between a domain name and hosting?

Choosing and purchasing a domain name is the first step is setting up a new website. Your domain will need to be hosted somewhere. This is where you website will “live”. Think of your domain name as the license plate, it needs to go on a car which is your host.

You can choose a host that’s different from where you purchased your domain, I highly recommend Showit (this is for Showit sites only), SiteGround and GoDaddy.

Conclusion

As the owner of a new website, you’ll have a lot of important decisions to make that can affect the future of your website. If you feel that domains, hosting and websites are confusing and overwhelming, take it one step at a time. Think of the millions of people, young and old that have created their own website. If they can do it, you can do it too!

What do you think of this article? Do you have any questions about domains? Ask me in the comments box below!