How to Choose a Domain Name

Whether it’s for a blog, a simple landing page or a friends website ‐ picking the perfect domain name for your business is a lot more important than most think, and requires a bit of planning ahead.

Your domain name can have an influence on your target audience, your rankings in the search engine results pages and the branding of your company. It’s a lot easier to select the perfect domain name first time around, than to try and correct any mistakes at a later stage.

Here are out 5 tips for selecting the perfect domain name.

1. Consider your target market

Are you targeting a global market or a National market? Major search engines such as Google operate country specific versions which deliver location specific results for its users. For example, someone searching for plumbing in Auckland, will receive results based on their location using www.Google.co.nz. This means that unless your website has a country’s domain name extension (.co.nz) or is hosted in the country, there is a possibility that depending on the competition for certain keywords ,it would be less favoured by Google. If you’re targeting a world-wide audience, then this isn’t as important and a top level domain extension such as .com or .net is fine.

2. What are your top 5 Keywords?

Before you begin the search for your domain name, list the top 5 keywords someone might search in order to find you. For example, if you were in the business of selling landscaping services, you might start with landscaping lawn-mowing, home maintenance, Roofing and gardening.

Play around with these initial words until you create a domain name you love.

3. Make it unique

For years Flickr.com had to fight for the domain name flicker.com. The small difference in spelling meant thousands of users were going to the wrong site. When picking your domain name, make sure it is not one letter off from sending traffic to another site. As a rule, try to stay away from domains that are plural or a misspelt version of another more popular site.

4. Make it easy to remember

Make sure your brand new website has a domain name that people can easily recall when telling their friends and family about you.

5. Branding

Using your own brand name as the domain is also a popular way to go about it. Keep in mind that although using your brand name won’t hinder your performance in search engines, it won’t do much to help it either.

For more advice on picking a domain name for your business, speak to one of our internet marketing specialists here at Authentic Digital.