Do You Have The Wrong Domain? 4 Tips For Choosing The Best Domain

• Tweet
• Share
• Sharebar

• Tweet
• Share

Did you know that there are 500 million domains that have been registered?  (see Domain Counts & Internet Statistics)

With so many domains registered it may seem like a difficult task to find the right domain for your website.

So I have come up with 4 simple tips to come up with the right domain for your website.

1.  Does it contain your keywords?

What is your website about and what keywords would you ideally rank #1 in Google for?

For example if you want to rank high for “Toledo computer repair” then by all means go purchase Toledocomputerrepair.com. Having your keywords in your domain name helps a lot with search engine optimization.

Can I still rank high in Google even if my keyword is not in my domain?

Yes you can but it will be harder.

It’s kind of like running a marathon and asking, “If someone tied my hands behind my back would I still be able to complete the marathon?’  You could, in theory, still finish it but running a marathon is hard enough without any extra handicaps.

And ranking high in Google is a lot like running a marathon; it takes time, effort, and training.  Why would you want to make this even harder?

What if my ideal domain is taken?

You have a couple options here.

First, you can try putting dashes between words.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try Toledo-computer-repair.com or some variation.

Second, you can add 1 word to the front of your domain.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try BestToledocomputerrepair.com or A1Toledocomputerrepair.com or MyToledocomputerrepair.com.

If your name is Bob you could try BobsToledocomputerrepair.com.

Third, you could try adding additional keywords to your domain.

For example, if Toledocomputerrepair.com weren’t available then you might try ToledocomputerrepairAndService.com or ToledoPCcomputerrepair.com or ToledocomputerrepairAndSupply.com

What if I don’t have the time or patience to do this?

If you want to rank high in the search engines then you need to make the time and have the patience to do this. If you spend an hour or two finding the right domain it could save you 10 or 20 or 30 hours later on by making your search engine optimization easier (or less difficult).

Talking with a friend and generating ideas with someone besides yourself can really enhance your ability to be creative and come up with good ideas.

2. Choose a “.com”

I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this but you really should get a “.com”. I know there a lot of options and some of them are very popular i.e. “.net”, “.org”, etc.

But when someone tells their friend about your website they are likely not going to remember if it was a “.biz” or “.us” or “.ca” or one of the other zillion types of domains.

All they will remember is that it was something like Bob’s Computer Repair. And when that friend goes to search for it it will likely type in Bobscomputerrepair.com.

So do yourself a favor and buy the “.com”.

Also make sure you avoid “.info” domains. They have historically been used by spammers and I believe it’s harder to rank with them.

But the “.info” is so much cheaper. Is it worth buying?

There’s a reason it’s so cheap. Very few legitimate bloggers and website builders want to use them.

Don’t be enticed by a low price. You may save $5 or $8 right now but you may lose 30 hours or more to extra search engine optimization. Is this what you want?

3. Is it easy to spell?

Business owners sometimes like to have cute spellings or made-up words in their name. Just don’t do this in your domain.

For example if you are selling chocolate covered strawberries on the Internet you may think it would be cute to have a name like Ear-ResistibleStrawberries.com.

When people see it they may think it’s cute or funny but many of them won’t remember the actual spelling of the name. Instead they’re going to remember IrresistibleStrawberries.com and that’s probably what they’re going to search for.

It’s also wise to avoid words that are difficult to spell in general. Check out the 100 most often misspelled words.

4. Is it easy to remember?

I’m amazed at how often I drive down the road and see signs or billboards displaying someone’s domain like LearnHowToMakeMoneyOnlineWithNoMinimalInvestment.com. Seriously, who’s going to remember this domain later on and look it up? Absolutely no one.

Worse yet, some people don’t even bother to capitalize the first letter of each word so you end up with learnhowtomakemoneyonlinewithnominimalinvestment.com.  Imagine seeing that on a billboard while driving by 80 miles an hour.

A much more effective domain would be something like MonthlyMillions.com or MakeMillions.com.

Tips for more memorable names

Marketing genius, Eben Pagan, gave some simple rules for coming up with great names for products, businesses, and domains:

1. Sound repetition is a good thing.  Products with great sound repetition: Palm Pilot (both words begin P), Black Berry (double B sound), or Coca Cola (the hard c is heard 3 times!)
2. Make it rhyme.  Example: the two words in Coca Cola rhyme.
3. Keep it short.  Don’t use more than 3 words for your product/domain if you can help it.  And 2 words is even better.

Here’s a video of Eben explaining this in greater detail (scroll down and watch video 3).

Case Study

A few years back I wanted to launch a blog that specifically dealt with traffic generation.  But before I could buy the domain for it and start blogging I had to come up with a really good name.

And the name had to conform to the 3 rules listed above (sound repetition, rhyming, and keep it short).  I went through many variations of names that included the word traffic.

I finally came up with Nick’s Traffic Tricks.  It has sound repetition (Tr sound in Traffic & Tricks); it has a rhyme (Nick’s & Tricks); and it’s relatively short (only 3 words).  And each word is fairly easy to spell though a few people think my name is spelled Nic.

As an extra bonus there was virtually no one competing for the phrase Nick’s Traffic Tricks and so from day 1 I ranked #1 in Google for the phrase.  (Too bad no one was searching for the phrase. )

In retrospect I think Nick’s Tricks might have been a slightly better name because it’s shorter and the rhyme comes off a little better.  But overall I am pretty happy with the name I came up with.

Tagged as: domains, domains & hosting