How to choose a domain name can seem like a daunting task if you haven’t done it before. A good domain name can make people remember the website and come back again and again. However, with so many websites registered, finding a good domain name can be difficult. To a beginner, it seems like all the best domain names are already taken. Let’s work through what you need to do to choose a domain name that will work for your online business.
What is a Domain Name?
The domain name is the name of a website. Another name for domain name is URL (universal resource locator).
For example: https://www.facebook.com
The domain name consists of:
- Protocol eg https:// (means “hyper-text transfer protocol secure”)
- World Wide Web eg www.
- Domain name e.g. facebook
- Domain suffix e.g. .com
When typing in a domain name into an internet browser (eg Microdoft Edge, Google Chrome) you don’t need to type the http://www.
Just type the domain and suffix eg facebook.com
URL commonly refers to the whole address eg. http://www.facebook.com
If you are linking to a URL to create a backlink you will need the whole address (more about that later).
Best Markets for Affiliate Marketing
How to Choose a Domain Name
Always choose a domain name that is easy to understand and easy to remember.
Note: This is a common area where affiliate marketers go wrong.
Attributes that make a good domain name:
- Short
- news.com
- Easy to read and understand
- facebook.com
- Easy to remember
- skynews.com.au
- Easy to spell
- MoneyofCourse.com
- Tells you what the website is about
- PoolCareExpert.com
Do you know what this website is about?
www.askisociable775.net
Can you easily remember the URL or domain name?
Of course not. But people keep creating these useless domain names.
Avoid Using Hyphens
There is nothing really wrong with using hyphens, because Google will ignore them, except that it makes it difficult for your visitors to remember the URL. I have used one hyphen in a few domain names and they still ranked ok. You can experiment with this yourself.
paris-opera-house.com would be ok but who would remember the hyphens when typing the URL.
Avoid Trademark Infringement
A trademark is a name or symbol officially registered to a third party, and unless otherwise specified, the trademark owner is the only party that can legally make use of a trademarked name. If you are trying to build a website around a product name, be careful and make sure that the name is not a trademark. Otherwise, you could be wasting your time. The trademark owner may have their lawyers instruct you to shut down your website due to trademark infringement.
Domain Name Suffixes
A domain name suffix is the part after the dot.
For example
godady.com
google.co.uk
flyingdoctor.net
The .com was the original domain name (website name) suffix created for American companies. There are now many top-level domain suffixes such as .co, .ws, .net, .org, .info, .biz etc.
Every country also has its own suffix to identify the business or website as belonging to that country
eg.
.co.uk – United Kingdom
.fr – France
.sg – Singapore
.ca – Canada
.com.au – Australia
General Top-Level Domains
The most well-known top-level domain is the .com
Other well-known domains are:
.co Global, credible and recognizable!
.info Put your information on the Web.
.net the perfect complement to a .COM.
.org Perfect for your non-profit business
.me A domain that’s all about YOU.
.mobi Give mobile customers access to your site.
.biz A domain that means business.
.cc Used to mean Cocos Islands but can be used for anything
.tv A popular domain for multimedia websites.
.ws an all-purpose website domain (means web site or world site)
.asia Reach the growing Asian market.
If I type a generic keyword phrase into Google, like:
how to stop my dog barking
The top-ranking websites could be from any country with any domain suffix because the keyword phrase is not related to any geographic area.
There is a lot of discussion between internet marketers about which domain name suffix to use. Most of the information I have read is incorrect, completely baseless and often misleading.
Most internet marketers recommend selecting a .com domain name. If you cannot get the .com then get a .org or .net domain name.
When selecting a domain name, I believe it is far more important to get the exact domain or very close to it as this has a significant SEO advantage. The domain suffix has very little to do with how the site will rank.
For example
Your keyword is: beach holiday houses
Try to get beachholidayhouses.com
But beachholidayhouses.org, beachholidayhouses.net, beachholidayhouses.ws, beachholidayhouses.co will also rank just as well as the .com domain.
The exception to this rule is when your website is targeted to a country.
Country Specific Domains
If you have a local business or have a business that you want to target to one country, then you will require a country specific domain name.
The real reason for using a local (country) domain is it tells the search engines where your business is located. When someone types a keyword phrase into Google with a location name your website can be matched to that search query.
The search engines are programmed to give the user the best possible search results so that the first two or three results will be exactly what the user is looking for.
For example,
When I type “movies Sydney” into Google I want to know about movie cinemas in Sydney.
Google results are:
yourmovies.com.au
www.hoyts.com.au
which are Australian movie websites with movie session times for Sydney cinemas.
If the search engine gave me the times for movie cinemas in Tokyo it wouldn’t be much good.
When I type “movies in Singapore” into Google, I get:
sg.movies.yahoo.com
cathaycineplexes.com.sg
which are all Singapore websites.
If you have a local business you want to be found in the search engines by local customers. So it is recommended to get a country specific domain name. Your website will rank higher in the search engines (for your search term) in that country.
When I type a generic keyword phrase into Google, like
flower shops
As I am in located in Australia, Google will rank flower shop websites with Australian domains ahead of non-local flower shop websites. Google knows my IP Address (internet protocol address) which tells where I am located in the world and will give me local websites.
The top search results are all Australian domain names.
1300flowers.com.au
flowersforeveryone.com.au
direct2florist.com.au
Google Webmaster Tool
The other thing you can do is use Google Webmaster tool to tell Google whether your website is global or local. You may have a .com domain name but want to tell Google your business is in the UK.
Exact Keyword Match Domains
It is well known that if you want to try to rank well in the search engines for a keyword phrase then register a domain name with the exact keyword. This used to be very powerful, but Google has downgraded the strength of exact match keyword domains.
However, an exact keyword domain does give a significant boost to your SEO efforts and makes it easier to rank high in the search engines for keywords with low to medium competition. However, it will probably do little for highly competitive keywords and you wouldn’t be able to get the exact match domain anyway.
Google simply cannot ignore the keyword in your domain name because it is the leading indicator as to what the website is about. If your domain name is dog.com then Google must list the site in their index as a site about “dogs”. They are never going to list the site under “cats” or “affiliate marketing” as this would generate very poor search results.
One of the problems facing anyone building a new website is getting a good domain name. All the best keywords have been taken years ago. There are no simple, one word or two-word domain names available.
Let’s have a look at a few keyword terms that get traffic in Google
how to quit smoking
A domain name search in godady.com shows nothing is available except: howtoquitsmoking.cc
With so many exact match domains already registered and trying to get a slice of the traffic a newcomer will have a lot of difficulty trying to rank and get traffic for this search term.
Or maybe the person who owns howtoquitsmoking.com has registered all the other exact match domain names to prevent competitors building sites with that exact match domain.
How To Choose the Perfect Domain Name
Get an exact match domain with .com, .org, .net. .co, or country suffix (if targeting a country).
If you cannot get the exact domain, try a word on the end eg. howtoquitsmokingnow.com, howtoquitsmokingtoday.com
Try to avoid dashes (sometimes one is ok) eg. howtoquit-smoking.com
If you are trying to rank a “how to…” keyword, I have found that you can leave out the “to” and still rank ok.
- howquitsmoking.com
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