Picking the right domain name is really important for your online business performance. In this post i will deploy what comes through my mind when i have to decide on a domain name selection. I will be brief and straight to the point.
1. If you already owe a business and you are not in the phase of a foundation, register your business name if available or a variation of it. Of course if the site is not about your offline business, or does not affect it directly, you could choose a different domain. For example, if you owe a web design firm and you want to launch a service that is not customer dedicated but for in-company use and exploitation, you may consider a name relevant to the service and not your brand. If you are a merchant you may consider an independent online business (hopefully more brandable) even if you sell online the same products that people will find at your shop (ignore this option if you have an established and popular brand).
2. Consider including the most important keywords related to your site’s/blog’s subject in your domain name, yet try to come up with a brandable phrase as a result. What does the term brandable mean? It means catchy and memorable. You need something clever that at the same time declares a relationship between your site and its topic.
3. Avoid easily misspelled words or phrases, as well as hyphens. In both cases your domain could be misspelled either because of complexity, or because of the common phenomenon of forgetting dashes. The user could end up on a different web site and your site would lose traffic. Especially, if the non-hyphenated domains or the common misspells of the postulant domain are already registered, then consider another option of your preference.
4. Avoid extremely long phrases. Relatively short domain names seem more authoritative, (or less spammy if you prefer) are easy to remember and tend to be memorable and more brandable. However do not condemn long domain names by default, since in some occasions they could be even better (for example in niche blogging)
5. Register a.com domain if you go global and you do not owe an organisation or corporation (there are the dedicated tlds:.org,.co). However, even if you owe one, you should register the.com extension as well, and then redirect the one domain to the other of your favor.
6. Be assured that you will keep the first domain that you register. Do a good research before taking your final decision. If you have already started the promotion of your online business and then change your domain name there is a high possibility that you could harm your site and lose traffic.
For further information, here is one of my favorite and most detailed posts about picking the right domain name: