How to choose your domain name?

5 Tips for Choosing a Great Domain Name

A domain name is one of the 3 things you need to get your website online (along with somewhere to host your site and some content).  But how do you choose a domain name for your website?

There is no right or wrong answer to the question “what makes a great domain name?”, but there are some key points that all would be website owners should consider;

1. Availability – You probably have some ideas already for what your ideal domain name might be, but so many domains have already been registered and are therefore unavailable for you to own.  Almost every simple 1 or 2-word domain name out there has already been registered.  So you are probably going to need to get creative when coming up with options. Great news is that doing your research is simple – use our domain name search page to see if your domain idea is available and get some alternative suggestions if it isn’t.

2. Shorter/simpler domain names are better – While many simple domain names have already been registered, try not to make your domain too long or complex either.  If your domain is hard to spell, too long, or complex your customers will probably not remember that there is a dash or a “k” where there would normally be a “c”.  They will probably search for the normal spelling and end up looking at a competitor’s website.

3. Do some research – Use our search tool to identify possible domain names that are available and could work for your website.  Use friends, family, and others to get their thoughts on which of the options they would prefer.  Do they think it has any negative or contentious meanings?  Could it be confused with any other websites or similar providers?  You should also consider checking whether the associated social media handles are available (ie instagram, facebook, twitter) having a domain name that you can use consistently across social media will make your marketing efforts simpler and more effective.

4. Think about your future plans.  If you are likely to expand from your initial service or product, choose a domain that gives you flexibility.  Amazon could have gone with Books.com as their original domain, but had plans to broaden their offering over time.  Also consider whether you might want to expand to an international market, if this might be the case perhaps secure the .com domain as well as your country domain eg .co.uk.

5. Do not focus too much on having the keywords in your domain name– Keywords in domain names do not add much search engine optimisation value – historically having keywords in your domain would have helped your rank with the search engines.  This is less important now and your content will have a much greater influence on how you rank and the terms you rank for.

One additional point to consider – Your email address is based on your domain name, for example admin@bemoreonline.co.uk.  If you have a long or complex domain name, it will make it harder for customers to find your website, but also difficult to remember or type your email address (meaning you won’t get the emails that are meant for you).

If you have you have any questions or just want to get in touch to talk domains, we’d love to hear from you – info@bemoreonline.co.uk (we love to chat and we love questions).