12 Tips to Select Good Domain Names

If you want to start a blog or website, the very first thing you should be thinking about is a good domain name!… You might ask your friends for website name suggestions and ideas. But, many of the readers may ask, “OK, I hear you, but what is a domain name?”.

Well, a domain name is the name that uniquely identifies your blog. Some people also call it “address” of your blog. For example, the domain name of this website is techwelkin.com. These words, techwelkin.com, are unique on Internet and whenever you’ll type these words in a browser, you’ll land on my website!

That’s what a domain name is. I am sure, you can understand that it is extremely important to choose right domain name for your website. In this article, I will give you tips on how to select a good domain name. I will also mention things that you must consider while selecting a good domain name.

What is domain name?

As I have already said, it is the address or label of your website. Domain name is the most important part of the URL structure. In the real world, many people can have the same name, but on Internet, names of all the websites have to be absolutely unique. Domain names ensure this uniqueness.

How to select a good domain name?

Before you purchase a domain name for your soon-to-be-built website, you should spend some time on serious brainstorming to find a good domain name for your website. It is almost as important as selecting a good name for your newborn baby. Here are some tips for this purpose. Let’s see what all you should be considering.

1. Domain name should be short

You should try to keep your domain name as short as possible. Longer names are difficult to remember and type in browser. Also, they take more space when you’ll write / print them on your stationary etc. Examples of some websites with short domain names are:

hp.com (Hewlett-Packard)
gs.com (Goldman Sachs)
db.com (Deutsche Bank)

2. Domain name should be memorable

It should be easily possible to remember your website’s domain name. This objective can be achieved by using full words in your domain name. For example:

apple.com
firstpost.com
digitalhindi.com

But if you’ll use words that are not part of a common dictionary, then it will become difficult for your visitors to remember the name. For example,

asdfg.com

Although this name has a logic behind it (asdfg are adjacent keys on a computer keyboard) but if this logic does not strike the visitors, they may not remember this name!

3. Use brand names

If you’re planning a website for an already established entity (for example, an organization or a company), you should try to include name of the entity in your domain name. For example, Microsoft Corporation’s domain name is microsoft.com. If entity’s name is too long, you may consider to abbreviate it like pmindia.nic.in (website of the Prime Minister of India) and usa.gov (Government of United States of America).

4. Use of keywords in domain names

It is important from the viewpoint of search engine optimization (SEO) to include one or more keywords in your domain name. Keywords are the words that indicate what your website is all about. For example, “tech” in techwelkin.com is a keyword which indicates that this website’s subject is related with technology.

It is actually debatable whether to include keywords or not. Some people think that inclusion of keywords binds your domain to a particular niche. As a result, you’ll not logically be able to present information from other areas. For example, it would be illogical for hp.com to include a lot of material on how to weave saris!

General names, that is names without keywords, can be used for any sort of subject. For example, twitter.com can virtually be used for any subject! Such general names can also be sold on better price if you no longer need them. This is because there would be a wider demand from a variety of niches.

5. Use of hyphens in domain names

People sometimes take domain names with hyphens (dashes) within them. For example, I could have taken tech-welkin.com

At other occasions, people are forced to use hyphens because the name without hyphen is already taken by someone else. But there is a clear advantage of using hyphens in names like whorepresents.com !!! This could be read as “whore presents” whereas the real name is “who represents” … such names can confuse not only humans but search engines also. Google may mark such a name with adult content if it fails to properly distinguish words. Therefore, taking who-represents.com would be a more sensible choice.

But overall, you should try to avoid hyphens in domain names.

6. Use of numbers in domain names

Numbers can be used but they should be avoided for the simple reason that they create confusion. If you are telling the audience your domain name and you speak “four square dot com” … now audience may note it as “4square.com” or as “foursquare.com” unless you specify which one is correct!

7. Use of words like “My”, “Your”, “The”

If you purchase a domain name like mygeonotes.com -then you should always write “My Geo Notes” as your site name. If you will publicize the site as “Geo Notes” —people may forget that the domain actually also has “my”. The same goes for “the” as well.

By the way, do you know that initially Facebook was launched my Mark Zuckerberg on a domain name called thefacebook.com ? Way to go guys!

8. Use of slang words

If you are looking for a domain name like yourwebsite and you find that it is unavailable, then you should not go urwebsite … “ur” “u” “wots” “wanna” —such slang words should be avoided because they confuse the visitors.

9. Use a thesaurus

As you know, thesaurus is a collection of synonyms. Such a book is very helpful when you are looking for names —baby’s or website’s —that does not matter! You may go for words that are same in meaning. For example, I wanted techsky for my website but it was already taken. So, I selected techwelkin (welkin also means sky!).

10. Do research for selecting domain name

You may got a great idea and you have checked that it is available too, still don’t rush to register it. You should search about that name and see if it is a trademark of some other entity. Usually organizations book domain name as soon as they register a trademark. But if they don’t do so and you purchase their name, they can later on take it away from you. So, be careful.

11. Select right extension of domain name

Dot com domains are most popular and easiest to remember, but you should select correct extension. Each extension has a meaning attached to it. For example:

.com : an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community
.info : informational sites
.net : technical, Internet infrastructure sites
.org : non-commercial organizations and non-profits
.biz : business or commercial use
.me : blogs, resumes or personal sites
.in : Indian sites
.us : sites related with USA

Don’t run after dot com domain. Choose the extension that is best for your domain name.

12. Check the history of desired domain name

A large number of available domains names have been owned by someone in the past. Then these names were abandoned by their owners. You should check the age and history of domain names before purchasing them. If a domain name was previously linked to a website or blog that hosted content unsuitable for children, then search engines may have penalized such domains. Now if you purchase such a name and link it to a good website —it may still take quite a bit of time for search engines to remove that tag.

13. Buy expired domain names

In case you like a domain name but it is listed as unavailable… you can contact the domain name owner to see if he is willing to sell the domain name to you. Also you may visit expired domain auction websites to see if a domain name of your choice is listed there.

I hope this article will help you in making a good selection for domain name. Go on and launch a great website or blog. You can find a lot of useful tips and tutorials on TechWelkin that will help you in making your blog a hit. Thank you for using TechWelkin.