The 2020 pandemic crisis and following lockdowns were the last confirmation that a solid domain was critical to the success of any enterprise. And indeed, only firms with a strong presence online flourished.
Knowing that the internet has become the most vital source of information in today’s civilization, every founder must reserve a position in its database by launching a website.
Nevertheless, simply launching a website will not do. You’ll also need a good domain name to make it much quicker for people to find your website.
And in order to get a great domain name, you first need to grasp the important criteria that the best domain name must satisfy if it will attract customers to your company’s site.
So, as you brainstorm for a good domain name, ensure you focus on domains that align with the tips defined below.
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Seven Tips for Finding a Strong Web Address for Your Company
Find Customizable Domain Names
The brandability of a domain name plays a significant role in a company’s success. 77% of buyers choose businesses based on their brand name; therefore, choosing a generic brand name could harm your brand.
Brandable domain names are creative, unique, and engaging. They evolve in sync with your business. These domain names are often free of words that reveal the key product, service, or industry of a business.
Obtaining a brandable domain name, such as Meta, Google, or Microsoft, is essential since it will attract clients and entice them to learn more about your organization and its offers.
So, how can you obtain a memorable domain name?
- Make up Your own Words: You can develop a unique or clever word that embodies your brand’s product and personality. Think names like Google, Yahoo, and TikTok.
- Use of Established Words: You can also search through a thesaurus or dictionary and find relevant words that align with your brand. Think names like Twitter, Apple, and Target. These brands adopted these words and infused them with unique meanings.
- Use Abbreviated Words: One way to craft an exciting domain name is to shorten long words. Microsoft, a perfect brand name, was gotten from ‘Microcomputer software,’ and Instagram was derived from ‘Instant Camera and Telegram.’
- Use Strong Domain Name Generators: Domain name generators can assist you in creating great, brandable domain names based on your preferred keywords and brand values.
Pick the Same Website Address as Your Brand Name
When selecting the best domain name, always ensure your website’s name matches your company’s name.
As a result, you should choose brand names that are likewise brandable and use the same as your domain name. A good percentage of the top-performing brand names are made up of invented words and acronyms that have eventually become synonymous with the brand.
And just the same way ‘Googling something’ signals ‘searching the internet,’ having your brand name become synonymous with your product or service is the best way to get the most out of your brand.
Keep Your Web Addresses As Brief As Possible
When it comes to selecting a great web address, keeping it brief, clear, and to the point is the best strategy. This is because keeping your brand name simple ensures that your domain name will remain simple to speak, remember, and find on the internet, all of which are important components of a good domain name.
Our brain has a working memory capacity. This reveals that the number of characters that our brain can accurately recall is limited. The current model has a character range of 3 to 5, with an average of 10 to 12 characters. Our ability to remember begins to deteriorate beyond that point.
So be sure to get a short and catchy domain name because domains with long or complex names are harder to recall and are commonly mistyped by customers when looking up the web address.
Select Top-Level Domain Names
Websites with a top-level domain (TLD) always come with the ‘.com,’ ‘.org,’ and ‘.net.’ extensions. And regardless of the fact that the online world has developed significantly, top-level domains (TLDs) like .com and .org continue to dominate.
Based on a simple study undertaken by the Domain Name Association newer domain extensions grew by 145% between 2016 and 2017, but none were able to replace .com’s supremacy. So, it is wise to prioritize securing a .com domain for your domain name.
We understand that .com and other TLDs may be costly in the secondary market. So if you cannot afford to get your .com domain name on the secondary market, consider choosing a country-code TLD like .co .uk, or better still, you could get fast-growing extensions like.io and .co.
Tread Carefully With Keywords
Putting keywords into your domain address is an efficient way to promote your business to customers by recognizing the many services you can provide.
Unfortunately, while names like petshop.com, vehiclesrepair.com, and carinsurance.com are SEO-friendly and recognizable, they are difficult to brand and risk being generic.
Avoid Using Misspelled Words
Some founders make the mistake of thinking that incorrect spelling of words passes for creativity. They don’t understand that misspelled words can confuse clients, and trust us, confusing your clients is the fastest way to lose them.
Many clients would try to reach your site through mobile devices; picture how quickly the auto-correct function on mobile phones would try and fix the spelling of your domain name. In most cases, your customers may get distracted and end up on another site altogether. The days of ‘Flickr-ish’ brand names are fading, so avoid domain names like ‘Avaylable,’ and ‘Flowrs.’ over.
Avoid Using Numbers and Symbols
Using numbers and symbols like hyphens or underscores would hurt your brand name’s effectiveness.
It’d also make your website less mobile-friendly because mobile users would have to switch between keyboard modes just to type your ‘already complicated’ brand name. Bear in mind that mobile devices drive over 68% of internet traffic.
Brands like seven eleven had to spend a ton of cash on marketing so that customers would know that their domain names were 7-eleven.com, 711.com, seveneleven.com, and 7eleven.com. But all these would’ve been avoided if they’d chosen a simple name without numbers.
You Can Do It
Selecting a suitable domain name will be difficult, but we believe that with your newfound knowledge, you will have an easier time. So what are you waiting for? Get to work, and start coming up with the perfect domain name.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients such as Nestle, Dell, Nuskin, and AutoNation.
