Do I need a domain for my website? This is a common question one comes across when publishing a website. A domain name replaces your website’s Internet Protocol (IP) numbers to help anyone identify and access your website easily. Your business or personal website is easily identified by the online visitors through a domain. For any business, even if it is a startup, a website is crucial to let the customers know its product or service. Businesses today need effective websites with unique domains to compete in the international marketplace.
A domain name contains the name you have chosen and an extension like a ‘.com’ or ‘.net’. With a unique domain, you can have your prospective customers identify your online store or website easily. Therefore, a domain name should contain some information about your business, product, or brand. Choosing an appropriate domain name is rather difficult. You have to check the availability of your desired name with any web hosting providers or domain registrars.
You can find new domains registered every day, while new domain extensions are also available every day. You can either create the right domain for your website or buy an existing name from the service provider or domain auction site. Nevertheless, choosing a distinct domain asks for a few key aspects to consider. They are:
- Selecting a short name that is easy to remember and type
A domain that is created using a short and catchy word attracts people and is easily identified on the web. Such a word should be easy to pronounce, remember and type on the browser. For example, ‘Shell’ is one of the leading brands in the oil and gas industry in the UK. It is easy to spell and remember. Similarly, ‘Tesco’ is a leading general retailer in the UK, which has a unique brand name. These names are short and simple that they attract a lot of customers.
The domain names that are short and within 4-8 characters are most visited by the Internet users because such names are easy to memorize. Nevertheless, avoid choosing a name that is not related to your industry or product, for it will confuse people.
- Using keyword combinations that are relevant to your industry or business
Most customers visit a website based on the domain, which gives some idea about what the website is all about. This makes it all the more important to have a domain that has some relevance to your business or brand. Otherwise, your prospective customers cannot find you. By using keywords that are related to your industry or niche area or business will help your customers know your website better. Furthermore, the right keyword combinations in a domain name will help the users find you by typing related words on the search engine.
- Avoid using special characters, numbers or hyphens
When creating a name, avoid using any symbols or special characters as they are not allowed by the system. It is also advisable to avoid hyphens and numbers since they can confuse anyone when searching for a website.
- Finding the right domain extension
A suitable domain extension will help bring a lot of traffic to your website. The most popular extension is ‘.com’, which most businesses prefer to have a global visibility. You can also try having it. Another option is to go for country-code top-level domains (TLDs). They include .uk, .co.uk, .com.uk, .eu, etc., if your business is in the UK. The other generic TLDs include net, .info, .biz, .org, and .club.
- Purchasing domain variants
Your domain may have variants and if possible, you can find them and purchase them too. There are domain service providers that can help you with bundle deals. They can offer you all the variants that matches with your domain for a discount price. If you are based in UK, you may find similar variants of your website ‘delishop.uk’ in ‘delishop.com.uk’ and ‘delishop.co.uk’. This will save you from diverting your traffic to other competing websites.
To have the best domains for your website, you need to consider the points mentioned above.
