Are you planning to launch a new website? Congratulations! We would advise starting with the domain name search. Probably, you don’t know but a domain name can play a big role in the success of your site.
When you choose an appropriate domain name an extension it improves your website’s visibility to a great extent. It helps to make your website recognizable and standing it out from your competitors.
Unfortunately, finding the perfect domain name is not piece of cake nowadays. You will often find that the most appropriate name for your website is already taken.
But don’t worry, here at this post we will introduce you to our step by step guide that will make your domain name search process hassle-free.
So, without any further delay let’s start this guide.
Step 1- Pick keywords that best represent your business
There are plenty of ways when it comes to generating ideas for a domain name. You can simply choose your own name as your domain name. However, some SEO experts believe that the key ingredient of an effective domain name is a searchable keyword.
According to some experts, using a keyword in domain name is a good idea for the same reasons using a keyword in a website content is. It may give SEO benefits to your website and can bring more traffic by improving the ranking of your website in search engine results.
In addition to this, keyword in a domain name can help your visitors better understand your website’s niche and focus.
Although there is no dearth of options or ways when it comes to researching keywords for a domain name, most experts will suggest you choose tools like SEMrush, Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Planner, etc. These tools help you in searching for new keywords that have both good search volume and low competition.
Make sure you are using the domain name smartly. It shouldn’t be an exact match as it is against the Google’s guidelines. Google has launched a filter in 2012, called ‘Exact Match Domain’ that prevents poor quality sites from ranking. Actually, people have started using keywords in the domain names to get good ranking even for their poor-content sites.
So, what you can do now? We would suggest you go for a partial match domain that has part of keyword phrase you want to rank.
Step-2 Take help of domain name generator to browse your options
Once you have created a list of keyword options to be used in the domain name, your next step should be brainstorming the ideas. Though you can do it without the help of any special tool yet it can be difficult as you will keep running into the names that are already purchased.
It will help you simplify the process of choosing the domain name. It will not only help you know whether your potential domain name is available or not but also you can buy available domain straight from here.
All you need to do is visit this URL, enter a keyword into the search bar and click on ‘Check IT’
To illustrate the functioning of this tool, let’s imagine that you are planning to launch a food blog about how to prepare healthy meals. Now you have chosen the keyword ‘healthy food’ Entering this term into this DNS tool will return the following results:
As you can see in the above screenshot, you have lots of variations to choose from. If you don’t think they will work for you, you can try another keyword. Take your time and come up with a few strong options.
Step 3- Choose the right domain name on the basis of some simple criteria
At this point, you must have some good domain name ideas that you need to narrow down now. Here are some criteria that you can use to make your decision easier.
-Make sure your domain name is clear and concise as long and confusing names are difficult to remember and easier to mistype.
-Go for a unique name that can make your website your brand (Of course while keeping it clear and concise). Try to choose the one that is creative and memorable.
-Your domain name should be easy to pronounce and read. For that, you should avoid special characters, and numbers as they are not only difficult to write but also pronounce. Take suggestions from your friends on how difficult or easy your domain name is to pronounce.
Step – 4 Choose Your Top-Level Domain Carefully
For those who don’t know, top-level domain or TLD is referred to the last segment of your domain name. It is the part that follows right after the symbol “.” Top level domain names are usually parted into two categories. ‘Generic’ and ‘Country-Specific’. Some of the popular top-level domain names are ‘.org’, ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.gov’, ‘.biz’. ‘.edu’, etc.
Remember, ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number) is the entity accountable to coordinate domains and IP addresses for the internet. Make sure your domain name registrar is an ICANN accredited.
Nowadays, it is getting harder and harder to get the quality ‘.com’ domain names, therefore, people are getting attracted to other extensions as well. If you are not getting the right ‘.com’ domain name, you may go for a non.com domain name. However, the one thing that you need to be careful about is to choose the TLD that apply to your specific region. For example .co.uk, .ca, etc. Google use this TLD to geotarget websites.
Step 5- Register Your New Domain Name
You may purchase a domain name when signing up for a hosting plan. In addition to this, you can buy it a separately through a dedicated registrar. No matter what way you choose, you should register your domain name at a trustworthy registrar that is accredited by ICANN as we said above.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right domain name is not as easy it seems. However, with a little research and the right tools, you can choose an appropriate domain name. We hope the steps mentioned in this post will make your domain search process easy and approachable.
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