5 Best practices for choosing a good domain name

Choosing a good domain name for your website is crucial for its success. And the best option is to put some effort and research into selecting the right word at the beginning itself. The process of changing or switching to a new domain at a later stage can be costly as well as harmful to your brand and search engine rankings. Most of the web hosting plans in India include free domain and sub-domain registrations allowing you to save the cost of going for separate registrations.

Choose Your Domain Name Carefully

Your domain name is your identity on the web and so should be easy to understand and remember besides being relatable to your business. Here we talk about the best practices for choosing a good domain name for your website or blog.

  1. Go with.com– While plenty of new domain name extensions is available these days, the original .com, .net, and .org remain the most popular and credible options. Using new domain extensions may make your business appear less trustworthy. Most searchers, especially those who are not tech-savvy, automatically search for .com sites. Another benefit of using .com is that most smartphones have a .com button.
  2. Choose Domain Names That Are Relevant– Try using keywords relevant to your business in your domain name. This will help you get more traffic besides boosting your search engine rankings. Be creative and combine your keywords with other words to make your domain stand out. You can even take the help of a domain hosting services provider.
  3. Choose a Short and Easily Understandable Domain Name– While choosing your domain name, don’t go overboard. Go for a short and memorable character to avoid mistakes and traffic loss. Another thing to consider while finalizing a domain name is to ensure that it is easy to speak and write.
  4. Avoid hyphens in Your Domain Name– Hyphens make a domain name complicated and be a sign of spam domains. Another common problem with domain names with hyphens is the chances of typos and your potential customers or visitors getting routed to a competitor site. A common mistake to be avoided while finalizing domain names is to avoid double letters, thereby reducing the chances of typos.
  5. Research Your Domain Name to Avoid Trademark Complications– Before registering your domain name, check its availability or whether it is already written and trademarked. You can do a google search to study or take the help of your domain hosting website for doing this. You can even consider buying or registering a domain name as popular options like .com or .org and other options and even common misspellings of it.

Once you have zeroed in a domain name for your website, please don’t delay getting it registered. But do check the registrar’s transfer policy to avoid unnecessary complications or expenses at a later stage. Most web hosting companies offer domain registration services too. Go for web hosting plans in India that include free domain registration with hosting accounts. Many programs also include the allocation of a certain number of sub-domains. This will help you expand and organize your website in a better manner.

John R. Wright
Social media ninja. Freelance web trailblazer. Extreme problem solver. Music fanatic. Spent several months marketing pubic lice in the financial sector. Spent 2002-2008 supervising the production of ice cream in Africa. Had some great experience developing robotic shrimp in the aftermarket. Spent several years getting my feet wet with puppets in Miami, FL. Was quite successful at supervising the production of corncob pipes worldwide. What gets me going now is working with electric trains in Mexico.