What are the traits of a good domain name? Yes, this question will not just go away. In the many years that the internet has existed, a trend has been set. It is such analyses that I will use to pick the best characters of good website names. Before I show you how to choose good domain names, see the examples below ;
Examples of Good Domain Names
As you and I know, a quality website name is worth a fortune. I will give an example with Goliath.com which auctioned for over $50,000 on Flippa. Flippa is one of the best online marketplaces for domain names.
Goliath.com is a example of a good domain name for SEO. Whatever the case, you will find the following tips very useful the next time you want to register new domain names for your websites.
How to Choose a Good Domain Name
If you are going to find a good domain, you have to look for certain traits. The best URLs will have the following qualities :
1. Length SHOULD BE Short
Finding shorter domains is not easy. Literally all dictionary words with 1-5 letters have been taken. But a short domain name is preferred. So expand your length and be creative. Any word with two to three words still works.
Here is what I have noted; a domain with three characters is a fortune, anything more will depend with what you do to it.
A short domain is likely to be an abbreviation of a popular brand. See the example of bbc.com, espn.com, or unicef.org … name them. If you own or find such domain names, it’s a gold mine. I doubt you will but if you do, please register as fast as you can.
Apart from the number of characters in a good domain name, it is worth noting that a short domain name is also measured by the number of words it has. They may include dictionary words or maybe just popular memes. One-word domain names are a fortune, two words may be a hit, three a gamble, and four or more a dangerous game.
For example blog.com, freeblog.com, myfreeblog.com, and seemyfreeblog.com all contain dictionary words. But as the number of words used increase, notice how the keyword “blog” loses its strength and authority. Getting a one-word domain name is not easy to you can get lucky. It does not matter mind the length of the characters here as long as the word is sensible. For this reason, I find it wise to play with 2-3 words if you do not find the domain you badly needed. Since buying it from the owner may cost you much.
2. Capture Users Memory
Having a short domain name is cool but having a memorable one is class. What’s in a name anyway, if nobody knows or remembers you? Marketing is about getting shouts as loud as possible to many corners. I doubt you will ever do that with a domain like 12bwzyp7.com.
Over the years certain ground rules have always applied. Do not drift much from them. I acknowledge that you may try to be creative but “the trend should always be your friend”. These tips will help you to create a memorable domain name.
3. Avoid Hyphens
Imagine if your content went viral and got lots of mentions on radio shows, TV, popular websites,…. And your blog’s address is my-blog.com . Radio listeners for instance will most likely go to another site, myblog.com, and you will lose traffic big time.
Through experience, internet users are likely to take the hyphens in your domain name into consideration, I doubt newbies would. This will hinder your steady growth because new users are most likely unable to find your correct web address. Besides viral content gets shared by everyone.
4. Avoid Double Letters
Similar to hyphens, I hardly think domains with double letters would be as authoritative as they should. A perfect example would be Fiverr.com, a freelancing platform. It is a site that offers smalls jobs for 5 dollars. So I guess since the domain five.com was not available and fiver.com would absolutely mean something totally different, the owner made a good bet by registering Fiverr.com . Notice the double letter “r”.
That may have worked since Fiverr was a unique idea that went viral not to mention the amount of resources used to popularize the site. And also the Fiverr users are experienced professionals or internet users. These together with other reasons helped build the brand and also popularize the website.
I doubt many people can get that lucky with double letter domains. Besides how do you think a domain like ccats.com would do? I think terrible at most.
5. Non-English words are not Cool
As the old adage goes, “when you go to Rome do as the Romans do”. And yes, when you speak English use ‘English Words’. I am not saying that this is always true as you can always choose to register domains that target other regions or countries that are not English speaking like China, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, But if you are targeting English speaking countries, you better avoid unfamiliar non-English words, unless it’s a popular meme, lingo, brand, … name it.
6. Focus on Niche Relevancy
I do not expect a site like namecheap.com to teach me about the importance of eating fresh veggies daily. But rather to point that they offer cheap domain names registration going by their name. Your domains have to be relevant to your target niche.
7. Keywords are a Plus
Yes, I know turnips.com was a good domain to talk about vegetables. However it has more authority in regards to turnips than it is talking about the wide variety of vegetables there are. I would go for a domain like vegetables.com which sadly is not available for registration.
Otherwise if I was a user looking for specific information on turnips, I would more likely visit turnips.com ahead of any other site regardless of the ranking on the search engine’s results page. So in a big way, choosing the correct keywords is key for online success.
As you may have noted, remaining in your users memory is important. And this just sums up two important traits of a good domain names ;
a) A good domain name is DESCRIPTIVE.
b) A good domain name is BRANDABLE.
8. The .com Rules
While it is true that people cannot own domain names forever but rather just sought of lease them on a yearly term, the .com extension is still king. It is the most popular. More than 80% of web users rate the .com TLD as Top of Mind, while others are spontaneous or aided. So it makes sense to always go for the .com first.
I would advise that if you find that the .com extension of a particular domain has been taken, do not try to register the other extensions available, though there may be little legally prohibiting you from doing so. Even if Facebook.org was available. You are already infringing on someone’s brand, your business will hardly do well. If you cannot be creative with getting alternatives domains, offer to buy the one taken but are interested in.
As you have seen, popular and creative branding techniques and trends emerge constantly on the web. I cited avoiding numbers but w3.org, w3zip, and w3schools.com have done well in branding. Now instead of WorldWideWeb people easily go with w3 ( a lingo abbreviation of www).
The .com matters but Wikipedia.org is a force. Some say keywords matter but what is Yahoo.com or Google.com? The double letters can be horrible but how did Fiverr.com survive?
I can go on and on. The traits of a good domain name are relative, what is good for me may be bad for you. Try getting at least one of the traits correct the next time you want to register a domain name, and I pretty sure you will register a good domain name. Your life on the internet will largely depend on it.
I know I have left some things out deliberately or unknowingly, please keep the conversation going and you will soon be a pro.