3 Rules To Choosing A Good Domain Name

This is most likely a very exciting time for you. If you are at the stage of choosing a domain name, I am pretty sure you are thinking of starting up and creating your very own website. The possibilities are endless! With choosing a domain name, there are a few factors you will need to take into consideration to make sure your domain name is good for your traffic, good for your website, good for Google and other search engines and good for yourself (although I have had domains that were good, I personally hated them so make sure you like your domain as well)! Without further ado, here are three rules you should incorporate when it comes you choosing a good domain name.

Rule #1 Always Use .com

The first rule to choosing a domain name is to always always always make sure it finishes with .com. Dot com is, by far, the most used and most memorable domain name so it is a no-brainer to use it.

I can give you an example of why you should use .com. I created a website once called TweetAway.net which was all about Twitter tips, optimisation and so on. I did not want to spend ten times the amount for .com when .net was ten times cheaper! So, because I was tight for money, I chose the cheaper alternative.

The amount of people that tried to visit my website but kept tweeting me saying ‘I type your domain in and it takes me nowhere!’ I had to explain this because they were searching for TweetAway.com instead of TweetAway.net. So, save yourself the agro and just pay that bit more for .com!

Rule #2 Keep it Short and Sweet

The best domains out there are those that are short and sweet. There are many reasons why you would want to keep your domain name short and sweet:

• If it is short and sweet, people will be able to remember your domain name for longer which will help you increase the direct traffic to your website as well as the overall brand awareness.
• If it is short and sweet, Google and other search engines will like your website more and rank it higher organically. This is because the websites with short and sweet domains tend to be higher quality and be about one specific category so it is easier for Google and other search engines to process them on search results.
• A short and sweet domain name looks much better than a long and windy one – fact.

Rule #3 Discoverable vs Brandable

There are two paths you can take to choosing a domain. You could include keyword/s in the domain to make it discoverable easier or you can create a new word that is brandable. For example, TweaksForGeeks.com is a discoverable domain name since it has keywords in it relating to what the content is about. Whereas, Mashable.com is a brandable domain name. There is no right or wrong path to go: see what suits your website the best!