Choosing a Domain and what to look for.

Choosing a good domain name is essential for establishing your brand identity and creating a stable online presence. Even if your not ready to build a website you still need to consider locking in the perfect domain name before it’s taken. Anybody can create a domain name but choosing a great one means putting in some time and effort. A good domain name has the potential to save you money on advertising, boosting your SEO, organic searches and it can also dictate the reputation of your brand. Good domain names also have a higher click rate and more brand potential so it’s definitely worth investigating.

When choosing a domain name there are more things to consider than just a catchy name so it’s a good idea to know what you’re doing and how the domain name you choose is going to affect your site and business. We’ll go over a few basics that could potentially save you time and money.

Choosing a Domain Name – Brandable vs Keywords

If you are creating a domain name for an existing business, keeping your domain name brand-able is in your best interests, so if you can use your existing business name, do so. For example, if your business was called Sweep Sorts using sweepsorts.com would be more brandable than sweepingandsorting.com

When starting a brand or creating an online store, gallery, portfolio site or blog you may need to choose a completely original domain name. Here are a few rules to go by:

• Keep it short, try to make it within 15 characters (not including the TLD ex: .com)
• Avoid using hyphens or numbers
• Avoid using words that are hard to spell or pronounce
• Don’t use a domain name that sounds like another business
• Be memorable
• TLD’s (Top Level Domains

Whether your using your business name or an original domain name you are going to want to put some thought into your TLD (top level domain) TLD’s go after a domain name the most common one that you will find on the interweb is .com but you may also see ones like .co.nz, .nz, .biz, .info.
When choosing a TLD think about who your audience is, where they are and what’s your site providing. A site like Trademe uses .co.nz as their TLD because their users are based in New Zealand. A website for a local plumber would ideally use a .co.nz site or .nz. This would work in their favour because it provides some insight into where they are located and it would help with their google.co.nz rankings. Clothing stores such as JJ’s also do this to different their stores from overseas ones. Facebook use a “.com” TLD because their users are based all over the world.

Premium Domains

You could also choose to use a premium domain name but they are kinda pricey. The price is justified by the amount of quality they bring to the domain. Having a premium domain name pretty much gives you an instant online brand. They also have a higher search volume, paired with a strong domain history means that it will have a higher page ranking and it will bring more organic traffic to your site.

The benefits of a premium Top level domain include:

• A keyword/phrase in your domain name means you can link it. This improves your SEO.
• Premium domains have a good reputation. This can encourage reputable brands to link to it.
• It can enhance funding and partnership opportunities.
• Boosts SEO

Premium domains have some pretty cool features. If you’re not expecting a huge audience or you feel like your brand is well established it may not be worth the investment, but it is worth considering.

What if your Domain Name is taken?

After deciding on the perfect domain name for your brand you may find that it is already been taken. You can choose to contact the existing owner (which a lot of the domain stores can do on your behalf) to purchase it or you can choose another domain name. You could also consider changing the TLD. There are few cool sites to help choose alternative domain names. www.namemesh.com is a great as it divides the generated names into categories which is helpful.

Domain History

If you do choose to buy a second-hand domain name or one from a private seller then research the history of the domain name first. Sites like www.whois.com/whois/ can provide you with a domain name history.

Buying a Domain Name

Once you have found a domain name to purchase there are multiple places you can buy it. If you need help we can purchase it on your behalf. Please contact us for more info.