Ten Rules When Choosing a Domain Name

Where does the site start? Or about the correct domain name of the site

The site does not start with text or design, and not with a beautiful company logo. The site starts with a domain name – the first thing your visitor gets acquainted with before going to the site.

Following simple rules will spare you from unnecessary hesitations when you must choose a domain name for your website. The choice of domain is a key factor in the future history of the project.

Factors such as the memorability and imagery of the domain name, the domain registration area, the semantic load of the domain name – all this determine the first impression of the visitor and can sometimes be a determining factor for a potential customer in the question “Is this site what I need?». But the subjective evaluation of the site’s domain name by the visitor – is not all that should be considered when choosing a domain. A properly chosen site name can also help in the search promotion of the resource.

The task of choosing a domain name for a website is not as simple as it may seem to some.

  • First, it is not always easy to choose a name that would reflect the specifics of the business, as well as would be well remembered by customers.
  • Secondly, choosing a name, you still need to somehow “get” it. After all, in a network where the number of domains is in the tens of millions, the uniqueness of names is the basic principle and the set of characters in the name, in fact, is limited to the letters of the Latin alphabet and numbers. The choice in many cases is small and “get” something worthy without straining the gyrus is not easy. Exceptions, of course, happen, but seldom and every day less and less often.
choose a domain name for a website

When choosing a domain name, always remember that

  • The name should be easy to remember.
  • The name should not belong – the shorter the URL, the easier it is for a person to type it on the keyboard and remember.
  • The name should make sense and be associated with your business – if the domain name is content related to the content of the site, it will be understandable to visitors and easier to remember.
  • The name should look good on promotional materials, business cards, and any other advertising media that you will use to promote the site.
  • It is desirable that the domain name contains the keywords (or word) of the site because SEO gurus teach that some search engines pay attention to this when shuffling search results.
  • If possible, you should choose a name in the “best” domain zone, ie in the zone that the average person subconsciously tries to type after the dot. If you take the Internet as a whole, then here, of course, you should focus on COM zone. If your potential audience mostly lives in Ukraine, then .UA or .COM.UA is no worse, and maybe even better.
  • The use of numbers in a domain name should be avoided because many people may associate a number with letters, especially if the domain name was first heard.
  • You should avoid using hyphens in your domain name, so as not to drive unnecessary traffic to a site with the same name, but without a hyphen; it is unlikely that you will be able to have the same traffic as from a resource without a hyphen.
  • Try not to use abbreviations in the domain name, as they are difficult to remember. Of course, if your abbreviation is GM, GE or DG, you can feel free to use it without hesitation.
  • Try to make sure that your future domain name does not infringe on someone’s registered trademark, or it can be taken away.

Obviously, a short domain name is better than a long one, even if the long name perfectly describes the site and contains a bunch of keywords. For example, “soft.com” describes the site much worse than “softnewsandunlimiteddowloadsforall.com”, but is much better remembered at first glance, easily and quickly typed, and easily fits on any advertising medium.

How can a site’s domain name help with search engine promotion?

The position of the site on certain keywords depends on the quality of search engine optimization, site content, its “promotion” on the Internet – these are the main factors influencing the issuance. But there are additional factors, one of which we consider in this article – the placement of keywords in the site’s domain name. Try typing “ski rental” into Google. On the first lines you will see the site prokat-lyzh.com.ua, ie the name of the site is a search query.

Such “coincidences” can be seen very often if you pay attention. The reason for this is simple – on requests from users, the search engine (no matter what) should give the user sites that best fit his query-relevant queries. And which site can be closer to the query than the one whose name consists of this query? For the search engine, it is obvious that the site is dedicated to the topic of the query, and even if it does not “keep up”, for example, with search engine optimization or a lot of backlinks, so “specific” to the site query can be given a virtual plus and placed closer to the first lines.

Finding keywords in a domain name is a hint to search engines about the site’s compliance with the queries, but not an indication, and the decision to assign a site a high position will be made on a general basis with priority given to the site if it is competitive in content, ranking, and optimization.

It is safe to say that having a keyword in a domain name is a strong enough competitive advantage.

It is worth noting a few non-obvious moments of the factor of entering the request in the domain name:

  • You can help the site to promote only a few words that are key queries. That is, on request “snowboard” domain name prokat-lyzh.com.ua will not give any “plus”;
  • Google is constantly evolving, and today it is well aware that queries such as “Vivasan cosmetics” and “Vivasan cosmetics” are the same from the user’s point of view in most cases. This gives both an increase in the query area, which will help the “right” domain, and allows you to choose a domain for your website with a more beautiful name;
  • if the keywords in the domain name are written in transliteration, then the spelling must be correct from the point of view of the search engine (which does not always coincide with the “human” point of view);
  • why not use a domain name that includes all the necessary queries? Sites with very long domain names, which contain a large number of queries, are perceived by the search engine as spam and are likely to be excluded from the issue.

How to encourage visitors to stay on your website read here.

Common errors to avoid when selecting a website domain name

Mistake #1 – choose a domain name that is overly complex and lengthy, making it hard for clients to recall or irrelevant to the company’s industry and the website’s focus. The website vantazhniperevezenniapoukraini.com.ua features a name that is excessively lengthy.

Mistake #2 involves choosing the wrong domain zone, which may result in difficulties when it comes to promoting the website.
For instance, it is advisable to host your website in the com.ua domain zone if your clients are located in Ukraine, and in pl or eu if your target audience is in Poland.

Mistake #3 we often make is selecting Cyrillic for the domain name, such as сайт.укp. While these domains may appear appealing, they can lead to certain issues for the website. When you copy and send a link to someone, the domain name transforms into a series of unintelligible Latin characters.

Choosing a domain name that closely resembles a well-known trademark or brand is a significant mistake #4, particularly if your offerings have no connection to that brand. Since search engines tend to showcase established and popular brand websites over your project, customers may struggle to locate your website by its domain name. There may be instances where you are marketing a recognized trademark and intentionally selected this name to attract some of its audience.

Mistake #5 – choosing a third-level domain name or a complimentary domain for a significant project. Search engines rank such domains poorly, which greatly complicates further promotion.

Mistake #6 – selecting a domain without investigating its background. At times, domain owners dispose of them when websites are subjected to search engine penalties. When acquiring an abandoned domain name, you might face specific challenges related to its negative history. It is essential to examine the site’s history to grasp what was previously hosted on this domain. To view the previous appearance of a site, you can utilize the service at https://web.archive.org by entering the domain name. When acquiring a new domain name, it is wise to consult an SEO expert to evaluate the domain’s history, the quantity of external links, negative reviews, and more.

Entering an intriguing domain address in your browser and finding that the site does not load under that name does not necessarily indicate that the domain is available for registration. Clients frequently hold such misleading notions. A dedicated service like https://imena.ua can be utilized to verify domain availability.

Which zone to choose for domain name registration?

Domain zones are conventionally divided into two groups – thematic and territorial. For thematic zones historically there are appointments: com – a zone for the commercial organization (now the subject is not observed and it is more correct to call it a zone of “general purpose”), info – information resources, biz – sites of commercial structures and many others which purpose is intuitively clear ( net, travel, pro, mobi, name). Territorial zones are focused on the inhabitants of a particular country, less locally and, in the general case, on speakers of the relevant language and culture: us – USA, uk – Great Britain, de – Germany, etc.

The com.ua zone has become the most widespread in Ukraine. For organizations with a registered trademark, the zone ua is available.

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