Okay, you got a stunning business, a bunch of ideas on how to promote it and how to make it grow, and to make it all real you need a website. Establishing a website and choosing a proper and unique domain name are crucial parts of your making your future online presence, so you need to be patient and wise so everything will be perfect.

The right domain name is maybe one of the most important things for success. If you choose a non-proper or wrong domain name, it can be pretty difficult later and it can seriously harm your business. That’s why it’s very important for you to choose the domain name that will present your business in the right way from the start. You probably think choosing a domain name is easy-peasy, but slow down a little bit: yes, it can be interesting to play with words, but choosing a domain name is a strategy and you must be serious and do not take it for granted.

There are some rules you must think about when you start to create it, so in this article, we are giving you a comprehensive guide on how to choose the best domain name as smooth as possible.

1.    Use keywords in your domain name

Keywords are an important role in your domain – using them you are telling the search engines what your website is about. To be honest, everyone wants the best search ranking, but it’s really hard to find a good domain with your chosen keywords that’s not already taken. When you choose a domain name, be creative: combine your keywords with other words to find the perfect combination. For example, if you have a bakery named “Muffin” it’s better to choose the name “muffinbakery” than just “Muffin” because it will make your domain to stand out. And it’s also pretty cool.

2.   Extension .com is better

Today you can find a bunch of domain name extensions – from classic like .com to niches like .blog, .photography, etc. 

If you run a business and you have plans to expand it online in the future and to grow it, it’s always recommended to choose a .com domain name. Extension .com is the most credible and established, so when customers see it they will also see that you can trust you. Other extensions are also ok, but some of them can be untrustable especially if you run an eCommerce website and customers must give you their data like credit card numbers.

One more thing: the .com domain is the most memorable. Many users will automatically start to type “.com” at the end of every domain rather than any other extension, and almost all smartphone keyboards have a predefined .com button.

3.    The domain name must be unique

It’s crucial for your future domain name to not resemble other existing domains. Why? Because it can confuse users so they can go to another similar website instead of yours, and because search engines can be confused too and give to you the poor ranking.

4.    The domain name should be short and easy to pronounce and spell

Sometimes, less is more. Sure, keywords are important but don’t overboard the domain name because no one wants to remember complicated combinations of words. Your domain name should be short but catchy enough to be memorizable easily. Of course, it must be related to your business and represent it in the best possible way, but it shouldn’t resemble any other domain with similar content. While you never know when you’ll be asked to share your domain name with people, be sure it’s easy to spell and pronounce. It is also very important if you’re about to create a business email address – simplicity is the key.

5.    Numbers or hyphens are not recommended

First of all, you don’t want your domain name to look like some generated password for your secret email. Second of all, hyphens and numbers make it harder for customers to find your website – it’s rather to overlook some random number than letter. Words are words, and you can’t say “duck” without letter “C”, but you can overlook number 3 in “duck2389428.com”. 

6.    Protect yourself from competition

Once you find a perfect domain name for your business, be sure that it is unique and that no other company with similar activities doesn’t use a similar domain name. 

The second step: capture your domain name as fast as possible, just to prevent a competition from taking it. Many hosting providers offer both hosting and domain name registration in the same package, and you can also very fast check if your desired domain name is available. According to reviews on WebSitePlanet, Hostinger is highly recommended with very affordable hosting packages and free domain name registration, so you can check it out here. Registration of domain name is the first step of the fantastic journey of making a website and creating interesting content, and once you establish it, everything will be much easier.

7.    Leave space for expansion

Yes, it’s smart to choose a domain name that is related to your business and which will automatically tell customers what your website is about. But it’s smarter to save some space in case of expansion of your business. If you running a bakery which is making only muffins, and in one moment you expand your business with cupcakes, shortcakes, tarts, and other desserts, it will be harder to explain to your online audience that you have a huge assortment if you have a website called “muffinbakery”. Try to choose some more universal and flexible name for any business, because it’s much less frustrating than moving your website to a new domain because in that case, you are at risk of losing a search ranking, and of course, your nerves.

Conclusion

As we said earlier, choosing a unique domain name is a strategy, and it really is – you must think of all aspects of your business representation, and how you want to look it online. It is interesting, but it is also a very responsible job. Keep it cool, and take time to cleverly think of everything. Good luck!