How to Choose a Domain Name for your New Business
10 things to consider when choosing a domain
This Article is 100% Human Generated.
By Cathy Blood, Founder, NEST New Media
March 13, 2023 - Greenwich, Connecticut
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CONTENTS
Intro - Get Organized
What your domain SHOULD have
What to avoid in a domain.
Where to check availability and purchase.
Buying a domain in the secondary market.
Domains with a negative backstory.
The Basic Principles Behind Choosing a Domain Address
While your domain is important - and there are some things you definitely want to avoid - the content you put on your site can do more for your visibility than slight domain modification. So don’t make yourself crazy hunting for the ‘perfect’ domain.
Step one is to start brainstorming domain name ideas.
I recommend putting a spreadsheet together with all the possible names and extensions as you begin checking availability. Some people recommend buying your own name as a domain, even if you might never use it - in fact, your company might BE your name, especially for authors, coaches and consultants who are building a personal brand.
Domain brainstorming is a great group activity, and also a fabulous use of CHATGPT.
Basic things to consider: Your domain should be as closely related to your company name as possible.
For example you don’t want a company name of “The Jig is Up” and a domain of www.partyonbob.com.
Consider user experience - your goal is to make your web address easy to remember, easy to spell, and easily understood when spoken out loud (in person, on the phone, live interviews, radio etc), without having to go all alpha bravo charlie on people.
What Should You Consider Before Choosing your Domain Name?
Your Domain should…
Be brandable
Have no copyright issues
Be short (The shorter the better but try for around 15 or so characters or less - and 2 to 3 words.) For example, nestnewmedia.com is 12 characters and three words. (FYI technically, the character count includes the extension.)
Be Easy to say out loud and spell
Be Memorable
Describe what you do (including a keyword is ideal). And the keyword at the beginning of the URL is best. E.g. ItalianVillaAdventures.com is better than AdventuresinItalianVillas.com. But only if it makes sense.
If you’re target audience is local, consider using a geographic tag like www.greenwichpickleball.com. This can give you a slight advantage, in local SEO, however, it is important to remember that content is king for Google search, and there are work-arounds.
Be a .com or other TLD (top level domain, aka domain extension) if possible. While Google claims that using one of the hundreds of new domain extensions, e.g. .club; .loans; .social has NO impact on search, people naturally think of .com, .org and .net and other TLDs as more established. That could change over the next few years as visitors become more accustomed to seeing them.
Hot Tip - If another social media site is critical to your business model, check it when checking domain availability. A good tool for checking dozens of social media handles at once (and available domain names) is https://namechk.com
Your Domain Should NOT
Not violate copyrights or sound too much like another company’s name, especially one that will immediately result in a cease and desist! For example, don’t use a domain that is very similar to another and just purchase a different extension like .social. or add a hyphen.
Not have a nonsense word unless you have millions to spend on marketing and explaining to people what www.snzybds.com actually does.
Not string a bunch of keywords together with no brandable word/phrase.
Not have hyphens and numbers.
Not be inappropriate or offensive (unless that is the point of your service/product/blog).
Not be a penalized domain (from a previous ‘life’)
How to Check Availability & Where to Buy Your Domain
I recommend Google Domains for purchasing domains because Google is a trustworthy registrar, is competitively priced, does not change pricing in year two, and has free domain privacy. But one of my very favorite things about Google Domains is that Google makes it easy to transfer your domains and connect to your website to your domain. No fuss, no muss.
The Squarespace integration with Google Domains is fantastic!
EVERY website platform integrates with Google. So don’t try to save fifty cents on your domain, and then struggle forever. The one reason NOT to use Google Domains is no longer an issue - Google Domains is out of beta, (an 8 year beta), as of 2022.
Google charges $12 bucks a year per domain, no hidden costs, no up-selling. Hidden fees and sneaky moves are common with low budget domain sellers. Learn what hidden fees to look for.
As you check availability, indicate which versions are available on your spreadsheet. Google will suggest other names related to what you search for, so you should consider adding some of those suggestions to your spreadsheet.
Don’t jump on anything too quickly. Sit on it, think about your name. What feels right? Run your domain options by a few people first. And remember to check the availability of your name across platforms.
You can always buy a couple of domains as place holders if you can’t decide right this minute.
According to Matt Cutts - famed Google engineer and Google anti-spam guru - it will take a couple months for a new domain to start appearing in search. So once you’ve chosen your name, get a coming soon page up while you’re working on the wireframe and content for your website.
Again, I’m assuming that you’ve done or are doing all the hard work required to launch your business…market research, identifying target audiences, financial projections and assessing capital requirements.
Buying your domain is the fun stuff, like designing your logo. Neither are a substitute for a solid business & marketing plan!
Should you Buy a Domain for Sale in the Secondary Market?
You may also have the option to purchase a domain if it is available for resale. The domain secondary market is very active.
This can sometimes make sense. If you can approach the owner outside of the third party broker, you will most likely get the best price.
CAVEAT - some domains have been active in the past with a website, and may have been used for purposes that are not aligned with your brand.
The domain could have been used for illegal activities, or with malicious intent, e.g. to organize revolutions against the government, distribute hate speech, etc.
Google and other search engines may have penalized such domains. If a domain has been penalized you will have a hard time getting it to perform well in search.
Any domain you purchase could at one time have had a website associated with it in the past, not just a domain purchased on the secondary market. People let domains expire all the time. Better safe than sorry.
To find out, use waybackmachine (the internet archive) to see if a site ever existed at any domain.
If you find something that gives you the willies, note it on your spreadsheet!
What about paying top dollar for a domain? Keep in mind that the most important thing about your site is the content you put on it, and your attention to SEO. A ‘good enough’ domain is better than none at all. And if the cost is exorbitant, the invesetment needs to fit into your business plan.
I recently read about an entrepreneur who bought home.loans for $500 thousand dollars. That’s a big investment. Will it pay off? Or will the constant changes in how search engines work make that investment lose value over time? Let’s ask him in 5 years.
$500K would have funded a lot of great content…
Domain Name Brainstorming Process
Please, ‘no back of the napkin’ scribbles for this process please!
Take the time to put a spreadsheet together with all the possible names and domain extensions as you begin checking availability on Google Domains. Don’t forget to try CHATGPT and pay attention to Google’s suggestions!
Believe me, you will quickly lose track of which names you’ve considered, which are available, how much they cost, and why you eliminated some (copyright, competition etc.)
Here’s how a recent brainstorming session went with one of my clients.
This client provides yacht and boating services & repair. His company name was his own name with the word “Yacht Services” at the end. He had no website and was fully booked just by word of mouth. However, people always asked for his web address so they could learn more about him.
He’d recently become more specialized in installing electric motors (aka ‘drive conversions) on sailboats and launches. This was a major change in his product offerings and he wanted to focus more on this area.
He decided that a website would help clarify the type of work he does, and get his referrals more in line with these higher paying conversion projects.
We looked at hundreds of domain options, but there are big players in the ‘electric’ boat space, many of the obvious word choices would have caused copyright issues. One domain in particular that we strongly considered may have hurt one carefully nurtured, particularly strong strategic partnership.
You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
In the end, we decided to focus on some brandable marine related words and tack ‘electric drives’ on the end, so people would know that these were marine electric motors for boats, not cars or other transportation.
We ended up with two ‘finalist’ names - helmsmanelectricdrives.com and rednunelectricdrives.com. We purchased both.
In the end we chose ‘helmsman’ because the helm is more related to boat propulsion. (We let the second choice name expire.)
The domain is a bit long, but if we’d removed ‘drives’ or ‘electric’ we’d have lost two very important keywords - and the SEO boost they provide. So we compromised. You can check out the snazzy logo we came up with at the link above.
FYI, this client is on page 1 of search for ‘electric boat conversions’. He’s turning away work - and more importantly, he is able to pick and choose his projects & clients.
About the Author
Cathy Blood, Founder, NEST New Media
I’ve got over 25 years of experience in digital media and content marketing. A few years after graduating from Yale University, I joined Lifetime Television, analyzing how TV series and movies performed with female audiences in order to value acquisitions. That was the beginning of a long career in ‘content marketing’. With several internet start-ups under my belt I gained under-the-hood SEO knowledge that few pure content marketers or writers possess. I launched NEST New Media in 2016 to help my fellow entrepreneurs become more visible - and more successful - online. Learn more about me.
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Cathleen Blood
Founder, NEST New Media
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