How to Choose a Good Domain Name

Whether you are starting a new web business or building a site for fun, you will need to start with a good domain name. Here are some tips on how to choose the best domain name. You might be using your company name as your domain, but it may be taken already. If so, you'll be looking for ways to tweak the company name which is a good domain name to use. This can be challenging but stick to the basic guidelines below and you will find a winner.

1. Choose .com

Everyone assumes your doman is a .com so this is what they will enter into their browser without even thinking about it. It's hard to remember if a domain is anything other than .com so always try to use .com If you absolutely can't have a name that you like in .com, .net is the next best choice. Although there are many TLD's (top level domains) they are very specific to certain industries or countries and are hard to remember. See our list of top level domains and TLD rules.

2. Keep it Short

You want people to be able to remember your domain name and type it in easily. The only time it makes sense to use a long domain name, such as up to four word domains, is if you are building a site which you are optimizing for specific keywords. Then longer domain names may be useful. But in general, try to keep it to less than 10 letters before the .com (and not including www.)

3. Don't make people guess how to spell it!

Test out your domain names on friends by saying it outloud. If they have to ask how to spell it, or you automatically find yourself spelling it for them, keep looking for a better name. Your users will end up on other sites, be annoyed, not find you and generally forget how to get to your site. Stick with easy to spell domains.

4. Avoid hyphens.

It is SO tempting to use hyphens to get the name you want. However, unless you can have both the with and without hyphen versions, it's really better not to use hyphens. Again, it's hard for people to rememer hyphens, and having an easy to remember domain name is key to your success.

4. Do a Google search.

Search Google for any domains you are thinking of using. If there are TONS of similar names, you will have more competition to be visible to your prospective users. Ideally, you want your name to be at the top of the first page of Google for searches done on your targeted keywords, and if your keywords are targeted by many other companies you will get lost in the search and be buried many pages down. So, try to find a domain name that isn't too close to other companies using the same keywords.

5. Make it distinctive.

Most importantly, your domain name has to be memorable. Generic names like "worldtravelservices.com" are much harder to remember than "islandhoppers.com". Try to combine words and parts or words for unusual and memorable names. NameCombo offers thousands of prefixes and suffixes which you can combine with your own root word(s) for combinations you would never have thought of! Then with just a few clicks you can see which are available on GoDaddy or Dotster for fast and easy registration.

6. Don't even bother if it's trademarked.

If another company is using the name, stay away from it, period. Although you do see people capitalizing on trademarked names for traffic and visibility, these people are very likely to be getting letters from the companies legal departments telling them to give up the name, and, they may even be sued for the profits they made using the trademarked name. Stay away from trademarked names. Come up with something original. To check and see if a name is trademarked, do a USPTO Trademark search.

7. If the domain name you want is already taken...should you try to buy it from the existing owner?

Maybe the name you are just in love with is taken, or, you are set on having your company or product name as your domain name. Now what? First, google the name to see how it's being used. If there is a fully functioning site, chances are, you are out of luck. You also may be alerted to trademark issues this way. However, sometimes you google a name you like and you are given a page with a link to the owner asking you to make an offer. Shoot, make an offer, what can it hurt? You would be surprised at the range of sale prices for exisiting domains. It has to do with a number of factors including the length, exisiting traffic and word popularity. Making an offer never hurts.

If it's not clear who owns the name, do a whois lookup to get their email address.

Finally, if you are not having any luck choosing an available name, try looking on Sedo. Sedo is the leading marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites.

8. Hang onto that name!

Now that you've found a great name, you need to (1) register it and (2) make sure that you provide a valid email address so that when it comes time to renew, your registrar can notify you. Or, you can opt for auto-renewal so you never have to worry about losing it. You can always turn this option off if you don't want to renew the name. If you let your name expire and then try to buy it back, it can be difficult and costly. Imagine how annoying it would be to develop a site, build traffic, then forget to renew the domain and not be able to get it back. Domain registrars are very good about sending you email notices well in advance of your renewal date. That's why it's so important to either give them a valid email address or just set it to auto renew until you don't want it anymore.

9. What is "private registration" and do I need it?

Most domain registrars offer the option of private registration when you register a domain name. This hides your email address from spammers. The fee is usually nominal and useful if you don't want your email address to be public and want to avoid the possible spam deluge that often comes with new domain registration.

10. Use an established and reputable domain registrar.

There are literally thousands of domain registars on the internet. NameCombo uses both GoDaddy and Dotster for bulk domain name lookup and registration because they have been around a long time, are known to take care of their customers, are reliable and stable, and as a bonus, it's hard to beat GoDaddy's prices. But they are both very good as compared to the massive numbers of others.