Choosing a domain name: TLD vs CCTLD vs Exotic

 

 

Making a good first impression is possible and helps build a successful website. You’ll need a domain before you can develop a website with the finest website builder. However, how do you pick a domain name? You want to leave a good first impression, so it must not only be unique but also convey the proper information about your website and, indirectly, your business.

 

Making the proper selection from the start is crucial, and to be honest, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make before launching your website is selecting a domain name. This is in addition to selecting a provider from among the top web hosting providers. Once you’ve chosen the appropriate domain, you can make sure that your target market can quickly and easily find your website.

 

It’s one thing to know that you need a memorable domain name; quite another to really accomplish this goal. Below is a list of factors to take into account before starting your domain name search and selecting a domain name.

 

1. Keep it short

 

Customers will remember a URL more easily if it is shorter.

 

Potential customers are more likely to make a mistake and leave your site if they have to key in a long string of characters. Some visitors may double-check their spelling, realize they made a mistake, and try again and still find your website. That might not always be the case, though. Some users won’t bother trying again since they’ll presume there’s an issue with your website.

 

Try to keep your domain name length around 12 characters, which is the most popular length according to research.

 

2. Choose the right TLD

 

 

TLD, which stands for top level domain, is the group of letters that appears after the last period at the conclusion of a domain name. There weren’t many TLD options at the dawn of the internet era, and the majority of websites chose to utilize the.com extension.

 

These days, each nation has a unique two- or three-letter TLD, and there are also TLDs for certain industries. The most popular TLDs include:

 

• .co or .com — for companies

 

• .info — for informational sites

 

• .net – for internet infrastructure sites

 

• .org – for non-profits and other non-commercial organizations

 

• .biz – short for business, for those that don’t want .com

 

• .me – for personal sites and blogs

 

Many of these can be coupled with two-letter country codes to establish national top-level domains (TLDs), such as .co.uk for businesses in the United Kingdom.

 

Many large corporations may buy a number of country-specific domains, such as example.com, example.co.uk, example.com.au, etc., and either direct visitors to the main site or develop distinct regionalized versions of those sites.

 

Choosing the proper TLD—which could be the difference between your site being found and not—is the first step in selecting the ideal domain. We advise going with.com because it is generally thought to be the finest for businesses, especially those who operate internationally.

 

3. Check existing domains

 

Once you’ve run out of domain name suggestions, you should see if any of them have previously been registered by someone else. GoDaddy, among other domain name registrars, offers tools for this.

 

In order to guide people to your primary website, it can also be a good idea to register names that are blatant misspellings of the one you want to select. For instance, you may register socialize.com in addition to socialise.com. Thus, even if a user inputs your website’s URL incorrectly, they will still be able to access it.

 

Conversely, avoid selecting names that are misspellings of well-known businesses in an effort to attract some of their traffic, such as Amazen.com or Googel.com. You might be sued as a result.

 

4. Check the language

 

Checking the language refers to determining whether a word that appears neutral in English actually has any negative connotations in other languages.

 

The last thing you want to learn after investing money in a marketing campaign that prominently displays your new domain is that you unintentionally offended individuals in another nation or individuals who speak that country’s language here in your own.

 

The global introduction of the Ford Kuga is one instance of this. The Balkan word for the Black Death, “kuga,” was not known until after the term’s official debut.

 

5. Search for existing trademarks

 

You cannot lawfully use a domain that has been trademarked by another company.

 

You can find yourself in legal difficulty if a name you choose for your domain is already protected by another company’s trademark, especially if it’s an invented word that isn’t protected by common usage rights.

 

You can check by using the knowem.com username search website, which displays words that have been used in registered trademarks, domain names, and even on social media platforms.

 

6. Avoid hyphens and numbers

 

The usage of underscores and hyphens should be avoided since they are susceptible to confusion. The same is true for numbers because they frequently resemble letters, such as a capital “O” and a zero or a capital “l” and a 1.

 

7. Consider focusing locally

 

A .co.uk domain is appropriate if your firm caters to customers in the UK.

 

Including the location of your company’s operations in your domain name helps attract searchers from nearby places.

 

For instance, BostonShoeRepairs.com would be a wise choice if you own a shoe repair shop in Boston. You should be aware that there are multiple Bostons in this example. In addition to the well-known one in Massachusetts, there are 15 more ones in the US, the original one in Lincolnshire, England, and a plethora of others in South Africa, Ireland, Uzbekistan, Costa Rica, Columbia, Jamaica, Peru, Italy, Cuba, Bolivia, and Andorra, among other places.

 

So, while selecting a domain name, you must be careful and take all factors into account.

 

8. Memorable is good

 

Your website’s domain is more likely to be discovered and spread by word of mouth if it is simple to remember. It helps if the domain name is simple to pronounce so that people would tell others about your website. In addition, the domain name should be simple to pronounce in languages other than English if you’re aiming for a global audience.

 

It can be difficult to come up with something that fits all of these requirements, but the time you invest in getting it perfect will pay off in increased levels of website visitors.

 

9. Try a word generator

 

If you’re having trouble coming up with words, you might want to try using an online word generator like TextFixer. These web programs take essential words and creatively combine them to create something original.

 

Source: ITPro