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Choosing the doamin for your website or blog can be a hard choice, especially with more and more domains being registered daily. The domain of a website can easily make it extremely popular and make it far easier to promote. However it can also make it a laughing stock - such the infamous Penisland.net.
In this article I will share some top tips when choosing a domain for your website.
1. KISS
Keep It Simple, Stupid. You want a domain name people will remember and which will encourage repeat visitors. Whilst bookmarks and history can store URLs for users don't assume everyone knows how to use them (or even know they exist!). You don't need to be specific or complicated - sure you can register domains up to 63 characters but who is likely to remember and type it into their address bar?
2. STOP! Get others to check your choice
It may sound silly but your domain name could be utterly ridiculous. Most domains won't have spaces which means your domain could have more than one meaning. You don't want to set up a website about pens called Penisland.net or a website to find local therapists called therapistfinder.com, do you? So get your friends, family, clients, people on the street, whoever you can find to check your domain name - not only for things like double meanings but also to see if it sounds good, if it's memorable - they may have some ideas of their own
3. Still stuck? Don't be afraid to get help
There are a number of tools which will help you with finding a domain name. They will also tell you instantly if it's available (the next tip). The most popular appears to be at DomainTools. Just type in your ideas and it'll come up with some suggestions which you may not have thought of.
4. Check it's available
Perform a Whois search on the domain to check if it's available and not yet been taken. A Whois search will also give you more information about the domain - such as if it has previously been used, who owns it if it's taken and when it will expire if you want to take it.
5. Don't wait
Nowadays domain names are ridiculously cheap - which most consider good. Unfortunately this means some companies register lots of domains in bulk in the hope that someone will pay them upwards of £1000 for one or two. So basically: don't wait around. Once you decide on the domain you want: Register it! You'll be kicking yourself if you wait a month and find it's been taken. If you aren't too sure you may choose to register it anyway - just in case. Most registrars will allow you to return the domain for a full refund for the week after your register your domain.
6. What TLD to pick?
The Top Level Domain (TLD) is an important choice. The TLD is the ending of your domain - be it .com, .org, etc. It seems that everyday there is a new TLD (top level domain) to choose from. This choice may depend on what you plan to host at your domain - .com, for example, is best used for companies. Of course this is also the most popular TLD and most likely to already be taken so try your country code. .co.uk for UK, .com.au for Australia, .us for United states and so on. Not all registrars will be able to supply you with these TLDs and some may require extra steps to register (such as proving you live in the country or region).
As noted earlier though there are increasingly more and more TLDs to pick from - .aisa, .tv and .cc are just a few. This may be good news - you will probably be able to pick your desired choice of domain name. The problem? A lot of internet users are unaware of them. Most will just append a company name with .com or .co.uk and hope for the best. However if you have good search engine rankings this shouldn't be much of a worry.
With domain names being so cheap though you may wish to buy multiple domains - there's nothing against it! Why choose between yourcompany.com, yourcompany.co.uk and yourcompany.net when you can buy all 3 for £15? A lot of registrars offer bulk pricing options too. Some TLDs are also VERY cheap - some companies are offering .info domains for as low as 99p.
7. Be aware of trademarks and other companies
So you've got the perfect domain, chosen your TLD and it's not yet been registered - brilliant! But just wait a second - perform a web search on your chosen domain name. It could turn out that your chosen domain name is protected by a trademark or a similar domain name already exists. Whilst neither of these things will stop you from registering your domain name (assuming you don't do so in bad faith - e.g. in order to purposely confuse users) they are things which should be considered. It may be hard to build up good traffic if there is already a popular domain similar to yours.
8. Don't forget.
So it's a year down the line, your domain and website have been a great success, you have plenty of visitors and users but remember your domain needs to be renewed! Some registrars will offer long term (up to 10 years) options however these may not be economically viable and besides, what happens if you change your mind a month later? Sooner or later you'll going to have to renew your domain. Any good registrar will remind you months, weeks, days even HOURS before it's too late but once you've missed your chance you be sure your now popular domain will quickly be snapped up.
