Choosing an Effective Domain Name for Your Website or Blog

If you ask: what’s in a domain name? We say: everything. Everything is in a domain name. When you pick a name for your website, give it a careful thought. Think of domain name as your beloved child’s name. After all, a business or any other endeavor for that matter is like your own child, which you conceive and nurture so that it thrives.

Finding a great domain name nowadays may be getting harder and harder, when almost everyone is actively blogging and setting up websites. But if you are creative enough, you can actually come up with a domain name that’s short, memorable and effective. Here are ideas on how to choose an effective domain name for your website or blog.

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Keep it Short and Simple

A good domain name should be 20 characters or less. A short and simple name is easier to remember, and your target audience wouldn’t have difficulty typing your web address on the browser bar, thus, maximizing type-in traffic.

Make it Obvious

Don’t go for a name that’s hard to spell or memorize. Make it foolproof and straightforward, otherwise users might mistakenly divert to another website, not your own.

Stick to Letters and Avoid Symbols

When you have decided on a domain name and yet someone else owns that already, you might add hyphen or underscore just to differentiate yourself. This is acceptable, but not very effective. However, whenever you can choose a different name that doesn’t need symbols, numbers, underscores and hyphens.

Add Related Keywords

By adding a descriptive keyword to your domain name, you are poised to exposing your business to search engine optimization, which helps drive traffic to your website.

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Think Long Term

Once you’ve created a domain name, register it for multiple years, and not just for the short term. As long as you can afford it, pay for long-term registration so that you don’t lose your smart domain name to others. You wouldn’t want the website brand you’ve worked so hard to establish to slip out of your hands.

Keep Track of Expiry

Whether you’ve registered for multiple years or a few years, make sure you know when your registration ends so that you can renew it again and not face the danger of losing your domain name.