24 Things To Check Before Registering a Domain

Many online users, particularly those who are about to register their first domain name, assume that if a name appears as available during a pre-purchase search, it has to be brand-new, because it has never been used.

Most people find themselves in a tough situation as they face the challenge of choosing a domain name for their website. In addition, which extension to choose complicates the situation even more. It is therefore highly important to take a firm position on the mechanism of registration of domain names in such a way that it is carried out seamlessly and without many complications. Here are some do’s and don’t have to be found in domain registration before launching your website.

Unfortunately, many domains you find, particularly those that are amazingly strong, such as.com domains with a solid name, have been used before.

It’s not a big deal if the domain has been registered and never used, but often people purchase a domain that has a Google penalty because it has been heavily spammed with low-quality backlinks or end up with a domain that breaches trademark laws.

This is why you should review at least some of the following 9 items before you send your money to the domain registrar:

1-Don’t Create a Domain Name Comprising of More than 3 Words

People enjoy websites that don’t require much work on their part when opening or browsing them. Keep this in mind and always try to name your website with plain, short, very memorable words. Try to cover the name of your website in fewer than three words to get the customer’s immediate attention. Websites like Google and Youtube have short names, which is the main reason why they are so famous.

2-Don’t Use Hyphens in the Name

Inserting hyphens in the name of a website will attract unnecessary effort on your customer’s part. This will certainly reduce the credibility of your website, which is not at all desirable for a website owner. So make sure that you don’t use hyphens when you name your website.

The hyphens, if used properly in the domain name, provide a great search engine optimization benefit, but in most cases they suck because only a few experts know how to use them.

But in spite of this, it is better to avoid hyphens because it really feels like an annoyance to put a hyphen when entering a web address into a browser. It is really annoying as it looks like you are entering some kind of password, not a web address…

Also, hyphens make domain names hard to memorize and such domains are not regarded as easy to remember. (Already discussed above)

3-Don’t Insert Numbers in the Domain Name

Associating websites with numbers surely isn’t a great idea, particularly when people have too much trouble memorizing their own phone numbers. Therefore, it would be impossible for them to remember a website with a number that would cause a highly undesirable aversion to your website.

You might have seen some websites that include numbers in their domain names. One famous example is 9gag. But, including numbers in your domain name does not guarantee that your website will become famous like 9gag. It has lots of downfalls for new startups. One is that most people think that domain names are made up of alphabetic characters only, and they don’t even think that a website with a domain name that includes numeric characters exists.

Another problem is that including numbers in your domain name does not provide any Seo benefit, thus you should replace the numbers idea with some relevant target keyword in your niche. So, the conclusion is that you should avoid numbers in your domain name.

4-Create a Name that is Similar to a Popular One’s

While some people might interpret this suggestion as copying the names of popular domains, this is not the case. Take cues from other popular names that have already cemented their stance in the online marketplace and try to come up with a name that is capable of generating some waves in the industry.

5-Induct Popular Web Words

There are many popular web words that float around the internet. These words have the capability of ranking a website among the top positions on a search engine result page. Online, the internet, and the web are among such words. Associating the name of your website with one of these words can improve the visibility of your website substantially.

6-Choose the Correct Domain Extension

The Dot com domain extension is also one of the most common domain extensions. However, it can be very difficult to pick a dot com extension for your desired name, as websites with a dot com extension are prevalent on the Internet. There are many other domain extensions to choose from, which can improve the popularity of your website among prospective customers. To name a few, dot info, dot com, country-specific TLDs, etc.

7-Figure out the Relationship with the Industry

The domain name should represent the nature of the company. It should be linked directly to the brand or sector of a business. For instance, established names such as Amazon have their own domain named Amazon.com. It makes it easier for the consumer to get access to these portals. However, if a business is relatively new, picking out a name that relates to the industry might just work wonders. If the domains are named in such a manner, the customer will get an idea of the exact nature of your online venture.

A domain name which is irrelevant to the niche of your website or blog puts a negative impression on both search engines and your target audience.

Your domain name should be relevant to the topic or niche of your blog or website.

For instance, if you have a website that sells medical books online, then a domain name like “medicalbooksonline” is more relevant than the domain name “Buyonlinebook”. The domain “Buyonlinebook” still provides some relevancy for selling books, but “medicalbooksonline” is far better because it indicates the main objective of your website in three main words.

On the other hand, a domain name like “instantread” looks more fancy and professional, but, in this case, it is not relevant to the objective of the website and thus useless to choose.

8-Cut Down on the Length

One more thing to consider while choosing a domain name is the character length. A domain name with the right character length makes a positive impression on your target audience. You have to maintain the right domain character length. A very long domain name is hard to remember and a very short domain name fails to cover the target keyword.

Web visitors find it tedious to type in a long website name. They tend to act as effort savvy and avert from websites that allow access after entering a long website name. A shorter name for a domain, on the other hand, enhances the chances of memorizing it and making fewer spelling errors while keying in the name. This, in-turn, gives way to improved traffic figures for a website.

An example of this: Let’s assume three domain names: –

  1. lookgreatviathesetips
  1. greatlookingtips
  1. glt

In the above three examples, the second example is the most preferable because the optimum length is maintained in this. It is not too long and not too small and is relevant to both search engines and the target audience.

9-Prefer the Dot Com

Most internet users have an assumption that almost all online websites end with a dot com extension, which is the reason why they use ctrl + enter more often. It is, therefore, recommended to resort to the dot com extension for an online website in order to leverage this detail. However, dot com extensions tend to be on the costlier side. Therefore, you can use some other extensions such as.info,.org, or.biz as well. These extensions can be picked depending upon the nature of an online website.

The vast majority of the time, internet users assume.com when browsing. Having a.net,.info,.tv or any other extension just puts another potential roadblock in the process of finding you. Having said that, there are plenty of successful sites that use the.net extension (or something else), but the.com is ideal.

10-Go Easy on the Name of a Domain

The goal is for your domain name to be passed along easily, by you and by others. This is more likely to happen if people don’t have to stop and think about how to say or spell it.

Selecting a name for a domain with a rather complicated and out of the blue approach may sound appealing and unique at first, but in the long run, it will definitely not prove beneficial for an online website. People tend to remember easy names that they can recognize, remember, and recall at will. Therefore, go easy while choosing a name for your domain, as complicated names are not appreciated by the user.

Please Visit also: The Difference Between Web Hosting And Domain Name

After you have chosen a proper name for your domain, it is time to look for some companies that will do domain name registration. There are several online service providers that provide domain registration in India. You can pick the one of your choice, and start by creating a reputed image of your website on the virtual landscape.

A domain name which is easy to memorize tends to become more popular among the targeted audience. Most new visitors do not bookmark any websites on their first visit. So, if your domain name is easy to remember, then the chances of any new visitor returning to your website increase by 110 % because on his first visit, his mind has already created a relevant website image for a specific topic for your website.

11-Find a (Memorable Domain):

Some domain names can easily be remembered in comparison with others for a number of reasons, like:

Succinct:

People can easily remember single word phrases. For example, using montanalaw.com is much better than using greatermontanalawprofessionals.com.

A name that can easily communicate:

You have to wake up your readers by using names that can easily communicate, like kickstarter.com, which is not only memorable, but also communicates what this site is actually about. Similarly, YourPreciousFurs.com could be a perfect name for a business that does dog grooming because it sticks in the minds of people and, at the same time, it is also a bit funny.

In a way, it should be (optimized) for humans:

Phrases that we commonly use, such as the sandal shop, can be turned into a domain “thesandalshop.com” rather than using theshopsandal.com. Let me give you another example. You need to prefer freeinsurancequotes.com over insurancequotesfree.com or insurancefreequotes.com because people normally say “I want to get free insurance quotes”

12-Check the search engine results

A domain name which is Seo friendly by its words always possesses an extra search engine optimization advantage over a domain which is not Seo friendly.

Most of you are familiar with the term “Seo” and if you are not, then let me give you a very brief idea about this.

Seo stands for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is nothing but optimizing your website for search engines so that it performs better on the search engine result pages (SERPs) for a particular targeted keywords.

Similarly, make sure that Google doesn’t mistake your chosen domain name for a typo as it could hurt your site. Many people still type company names into Google to find the sites. If your domain name is a typo, they will not even see it as Google will show them different search results with a word that it considers correct.

Another thing that you can check is to see what other websites appear when you type in the domain name (with and without the chosen.tld). If your name is too close to a web page of an authority site, it may be harder to outrank it as Google may decide to leave the authority page on top.

13-Is your chosen name copyright and trademark free?

Before you hit the “register” button and pay the registration fee, make sure your chosen domain name does not belong to another company. Even if your choice is quite innocent, you may be in trouble. Starting a website about e-commerce under “eBayHelp.com” is not the best idea, unless you like getting emails from corporate lawyers.

14-Can you brand it easily?

Is the domain name brand-able? A catchy domain can be much easier to remember for your customers, and hence, word-of-mouth may spread faster. Since exact-match domains have lost their value in the eyes of Google, you are free to experiment with the domain name. Likewise, you may want to put your main keyword in the name, but make sure you think about your SEO strategy before you do that.

15-Check the spelling and associations of your domain

Before you register domain names, one of the most obvious things to start with is checking the spelling and potential domain associations. You should pay special attention to spelling in two cases – when the domain of your choice seems too good to be true and when certain words in your domain are spelled differently depending on the version of English you are using. In the latter case, you should make sure that it fits your target audience.

Domain associations are important because sometimes you may choose a name which in everyday conversations doesn’t carry any negative associations, while in Internet slang or urban slang (or in the way your target audience talks) it may have very negative connotations. On the other hand, it’s great if you find a domain that can be positively associated with something that your target audience values.

16-Check the foreign meaning of your domain name

This is important, especially if you are targeting an international audience. Some words may have different meanings in various languages. It’s not a big deal if the foreign meaning is not misleading, but some names may hurt your brand and sabotage your marketing efforts.

17-Check the history of your chosen domain

When selecting a domain name, registrars usually don’t tell you right away if your chosen domain name is brand new or an expired domain. Many times, especially those ‘fancy-looking’.com domains that you find available, may be expired and blacklisted domains which have been abandoned after they have been spammed to death.

Other times, the domain has been dropped by the owner because his project didn’t work out well or he simply abandoned it. Whatever the case, you can easily find out whether the domain has expired by either checking the Whois history (look for changes in ownership, date of first registration), the domain metrics, or any backlinks pointing to the site.

18-Check domain metrics and backlink quality

This goes together with the above point. When thinking of a domain, it’s good to check at least the Domain Authority (DA), PageRank (PR), and Backlinks (BL). If you want to learn even more about the domain, you can also check Citation Flow and Trust Flow using the Domain Majestic Tool. This metric will show you the quality of links and their power, as not all the links are equal, and some are more valuable than others.

19-If there was a website on it in the past, check its niche and reputation.

Sometimes, you may find a domain which has already had a website on it for some time, and the site may have had some genuine, quality backlinks pointing to it. In this case, it may sound like a great deal, but there’s one other thing that you should consider. Check what kind of website was hosted on it before and what the reputation of the previous site was (if any). If there was a business similar to yours but it had a terrible reputation (a lot of negative opinions in Google results), you may want to re-think your choice.

20-Make sure the name is available on other social media sites.

When picking your domain, check other social media sites to make sure it’s available on those sites too. If you use the same name on your blog and on Twitter, Facebook, etc., it solidifies your brand and makes it more memorable. Kikolani alerted me to this cool tool that helps you do just that: knowem?

21-Age of the domain

Apart from all the metrics and backlinks, age may play a significant role. Firstly, if one person or company has owned the domain for x consecutive years, there’s a chance it has a quality backlink profile and some reputation. If the domain has changed its owner frequently, there’s a chance it’s been used by spammers, who left the domain with low-quality backlinks or even blacklisted. Check the domain’s first registration date and expiration date before making a purchase.

When checking a backlink profile or metrics of the domain of your choice, it’s good to use multiple tools as the results may vary. Similarly, do some manual due diligence, especially if you are planning to optimize your new websites for Google search results or to set up a business on them (in this case, a domain with a beautiful backlink profile but a bad reputation is not a good choice).

22-Make it expandable

You never know how your business might expand, so avoid names that box you in. For example, FlyFishingLures.com is nice, but what happens if you want to sell fishing poles down the line too (ha! punny)? You get the picture.

23-Don’t overthink it.

I hear from a lot of people who get stuck at this point because they’re afraid of making the wrong choice. The most common problem is that they can’t find an available.com (see # 10 above). If this is you, just make your best guess and move on. A not-quite-perfect domain name is better than no domain name at all. Just do your best and own it!

24-But all the good names are taken!

Be creative. It’s very possible (and perhaps probable) that you’ll come up with the perfect domain… only to find it’s already taken when you try to register it. Get creative. Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board. Try looking up similar words in the thesaurus. Ask others for ideas. Mix words up or around them. Use a tagline, a nickname or a phrase you say all the time.

Avoid short forms

Always try to use the full form in your domain name if possible. This avoidance becomes mandatory when you are using some targeting keyword in your domain name, because neither search engines nor your audience know what the full form of your domain name is. You can use the short form only when someone else has already registered the domain name you want to register. But still, I suggest you use phrases instead of brand names if your domain name is not available to register and avoid short forms.

Following most of the above points should help you secure a great and valuable domain name. These are some of the do’s you have to remember before registering your domain name in order to make sure that you register a website that is highly visible on the internet and can draw tremendous attention to you.

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ABOUT CODINGACE

My name is Nohman Habib and I am a web developer with over 10 years of experience, programming in Joomla, Wordpress, WHMCS, vTiger and Hybrid Apps. My plan to start codingace.com is to share my experience and expertise with others. Here my basic area of focus is to post tutorials primarily on Joomla development, HTML5, CSS3 and PHP.

Nohman Habib

CEO: codingace.com

Request a Quote









PHP Code Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com