DNS 101: How to Pick the Best Domain Name – Top 14 Tips – Part 1

14 Domain Name Tips in All – the first seven DNS tips

Once you have finished reading Part 1, see Part 2 of this Blog post. Even Google has a set of guidelines for choosing an effective domain name.

What Is DNS?

Maybe the first question you need to ask is What is DNS? The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phonebook of the Internet. It makes life easy for us.

Do you want to remember 192.168.1.1 or www.buildabear.com?

What is a URL?

Firstly, what is a URL? Moz defines a domain name as “unique, human-readable Internet addresses of websites“. It consists of 4 parts: the top-level domain, a domain name or IP address, the subdomain and the protocol. It can be visualized as:

1. Use the Right TLD’s (Top Level Domain)

A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the part of a domain that comes after the dot (the second dot, see picture above).

These can be further divided into Country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) and Generic top-level domains (gTLD). Generic top-level domains (gTLD) include all domains that are not associated with a country, like .com, .org or .net.

The best is still *.com. More than 41% are still *.com. These are then followed by *.tk, *.cn and then *.net.

If you do not have a choice, go for a Country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) like *.de, or *.fr, or *.ca.

Avoid strange looking domain names like *wtf, *.able, *.black, *.chloe, *.diamonds, *. abudhabi, *.xyz, *.zippo, or *.zero.

2. Shorter is always better.

Shorter domain names are easier to read, and thus also easier to remember. They also have the potential of being “catchy” and therefore one is likely to remember them easier as well.

The average length of *.com names is 12 characters, while *.net is 11.
What would you prefer to type?

• simonsbestkitchenrecipesforsundaylunch.com
  or
• sundaytreats.com

The one issue with very short urls, one word urls – like Name.com, or HP.com – is that they may have been taken.

3. Hard to Spell & Easy to Say

The popular worldwide websites are simple to type out and remember. This is the case with the BBC, CNN, IBM, and Google.

You can do a “radio test” to check if it is hard to spell. Read out your site name to friends and see if they can say it back to you without a single mistake. Like Google-dot-com or Sunday-Treats-dot-com. Not like

• Shvartsman-Shoe-Shops-dot-com
  or
• Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff-dot-com (fictional site named after a real character)

The readability of the post is influenced by complexity of the URL. Its readability. The more complex it is, the less readable it is.

4. Is it memorable?

Will people remember your name? This tries in with the previous point about being pronounceable, easy to say.

Let’s say your domain name is “kgdugrud.com”. How memorable is it? Your visitors will not be coming back very soon. If your site was called, “Playground.com”, this is far more memorable.

5. No Hyphens

Hyphens make it difficult to remember your site. Let’s go back to our earlier example: simonsbestkitchenrecipesforsundaylunch.com. If the domain name had hyphens between each word, it would lead to domain bloat.
simons-best-kitchen-recipes-for-sunday-lunch.com. And it would be easy to make a mistake when typing in the domain name.

6. No Numbers

Stick to letters in the alphabet. The choice of numbers is generally frowned upon. Avoid them by default.

• 123o.com
• 30something.com / thirtysomething.com / thirty-something.com
  [All poor choices]
• number1school.net
• a8.net

7. No ambiguity

Think carefully about your name choice!

Here are a few sites that give new meaning to their selection.

• https://www.wintersexpress.com/
• https://dicksondata.com/
• http://bitefartcafe.rs/ – Are you going back here?
• http://speedofart.com/ – Speedo Fart, Speed Of Art, or??
• http://penisland.net/ – Pen… or …?
• https://www.whorepresents.com/ – Who or whore?
• http://nobrace.com.au/
• https://www.gotahoenorth.com/

And More

See Part 2 of this article on How to Pick the Best Domain Name – Top 14 Tips.