DNS 102: How to Pick the Best Domain Name – Top 14 Tips – Part 2

7 More Top Tips – 14 Domain Name Tips in All

In Part 1 of this Blog post, you had the first installation of picking the best Domain Name. Herewith the following seven tips.

8. Homophones

Homophones are words which sound alike. Here are a few examples.

• band, banned
• site, sight
• meter, metre
• meat, meet, mete

Your site is BlueBand.com. Users may misunderstand this as BlueBanned.com. The use of domain names using homophones can lead to “Soundsquatting” and “Cybercrime“. Beware!

9. Avoid Double Letters

It is harmful to use double letters in your domain name. Users will misspell your domain name and this may cause the traffic loss. It could lead to “Soundsquatting”. Eg. If you misspell Nike.com and type in Nikke.com, you do not get taken to Nike.

There are some successful domain names with double letters, like https://www.fiverr.com/. In general, it is not worth the risk to do so.

Here are some examples:

• susanssandals.com
• blakesshop.com
• llewlynnatureresort.com
• advanceddomains.com

10. Make it Brandable

Creative names are always better. Generic is that, generic. Your domain name is the web’s entrance portal to your site. This is how people will find you.

In short, brandable is unique and stands out above the rest, while generic is filled with keywords. Or may have hyphens in the name. Like “Soup-Kitchen.com”, or “Pasta-Shop-Online.com”. Very generic. Boring!

How do I create a more brandable name:

1. Discover new words and create your own catchy ones, like Bing.
2. Use a thesaurus to find words that match your brand.
3. Use domain name generators like  https://leandomainsearch.com/.

Lets say you want to sell books and your keywords are bargain books. Here are some examples based on these keywords:

• BargainBooksCity, BargainBooksDirect, BargainBooksMedia, BargainBooksDesign, BargainBooksWorld, GoBargainBooks, ProBargainBooks, BargainBooksCentral, SmartBargainBooks, ThinkBargainBooks, BargainBooksCafe
• and more

11. “Niche” Keywords

The use of niche keywords may improve your SEO, but could be damaging as well.

What are niche keywords? They are specific keywords that focus on a particular area or industry. They generally consist of more than three words. They also have a lower search volume because they are very specific. And would as such lead less traffic to your site.

If you try to populate your name with specific keywords, it might sound too generic. Like

• EcoOrganicCleaningProducts.com
• BestSurvivalWeaponMoneyCanBuy.com

And they are difficult to remember.

12. Long-Term Success

You will be building your brand over time. Successful brands didn’t develop over night. Apple was started in 1976, but I’m sure in 1976 very few people had heard of Apple at all. It took years for the brand to become known.

Here is a picture of the first Apple Computer at Wikipedia.

Brand success will come with time and you need to invest in it to become successful.

If you decide to change your brand name later, and so too your domain name, it will cost you lots of money! Not only money, but branding, SEO rankings and loss of the “digital space”!

13. Is It Trademarked?

Before you register a domain name, check to see if it is registered, trademarked or being used socially.

Depending on your location, you could check “trademarks” with :

• https://trademarks.justia.com/
• https://knowem.com/
• https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr03082.html
• https://trademark-search.marcaria.com/en/america/canada-trademark-search

It is worthwhile reading this article:

• https://www.heerlaw.com/conducting-trademark-searches

Companies have invested resources and money into developing trademarks. They want to protect their brands. So avoid any legal issues and stay away from branded names.

14. Domain Name Generators

Once you have researched your “niche” market, you should have an idea of which words you might want to use. Exclude those that are trademarked, don’t sound correct and have been taken already.

Domain Name Generators can provide you with some alternatives.

Here are a bunch of them to test.

• HostPapa
• Namecheap
• Lean Domain Search
• Bust a Name
• Shopify Business Name Generator
• Nameboy
• NameStall
• Domain Puzzler
• Name Mesh
• Domains Bot
• Panabee
• Name Station
• Instant Domain Search
• I Want My Name
• Domain Name Soup
• Domain Typer
• Domain Wheel
• NameSmith
• Wordoid
• Naque

And More

For Part 1 of this article, click here How to Pick the Best Domain Name – Top 14 Tips – Part 1.