Unlike those in the early days, businesses today depend on digital marketing to promote their business or brand. Your business needs a website, but to drive more customers to your website, it needs the right domain name. Without a domain, your prospective customers cannot access and view your website. A successful domain name search will help you give a unique identity to your website.
A domain name is the foundation of your online brand. It helps to establish your brand’s identity and makes it easier for people to remember your website. Having your domain name can make your website look more professional and trustworthy, which can help establish credibility with your target audience. It also serves as an essential part of your overall marketing strategy, allowing you to drive more traffic to your site and increase brand awareness.
Whether you operate a retail outlet or an eCommerce store, you need to have a strong digital presence. With about 24 million eCommerce sites, you need a domain name that distinguishes your online store from others. How can you do it? Some essential factors you need to consider for the purpose are:
- Have the right domain extension
One of the key aspects of a website address is the domain extension. You have limited choices that you need to find a suitable extension from generic top-level domains (TLDs) or country-specific TLDs. The most commonly used generic domain extension is ‘.com’, for you can find over 52 percent of businesses across the world using it. The other popular ones are ‘.net’, ‘.co’, ‘.org’, ‘.biz’ and ‘.info’.
You can also try the country-specific ones like .uk, .fr, .us, .au and .in. If your business is located in New Zealand, you can opt for ‘.co.nz’, ‘.com.nz’, ‘.nz’, and ‘.net.nz’. You can target local markets in New Zealand with ‘.nz’ extension.
The extension you choose should be relevant to your brand and your products or services. For example, if you’re a non-profit organization, you might select .org, while a government entity would opt for .gov.
The most popular extensions are .com, .net, and .org and are considered more timeless and less likely to become obsolete in the future, which can help ensure that your domain name will still be relevant.
Additionally, there are new extensions like .store, .blog, .app, etc. These new extensions can be an excellent way to stand out from the competition and make your domain name more memorable.
- Find a domain that promotes your brand or business
You can promote your brand or product through a website, but that is possible if the domain name of your site is distinctive and noticeable. A domain that tells something about your business or brand is easily accessed by online visitors who try to know more about it. You may have a chance to get them converted into potential leads later. Using relevant keyword combinations, you can have a domain that represents your brand or product. A simple and easy-to-remember domain name is more likely to stick in people’s minds and be easier for them to type into a browser.
Most users visit a website to find more information about a product or service based on the domain name, which leads them to it. If they find it interesting, they go further by sending a query. For instance, you can find a domain name with related keywords in the website addresses like ‘stuff.co.nz’ and ‘trademe.co.nz’. When the former conveys a message that it is a news channel, the latter tells visitors that they can buy and sell items here.
Therefore, if your domain is made using relevant keywords, you get high rankings in the search engine results.
- Choose a domain name that is short, pronounceable and memorable
A domain name is considered simple and short if it is between 5-10 characters. Moreover, it should be easily spelled. Some popular names that attract customers are ‘dyson.co.nz’, ‘nzcouriers.co.nz’ and ‘westpac.co.nz’, which are easy to spell and memorable. When you go for a short name, try not to hack the name completely; instead, strike a balance to pronounce and memorize it easily. A domain name that’s easy to say out loud will be more memorable and more accessible for people to remember. Avoid using numbers, hyphens, or special characters.
By now, you have the most important factors the help you have an effective domain name search for your business website. There are several domain registrars who can help you find the right domain at a reasonable price. They also offer you to get the name already taken through a backorder snap system, if possible.