Domain names are your business identity on the Internet. It should be short, relevant to the topic of your business, and easy to remember. Finding such domain names has become very difficult because hundreds and thousands or even millions of domains are registered every day, but it is not impossible. You can get an attractive and relevant domain by doing a little research.
Before deciding on selecting a name for your online identity, you should do some keyword research (especially when you intend to sell something online). Use the Google Keyword Tool to research your business keywords. Find out what people are searching for and how they use different words to find the required product. This little practice of keyword research will not only help you decide on a good, relevant and SEO friendly domain name, but you will also know what exact keywords to target in your SEO and ad campaigns later on.
keyword based domain
Domains that are part of a set of keywords are called keyword-based domains. Once you’ve selected a set of keywords to use for SEO and other website promotional activities, try a combination of the two most relevant keywords as your domain name. Now, a question that might have come to your mind would be why test a combination of two keywords? Why not try a single keyword to find a domain name? There are two reasons for this; one is very unlikely to find a single keyword domain. As I mentioned earlier, thousands of domains are registered every day and it is almost impossible for you to find a single keyword domain name available for registration.
The second reason is an SEO practice. People looking for a product or service to buy will always use a phrase or at least a two or three word search string. For example, if you want to buy a domain name, your search query would be “buy domains” or “cheap domain names” etc. You’ll never type the keyword ‘domain’ as your search string when you want to buy one, but if you’re searching for the meaning of this word or doing some sort of domain research, you can search for this single word and the people who are researching are not your target market but rather those who are looking to buy. Therefore, always try a combination of keywords as your domain name.
Another question you may ask is why use keywords in the domain name? Again, it’s good SEO practice. One of the hundreds of search engine ranking factors is the keyword in the URLs. If your domain name consists of a keyword, search engines will find your website relevant to the topic of the searched keyword and the chances of your website ranking higher are greatly increased.
domain name extensions
Selecting which extension you should go for largely depends on availability and your target market. The most common domain extensions are .COM and .NET. You should only switch to a country-specific domain extension (ccTLD, Country Code Top Level Domain) if both extensions are not available and .COM and .NET domains are not working. For example, if your selected set of keywords is ‘buy cheap domains’ and the .COM and .NET extensions have just been taken, there is no operational website on them, only then should you move on to the ccTLD. If either of these two top-level domain extensions are operational websites, it would be very difficult for you to compete with the same business name, even if you get a ccTLD.
You should only switch to a country-specific domain if your target market is only from that same country. Search engines, especially Google, rank such websites higher in the results, but only if the search is from that country. For example, if you have selected a .CO.UK extension and your target market is also the United Kingdom, your website will rank higher than websites with extensions other than .COM and .NET on the results page of Google search for the .CO.UK extension. . On the other hand, your website may not even appear in the search results if the search is done through Google’s .COM.PK extension.
Similarly, if there is already a .COM or .NET extension website present on the internet with the same name as you have selected in the .CO.UK extension, your website will not be able to easily rank higher even in the .CO extension. .UK by Google. . It’s because that .COM or .NET website already exists, is older than your website, and caters to the audience from all over the world. Remember, generic TLDs always rank higher than ccTLDs.
Be very careful when selecting ccTLDs for your website. My suggestion would be to search for a generic top level domain (.COM or .NET) to select your website. Try different keyword combinations or you can also use a hyphen (-) in the domains. Although many people don’t like to use hyphens, there is nothing wrong with using them. In fact, it’s better to get a hyphenated keyword domain than to search for a ccTLD.
The domain name is your brand identity. Keep it short, easy to remember, and one word or combination of words that defines your business. Understanding the search patterns of Internet users will help you locate and promote your business online. The little exercise of keyword research and correct domain selection will benefit you greatly in the future when you are ready to market your products with SEO, social media and PPC.
