Things To Avoid When Choosing A Domain Name

Registering your domain name is a one-time thing that you’ll live with for the duration of your business. Check the list below to avoid mistakes that people make when choosing their domain name.

1. Procrastinating

Before you finalise your favourite brand name, check the availability first. Be sure that the domain name you want is available. If it is, buy it immediately.

The last thing you want is an amazing domain name that’s already taken because you didn’t act fast enough. There are various domain search tools, where you can check before proceeding. The same goes for trademarks and social media handles too - to win you must be fast.

2. Choosing The Wrong TLD

You might have come across various fancy extensions like,.me,.tv,.biz etc. These are a good fit for businesses that cater to specific audiences.

However, it’s advisable that you go with a.com TLD. That’s the safest and most well-known of extensions. Internet users worldwide are accustomed to typing.com than any other extension. Don’t take the risk of losing traffic on your website just because you didn’t get a.com TLD (unless you’re confident about generating traffic).

3. Choosing Difficult Spellings

If you aren’t accessible to your customer, there’s no point in having an amazing website with impressive products. Your domain should be easy to spell and reach. That’s what reaches out to your customers.

The name of your domain should be easy to spell. Things like the letters ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ get misspelt often. Avoid this confusion. Be as clear and simple as possible. But you don’t want to sound too generic or boring.

4. Having A Really Long Name

The longer the name, the higher the chance of your audience forgetting it. It can also be somewhat tiring for the user to type out as well.

But that’s not the case all the time, the phrase "ThankGodItsFriday" is long, but it’s also easy to remember. So it’s a calculated risk that you need to take. But for the most part, stay away from these kinds of names unless you’re absolutely sure that it’ll benefit your brand name. You don’t want to have something that people can’t remember. Another side-effect to a long name is that it’s also difficult and expensive to print and merchandise.

5. Similar To Other Names

When choosing a domain name, ensure that your name isn’t similar to other websites.

This is bad on a whole, since you might attract the wrong traffic to your site, and lose your customer base if your customers go to the other site.

Not many customers take the time to investigate the problem and come back to you. So ensure that your website is unique and isn’t similar in any way.

6. Using Hyphens Or Numbers

Your domain name isn’t just a name, it’s your brand name and identity. The name that you print on a business card, brochure, on a social media ad campaign, on a billboard etc.

Having special characters or numbers is undesirable in this context. It’s difficult to communicate and remember. It’s also difficult to type alphanumerics and complex characters. Remember, you want to be simple, concise, and catchy.

7. Choosing A Passing Trend

Every now and then, certain words get traction in the world. Don’t be tempted to use these. That’s because they can fade away and become irrelevant very soon. In these cases, they’ll become old-fashioned, or worse, be entirely forgotten. Try to avoid all of this so that you can remain relevant for a long time.