Domain Name Selection Guide: How to Choose the Perfect Domain Name (that Your Readers Would Love to Remember)

“Domain Name Selection” is a set of science backed techniques that helps the blog and website owners to choose the perfect domain names for their online businesses.

It is one of the most complex (and vital) processes that every professional blogger has to undertake.

And they need to take this vital decision even before they (actually) start their blogs.

However, the domain names should be perfect and professionally planned.

Because, in the world of professional blogging, success depends upon lots of major and minor factors.

And a well planned domain name is one major factor that determines the success potential of each and every blog.

This holds good even for the corporate websites and brands, too.

However, after spending (practically, living) months and weeks with professional blogging, I have learned a few things about choosing the right domain name for blogs.

In this Advanced Domain Name Selection Guide, I am going to share those tips that I have learned about domain name selection (that took me months to learn).

And the good thing is the tips and strategies I am going to share with you today, are completely actionable.

Now lets get started.

Why Domain Name Selection Is So Important?

This is an obvious question that pops up in the minds of many newbie bloggers.

Let me brief the importance of Domain Name Selection here.

I think there are 3 major benefits of choosing a (good) domain name.

They are:

#1. Higher Brand Value:

In today’s competitive era, Brand Value plays a vital role for the businesses to sustain (and succeed).

A nice domain name (that goes fine with the brand name) just helps in that.

For example, if you type the domain name “paytm.com” in your web browser’s Search Bar and hit “Enter“, you will be landed to the Home Page of “PayTM” Company.

Image Credit: PayTM

In this way, whenever customers type “paytm.com” in his/her web browser’s Search Bar and hit “Enter“, they know well that they will taken into “PayTM” Company’s Official Website.

And this is how, a good domain name (here, “paytm.com“) boosts the associated Brand Value.

#2. SEO Advantage:

If you are blogging for a while, I can bet that you have heard about the term “SEO” for multiple times.

But did you know, that a good domain name can help the SEO?

No?

Let me convince you about it.

Just type “blogging” in your Web Browser’s Search Bar.

And check out the Search Results (presented to you by your preferred Web Search Engine).

I am sure you will find a few top results that have the exact keyword “blogging” in their domain names.

Below is a Google Screenshot for your reference.

Image Credit: Google

And you can expect the similar results from your preferred Web Search Engines, too.

Although, just a Great Domain Name Selection alone can not guaranty the Top Most Ranking in SERP, however, it can surely enhance your chance to get a higher rank in SERP.

#3. Increase in Sales (and Revenues):

Yes.

A great domain name selection is also very much important for the Product (and Service) Owners and the Affiliate Marketers like me.

Why?

Because it helps us to present our websites and blogs in front of more eye-balls that, in return, generate higher sales and revenues for our businesses.

Here’s how.

Type “PC Service” in your Web Browser’s Address Bar and Hit “Enter“.

And check out the Search Results (presented to you by your preferred Web Search Engine).

I am sure you will find a few top results that have the exact keyword “PC Service” in their domain names.

Below is a Google Screenshot for your reference.

Image Credit: Google

And you can expect the similar results from your preferred Web Search Engines, too.

However, just a Great Domain Name Selection alone can not guaranty the Top Most Ranking in SERP, however, it can surely enhance your chance to get a higher rank in SERP.

And higher rank in SERP means better opportunity to build a successful business with higher sales and greater revenues.

This is how a good domain name can also boost sales and revenue by itself.

Types of Domain Names:

There are multiple types of domain names based on the owners’s intentions and purposes for naming their domains.

I have classified the domain names in 2 different categories:

#1. Brand Based Domain Names:

Most companies use their domains to increase their brand values in the market.

This helps them to attract new customers and also to retain the old customers by keeping them informed about different products and services.

Also, most companies also (having websites) provide Customer Services through their websites.

For example, companies like CocaCola, Tata, Airtel, Vodafone, etc. use their domain names basically for branding purpose.

These kind of domains enjoy lower “peering-competitions” in the market at the cost of a little loss of their Domain Name related SEO Advantages.

Image Credit: TATA

Just like the companies, some top bloggers also prefer “Branded Domain Names” for the same reasons mentioned above.

For example, QuickSprout by Neil Patel, ShoutMeLoud by Harsh Agrawal, Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn, etc. use Branded Domain Names instead of Keyword Based Domain Names.

#2. Keyword Based Domain Names:

As the name implies, this method of domain name selection includes the main keyword of the website or, blog in the domains.

These kind of domains enjoy a better Domain Name Related SEO Advantages.

But they also suffer from stronger “peering-competitions” in the market.

Just like Brand Based Domain Names, these kinds of keyword based domains are also widely popular among the companies and the bloggers.

For example, companies like Idea, Videocon, Lava, Karbonn, etc. are using keywords based domain names.

Image Credit: Karbonn

And among the Top Bloggers, BloggingCage by Kulwant Nagi, ProBlogger by Darren Rowse, BloggingTips by Zac Johnson, etc. are using this kind of Keywords Based Domain Names.

Also, needless to mention, this blog (EthicalBlogging) by Me is also an example of blog where I have used Keyword Based Domain Name Selection Method.

Here is how this blog is ranked on Bing.

Image Credit: Bing

However, I am using this domain name not just for having domain related SEO benefits, rather I am using it to clarify my main topic for this blog to my readers at their first visit to my blog.

It is, therefore, solely depends upon you which kind of Domain Name Selection Technique you will employ for choosing the domain names for your blogs.

Things to Consider Before Choosing Your Domain Name:

So far you are well aware about the basics of a domain name.

Now it is your turn to take action.

That is to select the best domain names for your upcoming blogs.

Here, I have prepared a list of a few things that you should consider before buying domain name for your blog or, business website.

And yes, the following list is in Important to Less Important Order.

That is, the most important factor is listed on the top and the less important factors are listed at the bottom side of the list.

For best result, select your domain name in such a way that it must pass the first factor to go to the next factor of the list.

You should try to match all the factors given in the list below with your domain name.

The more your domain name will match the factors given in the list below, the more powerful domain name yours will be.

Now have a look at the list.

#1. Domain Name Should Carry Your Brand, Business or, Mission:

It is better to let your domain name carry your brand, business or, mission with it.

For example, you are planning to start a blog or, website about Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, your domain name might be “photoshoptuts.com“.

Ideally, your domain name should contain alphabets only.

But, it is not always possible in the real world.

So, in some cases you can use hyphens (“–“) and numbers (“0” to “9“) in your business or, brand domain names.

However, bloggers should not use anything other than alphabets in their domain names.

#2. Appropriate TLD:

Here TLD stands for Top Level Domain.

Always try to select your domain with any of these extensions – “.com”, “.net”, “.org”, if you are free from any special kind of need.

However, I recommend you to prefer “.com” over other domain name extensions.

For example, this blog has a “.com” domain name extension and the complete domain name (and not URL) of this blog is “ethicalblogging.com”.

But there are some exceptions.

For example, if you are in charge of selecting the domain name for an Agency, you can use “.agency” as your domain name extension.

Here is a list of a few available TLDs (with their Prices) for your reference.

#3. Short and Sweet:

You domain name should be short and sweet.

This point is self-explanatory.

So I am not going to illustrate it here.

For example, the domain name “abcd.com” is better than “abcdprivatelimited.com” in terms of short and sweetness.

#4. Easy to Spell and Pronounce:

Your domain name should be easy to spell and pronounce globally.

It’s hard to get success with hard to spell and hard to pronounce domain names.

For example, this domain name “example.com” has the better success potential than the domain name “xampll.com“.

You got the point.

Now, here is a Step-by-Step Guide to amplify your Domain Name Selection Process.

• Step-1:

Write down at least 20-30 probable domain or, brand names that match your mission, brand and business.

• Step-2:

Sort out that list in accordance with the availability of the TLDs like “.com”, “.net” and “.org”.

Keep a note for each of them.

• Step-3:

Find out which domain names are shorter and sweeter among them.

In this step keep your focus as on “.com” domains > “.net” domains > “.org” domains.

• Step-4:

Finally, find out which domain name is easy to remember and easy to spell globally.

And Voila!

You are done with your domain name selection process.

But

What if you do not find your expected domain name even following my 4 step guide properly?

Do not get panicked.

Just rinse and repeat the complete process with a new set of at least 20-30 new domain names.

And you can do this multiple times.

I know you are feeling this process tedious and time consuming.

But trust me, this will pay you off later for sure.

My Personal Recommendation for Finding Domain Names:

You can buy domain names from affordable (and reliable) sites like NameCheap, HostGator, etc.

However, for the sake of simplicity I recommend you to buy your domain name directly from a good web hosting company like SiteGround.

Read: My Web Hosting Selection Guide.

Conclusion:

Domain name selection is a long and complex process.

And I have absolutely no doubt about it.

But it can be simplified.

That is also a fact.

I have shared the exact strategies that I follow every time I start a new blog or, website for my businesses.

All those domain names work extremely fine globally.

So I am sure you will get the best domain name for your blog if you follow this guide step by step as given here.

However, if you have any questions or doubt about this guide, please let me know by leaving a quick comment below.

I will be more than happy to be help you personally with your domain name selection process.

Finally, share this post with everyone you know are struggling to find the best domain name for his or her upcoming blog.

See you in the next post.

Let’s blog ethically.