How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Business [step-by-step Beginner's Guide]

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How to choose a domain name for your business or for your new blog/website?

How to choose a domain name for my new eCommerce store?

If choosing a domain is your preocupation today, and you are looking an step by step guide to help you choose the right domain name for your business, you are in the right place.

In fact, a domain name is your internet address and a key important element of your business. So it is important to choose one that best describes your business and gives it so much value.

Throughout this post I will show you how to choose a domain name for your business by walking you through the process of choosing a domain name your audience will fall in love and that will match your business name too.

But before we get into the meat of how to choose a domain name for your business, I want to notice that in the spirit of full transparency, this post contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I can get a commission from any company, but I only recommend products/services I use and truly believe will give value to my readers. Thank you for supporting me!

You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.

Now, this point is clear, let jump straight into the meat of how to choose a domain name for your website or blog.

Table Of Contents

Which domain name registrar company to choose for?
How to choose a domain name for your business or blog (in 3 easy steps)
1. Find a domain name that meets and best describes your business
2. Check your business name availability before you buy your domain name
3. Choose the right domain name extension for your business
Some criteria to take into account your domain name:
Wrapping up and final words…

Which domain name registrar company to choose for?

Before we get into the meat of how to choose a domain name for your business, make sure you read my previous post on the subject “where is the best domain name registrar company” to find out what domain name registrar company to choose for.

If you want here are my top recommended domain name registrar companies to choose for:

Wealthy Affiliate: Their domain name price range from $13 – $15 per year (addon include) and there is no upsell on addons many domain registrars companies charge you for.

NameCheap: $8 for your first year (renewal price goes up to $12.98/$23 per year (addons included),

Bluehost: $0 for your first year if you buy one of their hosting packages and then $13 or more after that.

GoDaddy: $13 for the first year and then 15$ or more (renewal price).

If you are looking for an all in one platform that will give you the necessary tools and service you need to start your online business and at the same time save you money, WA is the best way to go (no upsells).

Another option is Bluehost because you will get a domain name for free + Free SSL certificate.

If you don’t want to put all eggs into one basket, go with NameCheap and choose Wealthy Affiliate or Bluehost or any hosting company you want for your website hosting.

What about GodDady?

I found them expensive compared to all these ones. But they are the best and the cheapest if you are in the domain flipping industry or want to register 3 – 4 domain names at the same time. Plus if you don’t plan to transfer your domain name to another domain registrar company.

That said, let’s jump straight into our subject, how to choose a domain name for a business.

How to choose a domain name for your business or blog (in 3 easy steps)

There are several million websites that are created every day. There are also, thousands of domain names that are sold every month. Just to say, it is difficult to find a good domain name easily for your website nowadays. It seems all the best domain names with the most popular extension .com are taken. But it isn’t.

The screenshot below shows the number of domain names registered in May 2020

Source: StatDNS

But if you follow these following tips and tricks, you will find one that will be perfect for your website.

Here are 3 pro tips on how to choose a perfect domain name for your business website:

1. Find a domain name that meets and best describes your business

As I pointed out in the introduction, your domain name is your address. In a nutshell, it is the name of your business. Before you decide to find the best place to buy your domain name, first take the time to define the name of your business and come up with a domain name that describes it.

If for example, your website is about coaching, you can use your first name or your nickname as a domain name. This will help you brand yourself and get more popularity in your field.

Another example: suppose your website is about personal development, finding a meaningful and poignant domain name like “daretoshine.com” or “lifebooster.com” seems to be perfect. These are just some examples. You can even use your first name or nickname for that like in our first example.

However, choosing a domain name like mycarbtips.com doesn’t make sense for a niche like this one.

Right?

So make sure the domain name you choose, matches your business or your niche.

2. Check your business name availability before you buy your domain name

Do you have the domain name that you think is perfect for your business?

If yes, you can check your domain name availability before looking for the best place to buy or register it.

Why?

In fact, you must think in the long term when starting any business – online or offline. Right?

Let’s say you create your website or your online store (if this what you are planning to do) with the domain name (yourdomainname.com).

You started your business and now, you want to expand your brand using social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube…

And to your surprise, on almost all social media platforms, your company name (your domain name) is already registered by someone else.

What will you do about it?
Will you change your company name or your domain name?

Yes, you can. But what a disappointment and what mistake!!

A disappointed man that did a mistake when choosing is domain name

This is why you will have to find out if the name of your business is available on social media platforms and if there are no registered trademarks for this name.

PS: Your company name can be different from your domain name. I’m talking in case you want a domain name that matches the name of your company.

Now, you may be wondering how to find out if your company name is available on the social media platforms or there are any registered trademark for this name.

Right?

So here is how to find it out:

To do that, use a tool like KnowEm to check your business name availability. In fact, KnowEm can help you in some way to know if your business name is available on most social media platforms or not.

Also, you will have an idea of whether your domain name is available or not.

Alternative trademark checkers to KnowEm

Namechk gives business name availability on the social media platforms in graphical form.

2. Namecheckr also works like Namechk.

You do not yet have your domain name or company name? Or maybe your domain name or company name has already been registered by someone else.

Don’t worry about it. I have some good news for you!

Even if you haven’t yet found what you think is perfect for your business, or if your domain name/business name is not available, there is always a solution.

You can use a domain name generator tool that will allow you to broaden your search and find new ideas.

Use a tool like Lean Domain Search for that.

This domain name generator adds new words that match with your business name. Very useful especially in case your domain name is not available.

Another useful domain name generator you can use is Domain Wheel.

3. Choose the right domain name extension for your business

How to choose a domain name for your business: choose the right domain extension

Once you have found the domain name (or your business name) for your website, choose the right domain extension and the best that matches your business.

For that, define what kind of business you want to start.

Is your business a local business?

If yes, you must use country-code Top-Level Domain or ccTLD. It is country-specific domain names that end with a country-code extension.

A business that covers Canada, for example, will be “yourdomainname.ca” and for a country like Burkina Faso, it will be “yourdomainname.bf”, for Nigeria, it will be yourdomainname.ng, etc.

PS: This does not mean that you cannot use a domain name like “.com” or “.net” for local business. But I think that a domain name with the extension of your country is perfect and easily memorable for your targeted audience.

But if your business is not local, focus on the “.com” domain extension. Indeed, “.com” is the most popular domain name extension and easy to remember.
But if “.com” is not available, use “.net” or “.org”(if your business in a non-profit business), and avoid extensions such as “.xyz”, “.biz”, etc.

Some criteria to take into account your domain name:

Your domain name must reflect your business.

It should be short (between 6-15 characters) and easy to memorize and pronounce to allow your customers or readers to return to your site.

If you choose a domain name with more than 15 characters, make sure it is easy to pronounce.

The domain name must not contain hyphens or numbers (as far as possible)

Having a keyword in your domain name is also helpful because it can bring more traffic to your website. Plus it can help your site rank more highly in search engine results.

But this is not mandatory because the mine didn’t have keywords related to my niche but it gets over 2K visitors from search engines per day.

How to choose a domain name for your business: Traffic report

Must read posts:

How to create a website and make money on the side ( A step by step beginner’s guide)

How to start a blog with Bluehost in 2020 ( A step by step beginner’s guide)

How to increase your website traffic (a case study with my new brand website)

Wrapping up and final words…

Choosing a domain name for your business or new blog is not rocket science.

Even finding one with the popular domain extension like .com, .net, .org, etc is not easy, it still possible to find one that matches your business.

What you need to keep in mind when choosing one is:

to choose a domain name that meets and best describes your business

to check your business name availability before you buy your domain name

to choose the right domain name extension for your business.

I think with these tips and this beginner’s guide on how to choose a domain name for your business, you can now choose a perfect domain that will match your business.

If you found this guide helpful, don’t hesitate to chare it with your friends.

Do you a question or need a hand, drop it down on the comment section and I will respond to you ASAP.

Every action you take is a seed you sow, and sure you will harvest the fruits.

Be an ACTION Taker, SOW YOUR SEED TODAY!

To your success,