Build A Website, Step 3: How to Select a Domain Name
See my original post 7 Steps to a New Website for all the steps involved in building a new website.
There are a lot factors to consider when choosing a domain name for your new website. What if your business name isn’t available? Should you choose .com or .net or .online? What about SEO? Do they cost a lot? If you have a new business or organization, this guide will help you consider all of the important factors to choose the best domain.
A domain name is the official name that identifies your business on the web, think amazon.com or wikipedia.org.
Choosing a domain name can get very complicated, but doesn’t need to be. This guide is a simple how-to for most small businesses and organizations. If you want to explore more details, I’ve listed some links at the end of this post.
There’s 2 main steps to this process: Step 1 is to identify some names you’d like to use; step 2 is to see if they are available and buy one or two versions.
Step 1 - Identify names you’d like to use
Sounds easy, but there are guidelines and some restrictions to what name you can or should choose:
TLD (Top Level Domain) is the part that appears after your name - .com, .org, etc. I suggest sticking with familiar TLDs:
If you are a non-profit, use .org
If you are a business, use .com
What about .online or .net? I have no problem with non-standard TLDs if you can also buy the .com (or .org) version and redirect it to your main domain. If you’re choosing .net or .online because .com isn’t available, you will always be competing against the .com version. Just out of habit, many people will key in Yourname.com and go to the wrong site. Oftentimes nefarious domain owners will build “mirror sites” to take advantage of your site traffic, and fill it with ads or worse. So, I always prefer when a client’s domain is owned in at least the .com version - buying .net or other TLDs can’t hurt if you own the .com version. In fact, I recommend buying the .com version for non-profits for this same reason.
Availability - most popular names have been taken, so you may need to consider a variation of your organization’s name if it is common. Consider adding your location (SmithPlumbingChicago) or profession (JaneSmithArtist).
Easy to spell, not too long - A domain name should be easy to remember and spell, and not be too long. If your business name is somewhat complicated to remember or spell, it might be best to shorten it or use an abbreviation. 20 characters or so is the length limit, generally.
SEO (Search engine optimization, or making your website easier to find through search) is somewhat important for domains, depending on a lot of factors. If you are an artist with a common name, it helps to have artist in your domain: janedoeartist, for example. But if you’re name is unique and available, I don’t think it matters much, and can take away the strength of the real name. Same with services - it can help to include your service - massage, nails, hair - if your company name is not totally unique, and it’s not too long: creatingwellness.com is fine, and creatingwellnesschicago.com might be better, but creatingwellnesschicagomassage is to long, in my opinion.
Create a list of ideal potential names for the next step.
Step 2 - Is your ideal name available? Buy it, and consider back-up names.
This is the fun part - but first you need to find a domain host. If you are using a full-service web host like Squarespace or Wix, they have a page where you can select and buy a domain. That’s my recommendation and it’s the easiest by far, or try a separate domain host. That’s easy too, but gets a bit more complicated later on when you launch your site.
Key in your ideal name and see if it’s available. You’ll see right away. Choose the .com version if you have a business name and .org for non-profits, and the price is reasonable. If not, choose a variation in the main name (not the TLD), hopefully something in your list from step 1.
About cost and renewals
The pricing of domain names is relatively inexpensive - $10-$20 annually. Squarespace offers the first year free with any of their web hosting packages, possibly Wix and other full-service platforms do too.
My preference is to bundle domain and web hosting to make launch easier, and to avoid forgetting to renew your domain. I’ve had renewal emails get lost in email folders, and if your domain expires, you’ll be offline and you could lose it permanently.
Occasionally some domain names might cost more, and that will be a business decision to make, which depends on how important the more expensive name is to you and your marketing. Generally, I think it’s not worth paying premium prices for a small businesses domain.
Other resources
Here are some resources to learn more about domain names:
Moz - How To Choose Domain Name - a few years old but offers solid advice.
Website Set-Up - Choosing a Domain Name - more good tips to consider
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing and Buying a Domain - Extremely detailed, lots of good tips.
Check out my other posts on How to Build Your Website!
