Five considerations before choosing a domain name for your website

Choosing the right domain name for your website can help bring visitors searching for your products and services on the internet to your doorstep. As you think about a domain name for your business, here are a few tips to consider:

You can’t go wrong with .com

The extension you see to the right of the dot (mybusinessname.com) can be just as important as what’s to the left of the dot. It may be natural for new businesses to be attracted to the deluge of new domain name extensions as they may think that having keywords that describe their business to the right of the dot may boost their presence on search engines. It is unlikely, however, that having keywords to the right of the dot help boost a business’s presence on search engines. For example, keywords in a domain name extension do not give any advantage or disadvantage in a Google search.

Having been around for over 30 years, .com is one of the world’s most recognized domains. Choosing a .com domain name can help you make your online identity recognizable, easily found and trusted on the global internet.

Make sure your domain name is interesting

At a time when most people have a small attention span, catching your online visitors’ attention is crucial. A creative, memorable domain name can help you cut through the online noise. You may want to try getting creative by using keywords, slogans, names of your products or services or other unique terms that describe your business in your domain name. Internet search users are almost twice as likely to click on a domain name that includes at least one of the keywords in their search query, compared to a domain name that does not include any of the keywords in their search query, as per research conducted by Verisign.

Don’t limit yourself to a short domain name

Did you know that the average .com domain name on the Internet today is 13 characters long? A number of them include keywords, geographical identifiers or other words that can make them more memorable or brand-specific, such as farsankart.com or justdial.com. An extremely short domain name doesn’t necessarily equal a better domain name for your business.

Don’t stop at one domain name

Even if you intend to primarily use the .com version of your domain name, you may want to consider building a portfolio of domain names in other trusted and popular domain name extensions, such as .net, that can be leveraged for different marketing purposes or used to redirect internet traffic to your .com website. Registering a variety of domain names in other extensions can help you have more control over how your brand is represented online and prevent your competition or anyone else from registering your domain name in other domain name extensions, which may cause confusion for your customers or divert traffic intended for your website to another site.

Register your chosen domain name as soon as possible!

There are still plenty of domain names available in .com, but once you choose the domain name that you want, it’s best to register it right away. The more you delay in registering, the more you may run the risk of someone else registering it. So, go ahead and register your domain name already! Find out how to register a domain name at verisign.com/in or http://tiny.cc/xy1pcy

As business owners become more creative and strategic in selecting domain names, finding a great .com domain name – whether short or descriptive – for your business can be a critical step in establishing a compelling online presence. Take the time to choose well!