Struggling with how to choose a perfect domain name for your eCommerce store? Picking the right domain name is one of the most important things for eCommerce store. Your domain name should establish your brand identity, fit your business function, and be easiest to remember.
In addition to defining your identity, your domain name will communicate important information to both visitors and search engine bots.
Fortunately, there are some online domain name search tools like name.com to find your perfect free domain name.
In this article, we’ll give you some important tips on how to choose a perfect domain name for your eCommerce store that will benefit your store.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is your online address on the internet or a website name. It’s same like renting an office space or retail shop in the real world. You’re holding an space where people can find you and what you offer.
And most likely the domain name starts with www. and ends with .com/.org/.biz, like:
A domain name consists of two main elements. For example, the domain name YouTube.com consists of the website’s name (YouTube) and the domain name extension (.com).
When you enter the domain name into your web browser, you’re taken to a website and able to explore it.
Types of Domains
There are different types of Domain Name available. They are:
Top Level Domain (TLD)
TLD is used to indicate the purpose of the whole domain name, or the entity that the domain belonged to. The most popular TLDs to choose from are:
.com— for commercial purposes.org— organizations.net— for network projects.edu— educational institutions.gov— the US government.biz— everything business.info— universal
Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD)
ccTLDs just consists of two letters and are based upon international country codes, such as .uk for the United Kingdom and .ca for Canada. They’re often used by companies which are building dedicated sites for specific regions and confirm the users that they’ve arrived at the right place.
Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)
A gTLD is essentially a TLD that doesn’t rely on a specific country code. They are intended for a specific use-case, such as .edu is specially aimed for educational institutions.
Other examples of gTLDs include .mil (military), .gov (government), .org (organizations) and .net
Second Level Domain (SLD).
Second Level Domain sits just below the Top Level Domain. If we show this with an example it will be easier for you to understand.
For example, some British companies often used .co.uk which is the perfect example of second level domain. Another example of second level domain is .gov.uk, .ac.uk etc.
Subdomains
There are some domains those aren’t require webmasters to purchase an additional domain name to create divisions within their site. These are called Subdomains. It can be created to a specific directory on the server.
For example, Google uses support.google.com to provide support for the Google users. Another great example is developers.facebook.com
How to Register a Domain Name
Different domain name providers use different systems, but you’ll usually start by typing a domain name search. Most domain name providers will allow you to type your desired domain name and to check whether it’s available. After getting the availability confirmation you’ll be entered to the checkout process for paying your new domain name.
Once registered, you’ll be given the full access to a control panel with all the essential management tools.
Why it pays to put some thought into your domain name
As we mentioned a bit earlier, a domain name is the website name. It’s not the only thing that affects your site’s success, but there are tons of reasons to choose a domain name carefully:
- A unique, memorable domain name is more likely to stick with visitors and encourage them to return.
- Domain name can immediately give new visitors an idea of what your site is all about.
- Domain name have an impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Changing your domain name after creating your store can lead to time-consuming complications.
There is a proverb that – Name have the power. And this is true for websites. Therefore, picking the right domain name should be a careful process and you have to consider all of your options before choosing.
How to Choose a Perfect Domain Name for Your WordPress eCommerce Store
Let’s take a look at some tips one by one with more details.
1. Always Go for .com
There are plenty of new domain name extensions available today, but you should always go for a .comdomain.
The two main reasons to go with the .com domain are:
- People are more familiar with
.comdomains than other top level domains; they will by default to type ‘.com’ into the browser address bar, and are unlikely to remember your extension if it’s too weird. - According to a data, almost 47% of all websites use .com domain.
It can be mentioned that, most smartphones keyboards automatically have a .com button.
2. Make Your Domain Name Brandable
Make sure that your domain name should represent your brand name. Brandable domain names are unique, catchy, easy to remember and find. People should be able to assume your domain name by hearing your brand name.
Your brand name may look different depending on what kind of business you are running:
- Ecommerce: Your domain name would be like Nike or Apple
- Blog: The domain name of your blog would be like Kloudio Blog or Backlinko
- Influencer: Personal branding domain name would be like Mark Manson or Peter McKinnon
- Portfolio / Services: For any Portfolio/services domain name would be like Illustrate Digital
The main purpose is to get your domain name as close as possible to your eCommerce business.
You can add suffixes and prefixes, as long as you don’t breach any boundaries of trademark or copyright.
This means that if you’re starting a new brand from scratch you should consider your domain name to your brand or company.
And if there’s no available domain name, consider modifying your brand name to fit.
3. Make It Short, Simple, and Easy to Spell
Your domain name should be as short and simple as possible. Because it’s easier to share, remember and talk about.
Domain name length matters because of the processing fluency. The fewer characters a domain name has, it is easier to type and remember. Preferably under 15 characters.
Complex domain name is hard to remember. Try to avoid hyphens, complicated words and other punctuation.
Your domain name should be easy to spell.
There are 3 key benefits of a great domain name:
- It’s memorable
- To be recommended
- Easier to search, find and access
Also, make sure that your domain name doesn’t look inappropriate when it’s written down with words joined together.
4. Consider To Use Keywords
Try to use keywords that describe your business and the services you offer. It help to improve search engine optimization.
By using keywords, you tell the search engine what your store/site is about. If you use keywords at the start of your domain name, that’s where they’ll be most powerful in your domain name.
For example, if you’re doing a furniture business, you may want to register furnitureworld.com or bestfurniture.com.
If it’s hard to find a domain with your target keywords you’ll need to be creative about it and combine keywords with some other words or numeric to make your domain name stand out.
5. Use the Right Domain Extension
Domain extensions are those suffixes that come after the “.” of your domain name – .com, .net, .org, etc.
The .com domain extension is far better away most popular, but it can be tough to get a short and memorable .com domain name because it’s been around for over 20 years.
The problem is this: getting your “.com” domain name with suffix may be a bit slim. You will then have to check what other suffixes you can use. In general, the most common are as under:
- .co : for company, commerce, and community.
- .info : usually the sites that provide information.
- .net : technical or similar internet infrastructure sites.
- .org : non-commercial and non profitable organizations.
- .biz : alternative of business or commercial sites.
- .me : blogs, resumes or personal sites etc.
There are also country specific website suffixes like .en for Germany, .ca for Canada, .it for Italy, etc.
6. Use Domain Name Generators
Currently, there are more than 370 Million registered domain names. This leads to many people saying that all good domains are already registered.
Domain name generator can help you to find out the cool domain name for your business.
These tools are very simple to use. You just type a keyword and in return, they give you tens or even hundreds of suggestions, full of valid and available domain names that you can register right away.
Nameboy is one of the oldest and most popular domain name generator online tool.
7. Avoid Doubled Letters
It’s never a good idea to use double letter in domain name. It increases the chance of losing traffic from your page.
For instance, a domain name like wordpresssetup.com will be difficult to type and result in losing traffic to your page.
8. Act Fast Before Someone Else Takes it
Every day thousands of new domain names are registered from all parts of the world. If you have found a domain name that match all the criteria mentioned above, then don’t take too much time.
Perfect domain names are like real estate. Thousands of people are actively looking for good branded domain names that they can register for their business to start up.
If you don’t act quickly, then someone may come up and register your domain idea.
Since domain names are comparatively cheap, it is better to act fast. If you don’t set your mind instantly, then you can simply let it expire.
Where to Register your Domain Name
There are various domain registrars available. It’s always better to check the credibility of domain registrars because you don’t want to lose your domain after finding and establishing your brand domain registrations.
- There are certain web hosting companies that offer domain registration for free with web hosting. Normally domain registration price ranges from $10 – $25 approximately.
- If you are starting a new website, a blog or online store, taking advantage of such offers is a smart idea for you.
Here are some of the companies that offer discounts on web hosting with free domain name registration:
- Bluehost – world’s most popular web hosting provider to provide quality hosting at affordable prices.
- SiteGround – most trusted hosting provider with best web hosting support.
- A2 Hosting – powerful web hosting service and cheap prices.
- WPX Hosting is a perfect choice if you need a powerful web hosting solution for WordPress sites.
You can get your web hosting services as low as $1.99 per month with free domain name registration.
Final Thoughts on How to Choose a Perfect Domain Name
You might want to spend hours to generate a perfect domain name or you may use a domain name generator to do so.
No matter what choice you make to start your business, the principles and the tips to choose a perfect domain name remains the same.
You have to just make sure that the domain name you choose is going to inspire the visitors and represents your brand!
Reading through this article will help you to note down the most important things that you need to keep in mind when coming up how to choose a perfect domain name for your website/blog/eCommerce store and while registering it.
It will obviously give you an insight on how to do it perfectly.
So, make sure to use these tips to choosing a perfect domain name.
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