When the time comes for you to choose a domain name, you need to slow down and consider the important factors because it may be near impossible to change it later in the future – and this may have severe consequences on your website’s performance online.

Your domain name is an important component of your online business. Even if you do decide to change it later, transferring from one domain name to another is not a seamless transition.

It will take time to settle in, and you could lose important files too. All these are going to lead to loss of valuable customers – and you will have to start all over again.

In order to avoid this costly mistake, you need to take your time to come up with the perfect domain name for your website.

But how do you do that?

1. Consider your business

When people are faced with choosing the name of their website, their minds go to their business and what they do.

You should do so too. The kind of products or services you offer can give you a clue on the domain name to use.

For example, if you deal in aluminium supplies, you could include aluminium in your website’s domain name and have something like aluminiumdealers.co.uk. This way, when people search for aluminium supplies online, your website has a greater chance of showing up in searches.

2. Why not choose a brandable name?

Creativity is a very powerful tool too.

Consider the big brands like Google, Yahoo, Verizon and so on. They carved out a brand for themselves by getting creative and forming their own words.

The internet is crawling with millions of domain names. Choosing a generic one may not cut it and your website could get lost in cyberspace.

If you have plans to grow your business into a major brand – and you certainly do – you need to get creative. Come up with something cool that will leave a lasting impression on people’s memories.

Picore, anyone?

3. Make it simple and short

A short domain name serves you better.

Long domain names are not fashionable. Even when you are tempted to choose a long name, resist the urge and pick something simple.

Go with a domain name that people can easily remember and pronounce. A name one can easily tell someone else without causing spelling confusion.

Also, do away with numbers and special characters. They don’t add credibility to your website’s domain name. Instead of adding digits, try another domain name.

4. Be savvy with keywords

Keywords have come to gain prominence in anything online. Keywords are an integral fragment of digital marketing and SEO.

However, you need to be smart with using keywords. Knowing how important they are to SEO rankings, it is natural to feel you have to stuff your domain name with keywords.

But in reality, although keywords remain important, the quality of your website content also plays a prominent role in your SEO ranking. Packing your domain name with keywords will make your website appear spammy.

One keyword is sufficient, and it is best that you select a high ranking keyword for your niche.

5. Don’t forget about the extension

There are several website extensions you can choose from. However, most people will choose .com because it is the most commonly used extension.

Others like .net and .org are also good but less common.

And if you decide to be patriotic, you can even choose a local extension to show your business location. Extensions like .eu, .co.uk and .nz are available to choose from.

6. Research

So you have followed all the steps above, now what?

Research.

When you have come up with a list of possible domain names – a list, not just one – you have to find out whether they are available.

You need to do a name availability check to confirm the uniqueness of your domain name before registering it.

You may have come up with what you believe is the perfect domain name for your website. But what if it is already taken, or it infringes on the copyright of another website?

This step is necessary because you want to use a unique domain name that does not copy another website.

In conclusion

Your website’s domain name is the address that ushers people to your website. It is the sign that directs internet users to discover your website – and products and services online.

As with a signboard, apply these tips to make it memorable and catchy enough to draw their attention to your website.