One very important step that a whole lot of people overlook is how to choose a domain name and extension that is great and will make it easy for people to identify with their brand. If you have already bought your domain name, you can still take a look at this post so that you will notice some of the things you did right or missed while making your decision.
Before going ahead, I will like to say that this is not an absolute method of making your choice; it is barely my own thoughts on how the choice of a domain name and the appropriate extension should be made. However, it is worth noting that with my years of experience, you should probably be paying for this information. However, as a web hosting provider that wants the best for his clients, let’s get right into giving out this great information.
STEP ONE
If you have read the book “7 habits of highly effective people” you will note that habit two in the book is to begin with the end in mind. Well, while choosing your domain name and extension, this had to be your first step.
To do this, you will have to ask yourself the following questions:
- What service/product do I want to render?
- What is my budget?
- What is my target audience?
- How do I want to be perceived?
- What strategy do I want to employ?
By the time you have good answers to those questions then you have done yourself a great amount of good. However, if you can’t answer these questions specifically, then you should consider doing some research or talking with a friend/mentor who can better guide you.
STEP TWO
Now that you know very well what you want to do, the next step is to make a list of possible domain names that you will like to choose, and to make this easier, I will give an illustration. So, let’s imagine your name is Jack, and your job is Giant Slaying. Now you need a website that will let people know how good you are at slaying giants and why they should hire you when they need to slay a giant.
So let’s say you have made the following deductions as to what to do:
- Service – Giant Slaying
- Budget – $200 per annum [for hosting and domain]
- Target Audience – Families that are suffering for giant bullies
- Perception to project – Hero
- Strategy to employ – Organic SEO, Blogging, and Social Media Posts
You will then want to make the following domain name suggestions:
- killthisgiant
- thegiantslayer
- jacktotherescue
- giantslayer
- jackthegiantslayer
And the following domain extension suggestions
- com
- org
- blog
- net
- me
You will then want to move to the third step. Please note that you might think you have some silly names but don’t remove them just yet, just go ahead to the next step.
STEP THREE
The third stage is to research your choices. Remember that you want your domain name to resonate well with your audience and as such, you want to make it easy for them to relate to.
Your research will consist of the following:
- Check the availability and price of the domain name and extension combinations.
- Check the major social media channels to see which of the names is free for you.
- Do keyword research to know which keywords rank highly in search engines.
Once you have those answers, you also need to do some reality check which is the next step before you make your decision.
STEP FOUR
Just two steps above, I asked that you should list your domains no matter how they sounded. This is because you might not know which one would rank really well while doing the keyword section.
Now that you have done well to suggest and research adequately, you need to bring logic in. Here the question is simple: “Which domain name and extension combined with the highest search rank and availability is most logical to use?”
Once you have this decided you should then move to the next step if you have not used up your budget and still have room for one or two domain names and extension combinations.
STEP FIVE
The upper step is your brand and hence will go on you be your identity and internet legacy. However, to better cement your legacy, you might want to buy one or two high ranking keyword combinations and then use a redirect on them to ensure that you improve your site traffic.
If you enjoyed this post and were able to follow with the exercise, remember that we assumed that you are “Jack the giant slayer”, kindly comment your choice below. I’ll love to know that you did a good job. I’ll personally reply to each comment that states your choice.
To buy your domain name, start here.
