You decide to start a new business and, you have a picture-perfect plan in mind, do the paperwork, take all necessary steps to create your new visual identity. And when you go to register your dream domain, you find out that someone else has already registered it.
Domain name availability can make a tremendous effect on your business name. A domain name is that which manages and builds your internet presence. Hence, a wrong move taken could bring forth a negative impact on your brand name.
Check for your domain availability at Veeble and grab your dream domain today. We offer domain registrations at as low as $4/yr per domain. With our domain lookup tool, you can find the best domain name combinations and add more value to your business.
Important points to be noted while creating a domain name:
- Do thorough research and see that, the domain name you are searching for is not a brand name or trademark of any other company.
- Always try to avoid using hyphens, numbers and funny spellings while creating a domain name.
- Keep your domain name short and easy to read.
- Choose a domain name that is straightforward and memorable.
- Do not generalize your domain name. Like, if you serve award-winning coffee in your cafe, you may be tempted to use domain names like “FinestCoffee.com” over better alternatives like “CafeBites.com”.
- It is also crucial to cross-check the spelling of your domain name before proceeding to final checkout.
8 Effective Strategies to Grab Your Perfect Domain Name
You can use the following strategies if your ideal domain name is not available.
1. Make an Effort to Buy the Domain Name
If you have the perfect domain name in your mind, then why not try to get it. And that can be very helpful when it comes to marketing and branding of your business or product.
The first thing to do here is to go directly to the website and check whether it is functioning or not. If you see something, say “This site can’t be reached” that means the domain is currently not in use. And that is a clear sign that you may be able to get your dream domain at better negotiation terms.
Check the Whois database to see the contact details of the current domain owner. You can either find the contact information listed or is made private by their corresponding web host. Once you find the contact details you need, you can contact them personally and ask whether they are interested in selling their domain.
2. Extend It With Service You Offer
You can extend your domain name URL by adding a relevant keyword related to the product or service you offer. Many big brands, like “MitsubishiElectric.com” and “TataMotors.com”, for example, have improved their marketability by adding keywords related to their service to their domain URL.
By using this technique, you will be able to increase the credibility of your website, make your domain name memorable and ultimately attract more customers. That will, in turn, create a strong sense of branding, making your company recognizable.
3. Try Abbreviations
Using an abbreviated version of the domain name is yet another method to create short and easy to remember domain names.
The famous sportswear manufacturing company “Adidas.com” got its name Adidas by combining “Adi” (nickname of its founder Adolf) with “Das” (first three letters of his last name Dassler).
Let’s take another example, Arby’s was founded by the Raffel Brothers (Leroy and Forrest Raffel), they took the initials “RB” to register their perfect domain name “Arbys.com”. Similarly, Johnson & Johnson registered their domain as “jnj.com” and Reliance Industries Limited settled for “ril.com”.
4. Use a Slogan or a Catchy Phrase
Grabbing your Slogan.com is a smart way to add additional branding to your website.
Here are few companies who considered it worthwhile to register their slogan URLs to redirect traffic to their main website “JustDoIt.com” (Nike), “HaveItYourWay.com” (Burger King), “ThinkDifferent.com” (Apple), “LetsMakeThingsBetter.com” (Philips).
5. Local Branding
Try incorporating your location, name of city, or country to your domain name. This is an effective local branding strategy to form an emotional connection with your local audience. This can also increase the trust of your website visitors.
For example, the official website of Toyota in India is “ToyotaBharat.com”.
Likewise, the U.S website of luxury automobile company Mercedes-Benz is “Mbusa.com” and the international shoe manufacturer Clarks has registered their official U.S website as “ClarksUsa.com”.
6. Consider Using ccTLD
The Country-Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) is a two-letter country-code domain extension reserved for a country or a specific area. These extensions suggest how your site’s content is related to a particular language or region. Using a ccTLD extension can leverage your website’s SEO value as it shows the search engine that your website content is focusing on a particular country or region. Some of the most popular ccTLDs are Germany (.de), United Kingdom (.uk), United States (.us).
At the same time, some ccTLDs are considered generic by search engines and are called Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). For example, ccTLD of Colombia (.co), Cocos Islands (.cc), European Union (.eu), Montenegro (.me) and so on.
7. Experiment With Keywords
Keep a list of keywords describing your specialized niche and add a domain name modifier expression to it.
For example, suppose you are planning to start a photography blog, then you can use the below combination.
Photo (keyword) + Base (modifier), thus, creating the domain name photobase.com.
Some of the most popular websites that follow this trend are “TripAdvisor.com”, “TheHersheyCompany.com”, “Travelocity.com” and so on.
Did you know: Facebook originally started with the domain name “TheFacebook.com”.
8. Use Creative Alternative TLD
Even though .com is the most commonly used TLD extension by far, there are also other creative domain name extensions, that can help your business stand out. For instance, the photo-sharing app Instagram, before it acquired instagram.com, used the domain name “instagr.am” using Armenia country-code extension.
Numerous other websites use a similar approach in creating creative domain names. That would include “Cr.yp.to”, “Blo.gs”, “Find.me”, “Last.fm” and many more.
Despite the fact .com is the recommended first choice for domain name extensions, you can find several websites that moved from .com to a smarter new TLD. Like, sierraep.com switched to “Sierra.finance”, tour-eiffel.com ditched .com for “Toureiffel.paris”, rostrumpr.com change to “Rostrum.agency”.
If you do not find your perfect domain name, try out these alternative tactics.
Go ahead and get your domain name now!
Also Read: A Guide to Choose the Right Dedicated Server for Your Business?
