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What a Good Domain Name Should Have

Before you choose your domain name or name your website, you might want to consider the following points: Please note what you read here is strictly our own opinion based on about 10 years experience at this field, also the attension of this article is to the people with low budget. From my point of view if the market domain price ranges from 50$ to 50'000$ (more than that is considered the corporate pricing that do not fit to this article at all) I can say under 7'000$ should be considered low budget which is this article's attension.
If a domain name could consist all of the following factors it would be a perfect one but in reality it is not possible any more (except you are willing to pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for it) because some of the options are not available or they are very hard to find to include in a domain name now, for example, a short 4 letter name do not exist any more even 5 or 6-letter domain names. Anyway, we just briefly go through all the options bellow to give you a reasonable picture of a good domain name. At the end you see our brief conclusion of how to find and purchase a good domain name.

    1- Budget
    2- Long or Short
    3- Memorable or Sweet
    4- Related to Your Core Business or Business Name
    5- Easy to Spell and Interpret
    6- Good Extension
    7- Generic or Brand Name
    8- Hyphenated Domain Name
    9- Visually Memorable

Budget:

Budget is the most factor for most of us when looking for a domain name. You may find something that fulfill your needs and your heart also want it but you budget do not allow that. In my opinion like buying a car if your budget is 2000$ but the domain name you like is 3000$ go for it because its worth. Purchasing something like a domain name that you are going to live with that for a long time worth alittle extra push.

Long or Short:

Obviously the shorter, the better. Almost no sensible 5 or 6 lettter names don't exist any more so you should rely on longer-memorable words. It is best to keep your domain name with less than 15 characters. The shorter names are easier to remember and it also reduces the likelihood that your visitor will mistype it or spell it wrong. For example; teem.ca has a lot less chance of being mistyped or forgotten than wherepeoplegettogether.com.

Memorable or Sweet:

Make sure your chosen name is easy to spell and easy to remember, the name nightclub.com is a natural name but niteclub.com may sound similar but when it passes through people orally will end up to a failure, because people type in what they hear assuming the natural spelling, means your competition will get your potential visitors. abnormal names are only good for corporate brand names.

Relative to Your Business Name: (Core Business or Descriptive)

If you're just starting out, you might prefer the cheaper alternative of trying to obtain a domain name first, and then naming your business after the domain that you've acquired. So if you've acquired, say, the domain name "FreeEmail.com", then your website and business might be named "FreeEmail" or "FreeEmail.com". May be it looks a little odd, but that's the reality if you don't want to lose out on the Internet.

The other option is trying one of the two following techniques;

1- DIRECT APPROACH: For example; if you sell gaming software you can choose GamingSoftware.com or GameSoftwareSale.com as a direct description of the nature of your business. This way you should be very very lucky to find appropriate domain name.

Having same domain name (or similar meaning) and busines name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your business, they'll think of it by name. If your name is also your URL, they'll automatically know where to go. For example, when people think of FreeEmail.com, they don't have to wonder what URL to type into their browser to get there. The name of the business is also the URL as long as it is sensible, memorable and easy to spell. Of course this is an ideal condition that I couldn't even achieve it.

2- INDIRECT APPROACH: If you couldn't find any combination words to describe your business OR your business name is too clumsy use something more general like; GameCareTaker.com or GameGovern.com or e-game.ca. as you see they do not directly describe your business but they still indirectly represent the nuture of your business. This is the most practical and realistic option, I personally went this way.

Good Extension:

An extension has an undeniable effect on popularity and the class of a domain name, there is no doubt that .com is the first extension that crosses people's minds when thinking of a domain name or a web address which is given to them. Top level extension (.com, .net, .org) should be your first choice except the available domain is really covering most of the options we are discussing in this article.

Sometime the nature of the business we do does not really need to be descriptive but because of being unusual make it memorable and under your special circumstances thats what exactly you wany, for example you want to run a general discussion forum, in that case instead of choosing GeneralDiscussionFourum.com why not choosing i0i.org or qllp.net? In such a case sacrificing .com over .net worth for 100%.

Brand Names (Generic):

Most people thinks having a generic name like book.com is a must. I personally don't believe it is always the case, how many people when need a book may type in book.com only? If I need music related books or some books about home improvement I will definitely look for home repair or home improvement keywords when doing the search.

To me Core Business or Descriptive names can be as successful as generic names, remember we are not talking about apple.com or google.com but talking about low or medium budget domain names.

Hyphenated Domain Names:

For Low budget people some times the Hyphen can come to the rescue also it has it's own disadvantages. Like top level extensions I mentioned above under certain condition a hyphen can really make a difference. Some believe when giving a domain name verbally to someone the hyphen makes it difficult to describe the name but I don't believe it is really a problem, let's see what would be the difference between e-bargain.ca and ebargain.ca. For e-bargain.ca I say "e, dash, bargain, dot ca) OR "e, hyphen, bargain, dot ca) AND for ebargain.ca I say "e, bargain, dot ca", is really saying "dash" or "hyphen" screws up the understanding of a word? I don't believe it is that much a big deal, at least not that big people have made it.

The hyphen still gives you more chance to find something closer to the core business of yours or keep the sensibility of the word (s) you need for your business.

The visual presentation of hyphenated domain name is as equal as non-hyphenated. We just have to deal with our laziness a little bit to accept hyphenated domain names.

For search engines the word "bargain" is more distinguishable from the word "e-bargain" than "ebargain". If someone keys the word "bargain" in search engines the word e-bargain will com out for sure but for "ebargain" the search engine look at it as a single word.

Visually Memorable Names:

I have not seen this option anywhere else, I guess I am the first one who is adding this option to the definition of a good domain name. This option in my opinion is as important as memorable domain name. Most people when memorize something (in our case a word) they use their visual memory, if you think of your friend's phone numbers that you have memorized now you will see any of the numbers that are visually simetrical or are repeating numbers are easier to remember, for example; look at two of our domain names we have for sale "qqlpp" or "qllp" and "domaintobargain" for few minutes, after a week from now try to remember both of them, in worst condition you probably remember them equally, one is longer but meaningful the other one shorter but symmetrical look. Some times if the type of a business allows using this format can be considered as an option.

CONCLUSION:

It is not really possible to put all the above options in a table and include every single of them on a domain name, even including 25% of all the options considers perfect from my point of view, I also believe such a process requires artistic taste too. The best is to study, understand and remember all the options then mix them up with what our heart says, and the most important of all keep watching our wallet. consultant with the friend also should not be forgotten.

If you got lost between this and that you can try the other way around, first get the domain name then name your business after it.

The other option is first look at your budget then to go through the domain name list of dealers like us until you find a sensible domain name that covers your requirements and fits your budget. At the end register a fuss free domain name and leave all the frustrations someone else.

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