What Makes a Good Domain Name?

When building a website for your brand or business, choosing a domain name is an important decision. You need to decide on something that is going to accurately reflect your brand. But how do you decide on a good domain name with so many to choose from?

In this article, we will discuss what makes a good domain name. Then, we’ll go over how you can secure a great domain name by covering how to find expired domains and deleted domains.

How to pick a great domain name?

Your domain name is your website’s address online. When considering what your domain name should be, you should be focused on branding and marketing. Your domain’s identity must correlate to your brand. You must find brandable domains.

This domain name should also aim to direct traffic to your website by describing your website content in some form or fashion. There are a few key factors that play into whether a domain name is good.

1. Keywords and Branding for Good Domain Names

One of the best ways to create a good domain name that reflects your brand is to search for keywords that are relevant to your branding. You may also want to consider using terms from your own branding to put together a domain name. If you are a local business, a keyword you may choose to use is your location.

Depending on your branding, this step may be relatively easy. We suggest that you make a list of keywords and relevant words to your brand story while trying to brainstorm a domain name. You will want your website name to be as close to your business name as possible.

Let’s discuss an example. Marie’s Coffee is a coffee shop located near Example Beach. Her brainstorm list might include keywords such as: “Marie’s coffee, coffee shop, Example Beach, coffee”. Some of the domains she might look at could include www.mariescoffee.com, www.mariesexamplebeach.com or www.examplebeachcoffee.com.

2. Easy to Remember is a Priority

Your domain name needs to be accessible. There are many ways in which a website might be recommended from one person to another. It can be typed, spread by word of mouth, or located on a business card. You might even choose to advertise your website with print advertising.

In most of these situations, someone will need to manually type your website into a browser to visit your site. Google Domains recommends that a domain name should be 2-3 words. Another thing to avoid is the use of unnecessary punctuation. For example, www.anexample.com is easier to remember and input than www.an-example.com is.

Avoid misspellings of names or abbreviations that you might come up with in order to snag a .com TLD extension. Stretching for a cheaper domain name can end up hurting your website. Easy to remember, easy to spell, easy to share should be your mantra for a good domain name.

3. Top Level Domain Extension

Top level domain extensions are an important part of a good domain name. These extensions are the letters that come after your website name. In general, top level domain extensions (or TLDs) are typically .com, .net, and .org. By far, these three are the most popular and recognizable TLDs.

There are two reasons for this:

• These domain extensions have higher value.

• People tend to trust these domains more.

If you’re looking to have a .com TLD, it might be difficult depending on how common your website name is. You might have to choose a TLD such as .info, .co, .blog, or .shop. You can still have a good domain name with a less common top level domain extension. In this case, the strategy should be to choose a TLD that correlates with your brand.

Referring to our coffee shop example, Marie’s Coffee, .info or .blog might not be the best TLDs for this business. On the other hand, .co or .shop could work well!

If you’re really set on a .com domain name, you might be able to find a domain with a popular TLD that is a dropped domain.

What are Expired Domains?

So, you’ve picked your website name, or you at least have a list of possible contenders. But what if those domains on your list are all taken? Well, you might be in luck depending on what your options are. Domains are usually only valid for one year at a time. This means that if the current holder of your domain fails to renew, the domain that you want could become abandoned.

These are known as dropped or expired domains. Some domains end up becoming deleted domains after expiration, meaning that you can then register them with a web hosting company as your own.

You might be able to find an expired domain or soon to be expiring domain on your list. These domain names can be cheaper than a domain name that you would have to register yourself from scratch.

But how do you find them?

How to Find Expired Domains

The great thing about expired domains is that you can find out when a domain name might expire. There are many tools online that can help you to determine when a domain name was renewed or is set to expire. One of these tools that requires you to manually search for this information is, such as a WHOIS lookup.

There are other reasons that you might want to find expired domain names, such as trying to build a website with high authority or domain reselling. Many of these domains may be unsavory or difficult to use with your branding.

Services such as Namegrab.io can help you to stay informed on what domain names are expiring and focus on high quality domains that were recently dropped.

Conclusion

In conclusion, spend some time thinking of a good domain name for your brand or business. It’s an important decision and one that you shouldn’t make hastily. Remember that your website name should be easy to memorize, easy to spell, and easy to share. We hope you learned some valuable information about domain names, what makes a good domain name, and how to find expired domains!