Whether this is your first website or one of many for your business, it behooves you to take your time when deciding on a domain name. Whereas a well thought-out name can increase visitor numbers and pave the way for long-term success, the wrong name can sink a new site before it’s even had a chance to find an audience. That being the case, no site owner can afford to take domain names lightly. Fortunately, selecting the right name is far from an uphill battle. By steering clear of the most common mistakes made by new site owners, you can dramatically increase your odds of creating a catchy, marketable domain name. In the interest of creating the best possible name, make an effort to avoid the following blunders.
Incorporating Numbers, Hyphens and Unnecessary Symbols
As any seasoned web marketer can tell you, your domain name should be comprised exclusively of letters. While incorporating numbers or hyphens into your domain may seem like a creative idea, this will ultimately serve to make the name harder to remember and cumbersome to type. Smart phone users, in particular, are liable to experience frustration if they have to alternate between keyboard settings just to type a single domain name. No matter how married you are to a certain name, you’ll need to amend it or scrap it altogether if it contains any of the symbols discussed above.
Unwillingness to Compromise
It’s important for first-time site owners to realize that their ideal domain name has, in all likelihood, already been claimed. Unfortunately, many people are simply unwilling to compromise in this area. While it’s not outright impossible to come up with a catchy domain name that no one else has thought of, it’s not exactly common, either. Some people try to get around this by adding hyphens and/or numbers, but as previously stated, incorporating non-letters is strongly ill-advised. This is why it pays to enlist the aid of a good domain name registration service. In the highly likely event that your first choice is currently spoken for, these services will provide you with comprehensive lists of search engine-friendly alternatives.
Creating Names That Are Needlessly Long
When trying to think of the perfect domain name, it’s imperative that you keep things brief. An overly wordy name is liable to take an annoyingly long time to type, and with attention spans at record lows, most smart phone users won’t hesitate to give such sites a pass. With this in mind, limit your domain name to no more than three words. Perusing some of the web’s most popular sites will reveal one common factor: none of their names exceed the aforementioned word limit. Opting for brevity will make your domain name easy to type and remember, much to the delight of mobile users.
Domain names are far more important than many first-time site owners realize. Choosing the wrong name stands to cost your site valuable visitor numbers and negatively impact its profitability. Luckily, you can avoid these pratfalls by taking the previously discussed pointers to heart.
