As a part of your business, you need to find a suitable name. After much deliberations, you come up with a perfect name, and then, proceed to complete the paperwork and design a business card. But what if your business name is taken by someone else and you can’t register your domain. There are businesses that face such a situation. To avoid it, you need to first search domain names for your business website, and complete other formalities later.
The other way around is to try to acquire your choice of the domain name if it is not in use though taken by someone. Most individuals give up if they don’t find the name they wanted. You need not give up, even if you are bootstrapping your business. A lot of domains purchased are not in use and if you can put some effort, you can buy an ideal name for your website. Nevertheless, it may not work all the time, so finding a suitable name is essential. Here are some simple tips to conduct an effective domain search.
1. Consider choosing a short and simple domain
To successfully have ideas about a domain name, you need to put some efforts to research and think deeply. A short and simple name is easy to memorize and type on the web browser. For instance, the website ‘shopee.sg’ is one of the most visited online shopping store in Singapore. The word ‘shopee’ is short and easy to remember. Similarly, you have ‘moe.gov.sg’, which is the ministry of education’s site in Singapore, and is popularly visited by people.
The domain names between 4 and 8 characters are considered to be the most visited by the Internet users. Short names that are pronounceable and memorable are found to make the most revenue.
2. Try to have a brand-specific domain name
It is not easy to find common names, for they are already taken by websites, which are over two billion of them over the Internet today. To make your website name unique, have your brand name or words that relate your business incorporated in the domain name.
Customers visit websites with domains that represent brands or products more as they convey some information about the business. By having a name that is emotive, descriptive, or invented, you can attract customers to your website. However, try to avoid numbers, hyphens or special characters, which can make the name complicated or confusing.
3. Have a right combination of keywords as your website name
When you choose a name to register your website, find the one that can improve search engine optimization or SEO. Your website should figure on the first page of the search engine to get it identified by your prospective customers. Using an appropriate keyword combination will help you become distinctive online. Avoid using near matching words, which may affect your brand, for websites with such keywords are considered to be spams by many users. Moreover, Google doesn’t include matching words in its ranking factors.
4. Avoid trademark infringement
You should remember not to choose a trademark name, which may lead to legal complications. If your website address looks similar to another brand or business’ website name, it is an infringement of trademark and may result in legal actions. Therefore, it is advisable to ensure that the name you propose does not violate Singapore trademarks if you are based in Singapore. Websites showing similar names will confuse the user and there are chances that the search results of your website name littered with irrelevant links.
5. Go for an ideal domain extension
A domain extension like a domain is equally important. You can choose generic top-level domains as there are plenty of them. The ‘.com’ extension is mostly used by companies to have a better reachability. The other options are ‘.org’, ‘.net’, ‘.co’, ‘.online’, etc. You can also try to have .sg, or .com.sg extension if you want to gain better visibility in the local markets in Singapore. The other country-code domains include .fr, .us, .au, .nz, .in, etc.
If you are still trying to find an apt domain for your website, the above-mentioned five tips can help you search domain names effectively.