On July 5th, 2024, I held a presentation on this topic: “On choosing a domain name”.
Below are the slides + video recording.
Slides:
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Video:
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From the presentation:
Some domain names I used along the years:
- fiieficient.com (beefficient.com)
- betterish.com
- getaresultnow.com
- getseoideas.com
- olivianbreda.com
- audithink.com
- oliii.com (from Olivian)
- olivian.ro
- bookrust.com
- notenoughdata.com
- dateinsuficiente.ro (notenoughdata)
How to start? Start with a brand identity.
How to get to the domain name? Your values / Your audience profile -> Brand profile -> domain name/logo/website design/motto/business values
Why do you need a brand identity? It will not match your brand profile.
Strange but free domains? https://wordoid.com/
Exact Match Domains (EMD) – A Google Update
The goal of this update was to target spammy sites and sites with significant amounts of thin content providing little value beyond exact match words in the domain. Sites with stronger brand recognition and high quality content were less likely to be hit.
Memorable name (very tricky!): TransferGo vs. TransferWise.
Choosing between:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .co.uk
- .fr
de.li.ci.ous
Solution:
- English? .com
- Local website? .co.uk
- Avoid .net/.org/.info/.site
You can consider buying domains from others.
International domains in various countries. Think about word associations. (almost too tricky to handle)
No other characters than letters (perhaps digits, but I wouldn’t recommend it). Diacritics, dash (-): no!
Dictate over phone. Think about how easy it is to understand the domain if someone dictates it over the phone.
First-time user vs. Returning user: TripAdvisor/Booking vs. Trivago/Expedia/Kayak (this one is hard, as when you choose the domain name, you’re in the “this is the first time!”-mode)
Rational vs. Emotional: eBay/Target vs. Flipkart/Otto (this one is hard if you’re very rational)
Short? Dollar Shave Club is a counterexample. They are rare.
Examples:
- Uber
- Fiat
- AirBnb
- Trello
Play with words
- Kind -> Kindle
- Milk -> Milka
- Bingo -> Bing
- Video -> Vimeo
Two-words brands:
- Burger King
- Starbucks
- Under Armour
- Best Buy
- Pizza Hut
Names from “How to Train Your Dragon”:
- Toothless
- Light Fury
- Stormfly
- Meatlug
- Hookfang
- Fishmeat
- Skullcrusher
- Cloudjumper
- Deathgrippers
- Goregutter
- Hobgobbler
- Ruffrunner
A name is like a tattoo – hard to change if you decide you don’t like it.
Free social media profiles: Check Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn, and any other apps you might be using.
The brand shouldn’t be present before you are active on the market (cheap-shoe-repairs-madrid-spain.com – it likely has competition).
Don’t decide quickly! (spending weeks/months on choosing a domain name?)
