Last Updated on July 17, 2021 by Guest
Many key factors contribute to the success of a startup, and no matter the industry or niche you’re in, your digital presence is definitely one of them. As a startup operating in a competitive field, you need to build a thriving digital presence centered on an amazing website. Your website not only needs to be fast and responsive, offering stellar UX, but it also needs proper branding and a winning domain name that will make it memorable and authoritative.
All of this is a prerequisite to long-term success and growth. Not only that but choosing the right domain name can bring some much-needed SEO value to your startup, allowing you to rank higher on Google and thus elevate yourself above the competition. So, here are the key tips you need to follow in choosing the ideal domain name for your startup without further ado.
Brevity is your friend
First and foremost, the modern online audience doesn’t have the patience or the willpower to remember lengthy or overly complicated domain names. One of the worst things you can do for your online visibility and awareness is to choose a domain name that is too long or too complicated to remember, and even though people can bookmark it in their browsers, you still want to have a concise domain name for SEO and CX reasons.
With that in mind, choose a domain name that has no more than three words, but ideally one word – your brand. If the domain is already taken, then you can always expand it a little bit by adding a word or two, but the general rule is to keep it as short and sweet as possible.
Branded or keyword-based?
Speaking of branding, should you choose a branded domain name, or should you go for a keyword-rich domain to try and maximize the domain’s SEO potential? The answer is – it depends. There is no right or wrong here, although the best practice is to choose a branded domain to boost brand recognition and stickiness (how memorable it is) and boost branded traffic to your website.
You can also try to squeeze a keyword into your branded domain name if it feels natural and doesn’t create a confusing string of letters that’s difficult to remember. This is a good opportunity to niche yourself. You can include a niche keyword into the branded domain to make your site more relevant to a particular target demographic. But remember, if including a keyword doesn’t feel natural, leave it out and stick with the brand name.
Make it personalized and memorable
Personalization is the fundamental part of business success nowadays. If you want to take your startup to new heights of success, you need to personalize the user’s experience across the board. This starts with your domain name and your website. It’s important to choose a top-level domain like .com, but typical TLDs don’t offer much in the way of personalization.
Instead, you can look for registrars that offer personalized domains like the popular .me domain extension that will allow you to humanize your website and give it a unique look and feel. This will help with the branding process and will engage your online audience, making it easy to remember the URL and the brand in the process.
Avoid the common mistakes
Some of the common mistakes startups make when choosing a domain name, aside from making it too long, make it too confusing with intentionally misspelled words, or by using the characters you really should avoid. If your brand name is intentionally misspelled, then you have to make sure that it still feels and sounds natural and that people can remember it easily.
What’s more, you would be doing yourself a disservice using numbers, hyphens, or any special characters in your domain name. Hyphens, in particular, can jeopardize your SEO by confusing the search engines and your audience.
Make your domain name marketable
Lastly, always check with your marketing experts whether or not your new domain name is marketable enough. Is it catchy and memorable? Can you disseminate it easily across the web? Does it fit naturally into the marketing material, and can it be used for every marketing campaign with ease? Does it facilitate seamless influencer and affiliate marketing?
These are just some of the questions you need to answer to ensure digital marketing success and maximize the value and potential of your domain name.
Over to you
Choosing the right domain name can often be a daunting task because you will need to stick with the domain you choose over the long term. Changing domain names abruptly can ruin your online reputation and SEO, so make sure to pick the best possible domain name right from the start by following these simple tips.