Make a Website Great

The age old question (since ~1995) of creating a Web site, is how do you find a domain name to put it under. Sure, you can always register something long and catchy like “BillsNewWebSiteKicksAss.com”… go ahead try it! But it seems that the shorter and easier to remember names you know are just perfect for your site, are all registered by someone else. Some of those are up for sale for thousands of dollars, and grabbing one may be an option for you. However, if it’s not a very appealing option, here’s what you do.

Anatomy of a Good Domain Name

First let’s talk about what a good domain name should be like, and then move on to learning how to find one. Here are some basic rules:

• It should have no dashes, i.e. no “my-site.com”. One dash is not good. More is horrid. If you register “my-site.com” the person who has “mysite.com” will always have you beat in terms of domain brand recognition. Some people may mistakenly go to “mysite.com” instead of your actual domain, the one with the dash. Furthermore, if you get a domain name with a dash, you’re likely to eventually get tired of saying “my site is called my DASH site dot com.
• Ideally, a good domain name should have no more than three words in it. A four word domain name is usually not a problem to find, but short is good. Short domain names are easier to remember and carry more authority. By authority, I mean a perceived value. For example, without knowing anything but the domain names, which site do you think is more likely to be backed by a large corporation and overall more useful, Cars.com or OnlyTheBestCars.com? I place my bet on Cars.com!
• You should get a .com name. Dot com is what people still think of first when they think of a Web site. It’s a kind of default. If someone has the .com version of a name, and you have something else, you’ll always be behind, just as with the dash.
• Your domain name should make sense and hint about the nature of your business or content of your site. You can always register something like Zapotricity.com, but you’ll have a lot of explaining to do. And if you’re in business, you’d better have a substantial advertising and branding budget to explain it with.
• It’s great to have an actual word or two that relates to the topic of your site. This is good from a branding perspective, and a search engine optimization perspective. For example, if your site is about flowers and your domain name has the word “flowers” in it, both people and search engines are more likely to know that your site is about flowers.

Finding a Good Domain Name

When trying to find a good domain name that hasn’t been taken, the thesaurus is your friend. But your first task is to identify one or more words that are related to the topic of your site. Then think of how you’d like to position yourself in the eye of your customer (or Web site visitor). This could be a benefit to the customer or something about yourself such as being an expert in your field. List words related to what you just came up with.

Now access the thesaurus to expand on your list of words and try out domain names made of those words at a domain registration site. (I recommend GoDaddy.com)

I’m sure you’re just dying to see an example, so here it is:

If the space you’re trying to find a domain name in is crowded, you may want to consider adding a third word that qualifies, describes, or relates the other two.

Let’s see another example.

If you don’t have a thesaurus installed on your computer, you can go to Merriam Webster and choose the thesaurus option. Another good resource is Synonym.com.

Happy domain hunting!