Reserving a website domain is the cornerstone of a professional online presence. Every business, entrepreneur, freelancer, or aspiring influencer reserves a suitable domain as one of the first steps toward building their personal brand or company brand. And while everyone knows that a website address should be concise and easy to remember, there are some key aspects to consider when choosing a domain name. Read below for a brief guide to choosing, buying, and using an Internet domain.
What Is a Domain
A domain is the web address of a website and a company email box, which consists of a name and an extension. The most fortunate are those who learned this definition a long time ago and immediately decided to buy a domain. The combination of characters in a domain must be unique, as an address redirects to only one website. The minimum length of a name in a global domain is 3 letters, and the longest is 63 characters.
Buying a domain is one of the first things an entrepreneur should do once they have decided upon a name for their business. Popular, short, and easy-to-remember addresses are frowned upon, so finding the right (and available) one is often an intense, creative effort. You should approach this task with an open mind, but remember some basic principles and options that will make this process easier.
Choosing a Domain Name
The first and obvious choice is a domain name with the company name. If you own a business, then the domain name (that is, the part before the dot in the address, such as google.com) should ideally be the name of your business. However, if the company name is too long or all configurations of such a domain name and extension are already taken, then you have to decide on a compromise.
The abbreviation of the company name in the domain is always the first thing that comes to mind. For example, if your company’s name is LetterSX, then you can decide to shorten it by omitting the vowels (lttrSX) or using the abbreviation (LSX). A shorter domain name will be easier to remember, especially if the customer can understand the logic behind such an abbreviation. Another solution is to register a name with a divider, for example letter-sx, although such an address might be considered unprofessional.
A domain that includes one’s name is strongly recommended for freelancers, bloggers and self-employed individuals, as well as for anyone who wants to build a personal brand online.
Choosing a Domain Extension
Local Domains
Location-related domain extensions, such as .us, .ca, .de, or .eu, should only be chosen by companies that operate in the area the domain suggests. If your company operates in the US, the .us extension will be appropriate. However, if you plan to expand on a larger scale in the future, it is better to think about it in advance and choose one of the global domains.
International Domains
These are the Internet domains with international extensions—from the all-too-familiar .com to .co, .io, and .xyz to .art, .tech, .online or .expert. So, if you are the owner of a US-based company, and you don’t think that your domain should necessarily end in .us, a whole range of options opens up for your business.
Where to Buy a Domain and How to Check Who Owns the Domain?
On many websites, you can check the availability of a domain and its cost, and then reserve it. If you decide to buy hosting or use one of the popular website builders, then you can use a combined service—registering a domain with the same provider.
The first step in checking whether a domain can be registered is to type it into the address bar of a search engine. You may then come across the owner’s website (often a company that sells domains), or an error, which means that such a domain does not exist yet. However, if the domain is taken, you can find its owner using the who.is search engine. However, it is usually more profitable to choose a similar domain that is available than to try to contact the owner.
How Much Does a Domain Cost?
The cost of domain registration can range from a few pennies to several million dollars. Both the cheapest and most expensive domains are offered for sale on domain exchanges. For example, the domain voice.com was sold for a whopping $30 million in 2019. Domains are a gold mine for shrewd investors, as the demand for short and prestigious domains is constantly growing.
The average cost of buying a domain name is $10 to $20 per year. However, this price can vary greatly depending on the extension and domain name registrar. A domain with high-demand keywords, such as CuteCats.com, will have a higher cost. CuteCatsInLawrenceKansas.com, on the other hand, is more specific to a location and uses some non-standard keywords, so it will be cheaper.
