Written by Fernando Maciá
Índice
One of the first decisions to be made when developing a Web project is to choose a suitable domain name for the Web site.
The domain will be the brand with which we will represent ourselves in the network.
Choosing a domain name lightly can lead to future failures in the promotion strategy of a site. To do so, we must take into account certain factors that will ensure that our Web is always on the “short list” of our potential customers.
A domain name that represents who I am
Choosing the right name for a Web page is a similar process to creating a brand name. We must start with a perfect understanding of our company or project.
Who is our target audience, what is the objective of our Web, what does my Web have that the competitors’ Web does not have, what is the vision and mission of my Web project, etc., are some of the questions that will help us to brainstorm a preliminary list of domain names. Once this provisional list is obtained, we will discard those domain names that do not meet certain requirements. efficiency factors. To eliminate non-viable domain name alternatives, we suggest you follow these recommendations:
Long or short domain names?
Although many domain registration portals allow a maximum of 63 characters, don’t try to get your domain name close to that length of characters. Like a good brand, a domain name must be easily memorable. For this reason, short domains work better than long domains. In addition, the longer a domain is, the more likely it is that an error will occur while a potential customer is typing it.
Try to choose the shortest domain name that your customers and visitors would associate with your business.
It is recommended that the domain name be under 7 characters if possible.
There are long names that can be easily remembered. They are usually domain names represented by simple, easy-to-memorize phrases. For example a domain name like “www.mujeresemprendedoras.com” is long but easily remembered.
Domains that rank well in search engines
The domain name can become an ally when it comes to placing your Web portal in the top positions of search engines. Search engine algorithms take into account (in addition to other factors) the domain name to rank a given page in their results.
For example, if you are in the business of selling diabetic socks and your domain name is “www.calcetinesdiabeticos.com”, this will add one more point for your website to be listed at the top of the search engines for the search phrase “diabetic socks”.
Remember that you only have one domain so you can compete strongly for a single key search term.
Analyze which expression best summarizes your activity and test if you can place it as a domain name.
Characters not recommended in a domain name
There are certain domain names that, despite being short, are difficult to remember because the combination of letters is unfamiliar to the vocabulary of potential customers. For example, a domain “www.pwxtw.com” is short but very difficult to remember because it contains a letter combination that is rarely used in our vocabulary.
It is also advisable to avoid numbers in the domain. Whenever we have to say it orally, we must specify whether we are referring to the number or to the word. For example, if I have the domain “www.rebajas12.com” I will have to specify whether it refers to “www.rebajas12.com” or “www.rebajasdoce.com”.
It is also recommended not to use underscores and underscores. It is easy to forget about hyphens when writing a domain name. It is also difficult to remember which type of script is the name of a given domain. It is also cumbersome to read or dictate a domain with several scripts.
Avoid using abbreviations. The use of any mode of contraction will result in a domain that is not very memorable and difficult to relate to your specific business or activity.
Try typing on the keyboard the domain name you have preliminarily chosen.
Analyze if it is easy to type and that there is no chance of typing it wrong. Also try reading it aloud and see if it is easy to memorize.
Looking for the right extension: com, net, es, org, etc.?
The generic gTLD domains -such as.com– are nowadays the easiest to remember and the most used by default by Internet users. In case you cannot register the .com extension, there is the .net extension which is also easily remembered.
In case your business scope only covers one country, we also recommend opting for country code top level domains (ccTLD) such as .es, .oc.uk, or .fr.
At the level of search engines, having an extension of a certain country makes our portal appear in better positions for geolocalized searches.
Other recommendations:
If your domain name is difficult to write, register domain names related to the typical mistakes that are made when writing the domain name of your portal. Redirect the additional domains to the main domain. This ensures that Internet users who type in your domain name with slight errors will reach your site.
Your domain name should be the name of the website. This advice seems obvious, but you would be surprised at the number of cases where the portal name does not match the specific domain name.
If your domain name is plural, it is advisable to also register the singular and redirect it. It is possible that several of your potential customers will type the domain name in singular when they are searching for your Web site.
