Domain selection. Requirements and wishes. Recommendations
Choosing a domain for a website is the most important task for anyone who plans to open a representative office on the World Wide Web. It is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. To its decision should be approached with full responsibility, because, having registered a domain, you will not be able to change it. So, any website owner needs to know how to choose the right domain name?
How to choose a domain zone?
Domain zones are classified into such categories:
- International. These include: NET, COM, INFO, ORG and BIZ. There are many registered domains, respectively, to find the best name will be very difficult.
- Domestic. Giving preference to a domain in this zone, you can specify that the website belongs to a particular region.
In turn, the Ukrainian domain zone is divided into categories:
- It is considered a privileged zone. Only the owners of trademarks can register a domain here.
- .COM.UA. The most common domestic domain zone.
- ua. It is a regional zone (lg.ua, kiev.ua, etc.). The choice of a particular option will depend on the region in which you plan to work.
Guidelines for selecting a domain name
To choose a domain name for the site, you need to start from the name of the company or the direction of its activities. If the name is composed of separate words, they should be written together or spaces should be replaced by a dash. Do you have the funds? So, register several domains – with a dash and without it. This will help effectively defend against rival firms.
Determining which domain to choose, consider the following recommendations:
- The optimal domain name is short. It is undesirable to include more than 3 words in his name. First of all, a short domain is easier to place in the logo. Secondly, it is easier to remember and more difficult to make a mistake. Thirdly, short domain names look more solid and are ideal for active brand development.
- The domain name must be pronounced normally. In addition, it is worth choosing names that are almost impossible to write with mistakes. This is important if you are going to use radio advertising to promote your website. When people hear your website address on the air, they need to remember it so that they don’t have trouble writing it down and finding it on the Internet.
- A good domain is hard to mistake for another. When choosing a name, make sure that competitors do not have a similar name.
- Domain name – describes your activity. It should show the user exactly what they can see if they go to that website.
Before you choose a domain, you should check that the name does not violate copyrights. Otherwise, there is a risk of a lawsuit from the owner of the brand (trademark for goods or services) or a petition to delete the domain.
Even if you were able to choose a good and memorable domain, the work does not end there. If there are resources, similar names should be registered. Otherwise it can be done by competing companies. For example, having registered the domain firma.com, you should work hard to buy a domain firma.com.ua.
In addition, you can apply different names to different types of ads. For example, for advertising on radio and TV, you can use the Cyrillic characters, and for promotion on the World Wide Web – Latin characters.
Checking a domain name: trial and error
The domain name should not represent the usual set of letters. Remember that it will represent you or your firm on the Internet. If you can buy a domain name similar to the name of the brand, by all means do it. If for some reason you can not register under a brand name, then try to write an analogue close to it.
It is allowed to use in the name:
- Figures
- letters
- dash
Do not forget that it is forbidden to mix characters. Only characters from the Latin alphabet or Cyrillic can be used in the name.
For Cyrillic domains use Punycode, through which characters are converted Unicode – and the domain is written in the characters of the national alphabet (eg domain.rf). Many Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari) and programs are “sharpened” to understand and support domains in Cyrillic, which automatically recode the Russian letters.
Want to make sure you picked the best and decent name for your own domain? So, do some simple tests.
1. First of all, make a list of options.
2. When you are sure they are affordable, you should talk them over with your friends or business partners. Find out if they like the chosen domain name.
3. In addition, it is worth examining the Web sites of competitors or firms that provide related services. Make sure that the name of your organization does not resemble the names of other companies.
Good luck choosing a domain name.
The text was prepared by the Tuthost copywriting team
