URL Names

When people search for something on the Internet, 9/10 they will pick a website to browse through its domain name.

Short vs Long:

When choosing your domain name you have upto 62 characters. This opens up the possibility to create a domain name that reflects your site more accurately and gives people a better understanding of the content of your site before going to it. But at the same time you don’t want a ridiculously long domain name.

For example let’s say I was going to build a website for model aeroplanes enthusiasts. I could go for either one of the following domains.

mineislongerthanhim.com or mineislonger.com

Both domain names reflect the site very well and either one of those domain names could be used for the site. But you also have to ensure your site is not only easy to remember it’s also easy to type into the browser.
You also have the option of choosing a different domain extension if .com is taken. Some people will tell you that you should find a name with a .com association before anything else.

Using Hyphens or numbers:

What you’re also going to find is that the names you may want are not available to you but a variation of the name is. Let’s say you wanted thisdomain.com but it was taken. But you could register this-domain.com or this1domain.com. If you’re happy with either one of the alternatives then go ahead and register it. Just keep in mind though, when you start to go down this avenue then you could end up sending your customers to your competition by mistake as most people would remember and input thisdomain.com before this-domain.com or this1domain.com into the url.

Also avoid trade mark names like the plague or you could find yourself in legal battle you won’t win. Let’s say you want to set up a mailing service and the find the domain name hotmail.info is available. Just because you can register it doesn’t means you have a legal right to it. At the moment there is great debt whether this still holds true today in the Internet world. In my humble opinion, it’s best to play it safe and avoid the hassle.

Avoid misspelling domain names purposely:

I can’t stress this point enough. If a particular domain name is taken, don’t try to get around it by purposely misspelling it or changing letters for numbers. People by nature won’t remember a misspelled domain over one that is spelt correctly. Plus it looks very unprofessional to potential customers.