What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is what is put in a browser to access a website on the internet.
The Importance of a Good Domain Name
Acquiring a good domain name to take ownership of the rights to that domain is a very important step when starting a blog or website. Choosing the right domain for your brand or content being offered on your site offers a good first impression, aids in credibility and has search engine optimisation (SEO) advantages.
How to Come up with a Good Domain Name
There are many unique names in many top-level domains (TLDs) available to register or acquire in the domain aftermarket.
Aim for a short, memorable name, that is relevant and aligns to your blog or site, use your name or part of your name, use an exact match domain (EMD), or otherwise use a name that comprises of something that is close to what you want that is available to register.
What is a TLD?
A TLD or a top-level domain refers to the part of a domain name that comes after the dot, such as .com.
What is an EMD?
An EMD, or exact match domain, is a domain name that exactly matches the keywords a person is searching for. While still valuable, the value of EMDs are less significant since Google’s algorithm prioritises content more, rather than the name.
Top 5 Generic TLDs
While it’s possible to register a domain using a wide variety of TLDs, such as .living, it’s generally recommended to use a widely recognised generic TLD for your site. A generic TLD refers to domain names that are not restricted to a specific country. The top 5 generic TLD’s available to register openly:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .info
- .biz
Can a Domain Name be Bought Permanently?
A domain name cannot be purchased outright but rather leased yearly. The maximum lease period at one time for a .com domain is 10 years, with the right to renew the lease when it’s nearing expiry.
How to Hand Register a Domain
It’s a good idea to first see if your desired name and extension are available to hand register at a registrar. Many registrars, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy provide a search prompt on the homepage where you can enter a domain and search.
If it’s not available, when you search Namecheap will often give good similar suggestions for available names and the same name available in other TLDs other than .com.
However, while some might be successful hand registering their domain name, it’s likely that the perfect name you want as your blog or site’s domain name has already been registered in .com and multiple extensions.
The Domain Aftermarket
If you don’t want to compromise on the quality of your domain name for your blog or site, that’s where the domain aftermarket comes in. The domain aftermarket refers to a domain that’s already been registered and can be acquired if it’s then left to expire or put up for sale. You can find listings through marketplaces from websites such as Namecheap, GoDaddy or Sedo.
See here for a guide to Namecheap’s marketplace.
Domain aftermarkets are a huge resource for finding domains, so much so that when starting a side income blog, it can even mean it’s sometimes better to tailor your niche or subniche to your domain after first finding a good domain.
Aftermarket domains can be very valuable because they can be registered decades ago and can be short and easy to remember or can be EMDs.
Many of these domain names can also have a higher resale value in the future and are bought as investments.
DA and Backlinks for a Domain
If you come across a domain for sale in a marketplace that appears to be valued higher than otherwise expected, it’s likely that the previous website your potential domain was pointing to was popular and had developed a good DA or domain authority and backlink history.
This can translate into more traffic that was pointing to the previous website coming through to your new website if you choose to acquire that name and build a website for it, giving it more value.
You can check the domains DA rating out of 100, by visiting the Ahrefs website and entering the domain name you want to check.
An Ahrefs rating is also available on any auction page in Namecheap’s marketplace.
What to Avoid in a Domain Name
Apart from avoiding long, complicated domain names and hyphens in domains if possible, it’s also important to avoid domains that has been used inappropriately previously.
To check if it has, check its history sporadically at Wayback Machine to see archived captures of previous website stages to find out.
Wayback machine can go as far back as 1996.