How to choose a domain name? 5 important criteria

Choosing a domain name for your website is a crucial operation not to be taken lightly!

If, in real life, you have a physical address, a street name, a neighborhood, an apartment, or office number,... on the web, you have a virtual address: a domain name.

In this article, we will share tips to help you find domain name ideas, choose a domain name that suits you best, and register it in your name. We'll help you choose a domain name that reflects your business or yourself by providing you with just the information you need.

Choosing a domain name isn't an improvisation!

Currently, at a time when the web occupies a large part of our lives, it is necessary to find a digital identity that perfectly fits your profile, whether you are an individual or a company.

Your domain name is your identity on the web. You should therefore ensure that you choose a domain name that not only matches your business but is also easy to find and promote.

So, if you're still searching for your company or brand name to appear on your commercial register, we invite you to think about a name that defines you well and is especially available on the web!

What exactly is a domain name?

Before we go any further, let's make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

In the address bar at the top of your screen, you have certainly noticed our website's address: www.nindohost.ma It's thanks to this address that you found us!

At its core, a website is hosted on a server (a computer, essentially!) and is accessible via what is called an IP address: a series of numbers like 172.217.14.196.

Not easy to remember... Imagine if you had to memorize tens of thousands of IP addresses to access websites!

That's why the concept of domain names was invented: it's essentially a kind of "textual mask" applied to the numerical IP address to make it easier to remember...

And it works!

Note: have you tried accessing the IP address we provided as an example earlier? It's Google's! ?

A domain name, also called an "Internet address," consists of 3 distinct "blocks":

WWW. (as of recently, it's not really necessary to enter the 3w on your browser)
Domain: a character string. In our example, Nindohost. This is the name of the entity represented by the web site.
Extension: domain name ma, meaning Morocco. More common is .com, which doesn't mean any country, but refers to "commercial".

How to choose an effective domain name?

If you're still in the process of setting up your company, now is the time to think about a unique name that is still available on the web.

It is increasingly difficult to find a good domain name these days, as the best ones are already taken. But don't worry! Even if you've had your company or brand name since long before the web era, you still have the chance and opportunity to find a domain name that fits you like a glove. We'll see how to go about it later.

In order to fulfill its mission, a good domain name must:

Describe yourself, or your product, brand, or company

Your Moroccan domain name will represent you on the Web. It's your first contact with your prospects, your customers, your audience. So make sure it reflects your image and identity or that of your business.

In this sense, keywords play an important role in choosing a domain. By using keywords in your domain name, you tell search engines what your website is about. Combined with quality content and a good user experience, your domain's keywords can help you achieve better search engine rankings, especially with Google.

It's very difficult to find a good domain with the keywords you're targeting. You'll need to be creative and combine your keywords with other words to make your domain stand out.

Be unique, original

You cannot, for example, decide to acquire a name that belongs to someone else.

Already in terms of setting up a physical company, an entrepreneur is required to choose a unique name that is validated by what is called a negative certificate, attesting that they are the owner of the name and that it does not belong to anyone else.

The same goes for a domain name: it belongs only to you. So try to find an original one.

Be short

A long domain name is certainly hard to remember.

A small example to illustrate this point: instead of choosing lasocieteprotectricedesanimaux.fr, this association chose la-spa.fr

It's easier to type into an address bar, especially on a mobile screen. In addition, a shorter domain name prevents us from forgetting to type one or two letters.

Be easily remembered

If it's short, your audience is unlikely to forget it. You certainly know Yahoo! Surely, no one is ready to forget such a name that sounds good in the head.

Have an easy spelling

If you need to spell your website's name to someone, that domain name isn't working!

Simple spelling should avoid double letters, numbers, or hyphens as much as possible. Some studies have shown that most internet users don't remember where to put these hyphens.

Hyphens may also cause some problems:

• They can be a sign of spam domains or cybersquatting that you don't want to be associated with.
• Domains with hyphens are also prone to typos. If you choose a domain name with hyphens because the domain you want is already taken, then your users will probably end up on your competitor's site if they forget to type the hyphen.

Which domain name extension should you choose for your site?

Extensions are suffixes, such as .com or .net, at the end of web addresses. They can have specific uses, so make sure you choose a domain name with an extension that suits your business.

In general, there are three categories of top-level extensions (Top-Level Domain or TLD):

Generic extensions

The .com extension is by far the most popular, but it can be difficult to get a short and memorable .com domain name because it has been around for a long time.

Fortunately, other extensions exist: .co .net, .info, .org, .edu, ...

Territorial extensions

You guessed it: these are the extensions that refer to countries, cities, ...

In the case of our country, Morocco, you can choose a domain name ending with .ma. Your customers will immediately know that you are targeting the Moroccan market.

Thus, we find websites ending with .eu (European Union), .uk (United Kingdom), .fr (France), .be (Belgium), .au (Australia), ...

The so-called "original" extensions

.xyz, .biz, .studio, .shop, .bank, .actor, .blog, .online, .video, ... are extensions that have been recently created to meet various needs and cover multiple domains.

Here is a very long list of these extensions called "New Internet Extensions (newgTLD)":

https://www.prodomaines.com/newgtlds-icann-nouvelles-extensions-internet

These new generic top-level domains offer an excellent opportunity to register short highly relevant names, in case generic extensions fall short.

Here are, quickly, some examples of how to use certain top-level extensions:

• .co: an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community.
• .info: informational sites.
• .net: technical sites, internet infrastructure sites.
• .org : non-commercial organizations and non-profit purposes.
• .biz: commercial or business use, like e-commerce sites (understand business!).
• .me: blogs, resumes, or personal websites.

And the list goes on...

We will have the opportunity to talk more about TLD extensions in another, more comprehensive article.

And if you can't find a .com for your domain name?

Don't worry, it's not the end of the world... You'll still have the opportunity to choose an interesting domain name.

There are methods for creating short and original domain names, called "domain name hacking." Be careful! We're not talking about hacking here, but clever techniques for tweaking domain names.

Another article on our blog covers these tips, and you'll have the leisure to discover it. But it seems you'd like a taste...

Did you know that you could use territorial (country) extensions to create shorter and "attractive" domain names?

For example, with the .at extension (Austria), you could get the site c.at (to mean chat in English) or even ch.at (for French).

The .rs extension (Serbia), would help you to have: burge.rs, ca.rs, sta.rs, ...

You can guess what's next...

Let's recap...

Choosing a domain name for your website, as you'll understand if you've made it this far, is no small task. But, what is certain is that you can really find your domain name just by following our advice.

Remember, your domain name must be :

• Relevant
• Unique
• Short
• Memorizable
• Easy to read and type
• With a suitable extension