Tips on Choosing the Best Domain Name for Your eCommerce Business

The latest online shopping statistics indicate that there is a constant increase in the number of both shoppers and new stores online. With the eCommerce industry growing at the speed of light, you’re probably thinking about opening your own online store.

Choosing a domain name is most likely one of the first few steps that you are going to take once you start preparing the plans for your new eCommerce business. Having an idea is a great start, but choosing a domain name for your website is the next very important step. After all, this name is what most customers will see right away, so it has to make a nice first impression.

In order to win in the world of eCommerce, you need to be unique. Being different from others starts with a special domain name, so take a look below at a few tips that will help you come up with it.

It has to reflect your business’s purpose

The first important characteristic of the right domain name is to reflect what your business is about. It is important to select one that goes well with your business name, logo, and overall website vibe.

Also, you should pick a domain name that is the same as your brand name. You don’t want someone to type in the address of your website and then land on a different website that has nothing to do with the domain name.

Imagine looking for new sports clothes and ending up on a website that sells energy drinks. For instance, typing in www.firekicks.com and then landing on a website that sells beverages would be unexpected and a bit annoying.

But the worst part is that a customer loses trust when this happens, so they will not be willing to spend money on that given brand. This happened to an outlet thrift store in the US called ‘Fallas’ due to the meaning of this word in Spanish. ‘Fallas’ translates to failures in English.

According to their analytics, the number of Spanish-speaking people who visit and shop on their website is low due to their name. If they were to expand globally, they would have losses, since they have already lost a big portion of the potential consumer base.

Keep the domain name short

Take a look at some of the giant companies of today. Do they use a long domain name? Of course not.

Apple, for instance, keeps it short and Google does so too. Nike also follows this pattern along with Adidas. This also applies to other major businesses like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

The shorter your domain name is, the better. However, you shouldn’t go too far with this. Shortness can help keep a domain name simple and easy to remember, but making it too short can have the opposite effect.

For instance, compare MercedesAutomobilesDenver.com to MercAutoDen.com.

Because of the abbreviation, the latter name is more difficult to both pronounce and remember, despite it having fewer characters. On the other hand, the first version works better even though it is quite long.

Obviously, the goal here is to find the right balance. Keep the name brief, but do not shorten it by cutting off whole parts of words. Also, consider using an acronym only if your brand is regularly referred to by the initials.

Try to find a good extension

As we said earlier in the article, when selecting a domain name, you should try to be as unique as you can. However, this is not the case with extensions.

There are new and popular extensions such as .pro, which may look quite good, but keep in mind that most websites still use classic ‘.com’ extensions that people are used to.

If you can’t find the .com, go with other well-known extensions like .co or .net or .org. Then plan on acquiring the .com in the future, but you’ll need to check who owns the .com first and whether they want to sell it.

If a big brand already owns your preferred .com, you won’t be able to afford to buy it from them down the road unless you earn huge amounts of money. But do know that there is nothing wrong with buying cheap domains and already-available extensions. A small budget can be a blessing, as you will need to be creative and think of different names before registering.

Finally, bear in mind that country-specific extensions are only acceptable if you don’t plan to expand beyond your preferred country. Some of these extensions include:

• Germany – .de
• The Netherlands – .nl
• Serbia – .rs
• France – .fr
• Canada – .ca

A domain name should help your SEO

Search engine optimization efforts help websites drive organic traffic and it is no longer enough to just run a paid ad campaign. Nowadays, most serious businesses invest in long-term SEO strategies and tools to help their websites get more qualified visitors in the long run.

To maximize SEO efforts, the domain has to use keywords that make sense when it comes to SEO. To make this easier for you, think about your products. What exactly are you selling?

These items will most likely be your keywords for the overall site. Ideally, you will have the main keyword in your domain name.

If you are selling a wide range of items, you can build your brand with inbound marketing by targeting various keywords. On the other hand, if you are more niche, then you want your keyword in your domain name.

Selling computer parts? Use a computer-related keyword in the domain name.

Selling toys? See if you can get that into the domain name.

It won’t always be possible, but you should try your best and balance it out with keeping the domain name as short as possible. Keep in mind that this is only one part of the complex SEO game, but still the most relevant aspect in regard to domain names.

Do not add hyphens or additional characters in your domain name

Some people believe that if they cannot choose their desired domain name, they should add a few hyphens and a couple of numbers to make up for that. This may seem like a smart hack, but it is not. Actually, it is an awful practice you should avoid.

Let’s say you own a coffee shop and you want a domain name that accurately reflects the business.

For instance, the business is called Ben’s Coffeeshop, so it makes sense to use something along the lines of benscoffeeshop.com, right? Of course, it does, but there are high chances that the domain is not available. So, you decide to add a few hyphens and a few numbers and you end up with www.bens-coffee-shop92.com

Unfortunately, that is a huge mistake. You should always take your customers and site visitors into account when choosing your domain name. If your domain name has random characters and numbers, they will have difficulties remembering it.

And that means they could misspell your domain name, ending up on a rival’s website or assuming your website is no longer functioning. This mistake can easily cost you thousands of visitors and can ultimately end in your business failing.

Final thoughts

Choosing the best domain name for your eCommerce business may not seem like a difficult task at first glance. However, as you can see, it is not so easy either.

Making a poor decision when picking the domain name can have detrimental effects later on. Therefore, take your time and consider these tips once again before you make your final decision.

We recommend you to watch this video:

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