“How to choose a good domain name?” that’s the first question clients ask me when they want a website. Well , when the business already exists , its important to keep the name! That’s it! But if the name is not available, that’s when the struggle starts.. 3 top things you should keep in mind Keep it short and sweet Well you don’t want your business to be confused with anything else right? Keep it easy to remember and to write. The perfect domain name would have your business in the domain name . But sometimes this is not possible. Whether is unavailable or is tooooo long. And we don’t want that! Remember your audience’s memory? Yes.. Keep it short! 2-3 words would be the ideal! Imagine you have a coaching business named CoachingEmpire . Well.. CoachingEmpire.com is taken. You might be tempted to use some derivations such as: thecoachingempire.com acoachingempire.com coaching–empire.com yourcoachingempire.com That’s what all the other experts tell you to do, right? Well, the problem is that nowadays, people’s minds are full of stresses and people are overwhelmed with so much information. A lot of things to memorize and you only get a few seconds to tell someone about your brand new website. What do you think will happen? I think you know it! After a long day of work and chores and kids and stuff, people sit on their computer at night and what will they do? Remember that little twist you made to your website? No ! They’ll just type “CoachingEmpire.com” and they will probably land in your adversary website. What to do? Oh well Liliana , but that’s my business name, What should I do? How can I choose a good domain name? Well, I don’t know if you ever face this problem but when I needed to renovate my house, I had a lot of furniture to mix. One thing I decided is to not make the attempt to have all the furniture with the same wood tone. I preferred to assume the difference rather than attempt to have everything in the same tone. That’s the same with domains! Do try to keep everything neat! If your business’s name is occupied, keep in mind that this is already a huge RED FLAG! You can try to make a twist that will less likely make clients land in other business’s website but it will be hard to thrive If it’s a brand new business, you should definitely think about renaming it and do some research on a new brand. If your business is now becoming digital. You should really give it a thought! Is good for searches? How likely is your business to show up when I google for your services? If your domain contains a keyword that is related to your audience, that would benefit you a lot!!! Imagine your domain is only your name. Well, its good because its related to you, but unless you already have a large audience, its really unlikely people type “coaching” and google and you appear in the first page . Because your domain name has nothing to do with coaching. ( of course you can work on your website to rank better in Google ) Your business – if you already have a business name. Try to use it as a domain. Quite frequently the domains are occupied, specially the .com extensions. Using your business as a domain name gives you more flexibility and more privacy. Your name – As I mentioned previously your name can be a good choice of domain if you’re building a personal brand or if you are a freelancer and you might have more chances to have you name available as a domain name. Ultimately, whether or not to use you own name as a domain depends on your individual goals and circumstances. Consider not only SEO but also your branding, privacy and long-term goals when making is decision How to buy a domain? Purchasing a domain is also a thing to consider because there are a lot of providers but you want to guarantee that you go with one that values your privacy. To do this, make sure you go with a reputable company! They normally provide easy domain management tools. For .com domains I always mention the best quality/price deal at Namecheap! Already decided your domain name? Check it’s availability here and buy it fast ! If you use the code NEWCOM598 to get your .com domain for only 5.98$ But if you are already interested in moving forward with your website ( and not only saving your domain name! ) . You might find interesting packages where hosting and domain are from the same provider. If you are DIYing your website, this might be the best option for you because it makes things easier to setup. In this cases I always recommend my clients Hostinger ! They make good prices and they have everything I consider essential if you have a small business!