If y'all decide to build a new website, and you want it to be successful, yous will need a good domain name. The domain you lot cull, however, may not be very appropriate, or it may exist quite hard for people to remember. You may notice this out only afterwards the site has already been launched and it may exist too belatedly – you volition have to rebrand the site, while whatsoever ads or print materials y'all may accept already paid for will probably go to waste.

Below, you lot will find the ten common mistakes people make that you lot should avert when you lot cull a new domain name.

  • i. Do not use numbers
  • two. Do non use hyphens
  • 3. Practise non use trademarks (on purpose or by accident)
  • four. Do not use hard to spell words
  • 5. Practice not apply homophones
  • 6. Do not register a very long domain
  • vii. Bank check if a .com/.net equivalent exists
  • 8. Bank check the domain registration history
  • 9. Check any quondam content the domain might have displayed
  • 10. Check if similar domains exist
  • In decision

i. Exercise not utilize numbers

Using "two" instead of "to" or "4" instead of "for" or "four" is something you should avert. While you may notice it witty to use numbers, many people will most probable find information technology difficult to guess what you had in listen when you lot registered the domain. It will be frustrating if they want to visit your website and cannot figure out what the right domain for it should be.

The above is valid for using numbers in general, non but when y'all replace a preposition – should visitors spell the word or blazon the number? They will either go to another site that uses a similar domain, or will see an fault in their browser if they don't guess the correct spelling, or vice versa.

You should use numbers only when they are a part of a brand/outcome name, like str8.com or worldcup2020.com, for example, or if the name is clear enough for visitors to know what exactly to blazon in their browser.

An interesting fact is that most 9 1000000 domains consist of simply numbers. This type of domains is extremely popular in China and near of the domains are registered there. The reason is that numbers are the only immune characters in the DNS system that everybody in China understands.

2. Do not use hyphens

Thisdomainname.com, this-domainname.com or this-domain-proper name.com? If somebody hears your domain and it consists of two or more words, they volition nearly likely type the whole name together without hyphens. Using hyphens is similar to using numbers in the previous example – you will go out information technology to your visitors to guess if or where they should add together a hyphen. If they don't guess the right domain the first time, they may non try to open your site a 2d time. In the full general case, people do not add together any hyphens in the domains they type.

Hyphens should exist used only if they are a function of a brand name and if information technology is clear that the domain should have a hyphen. If y'all have the budget, you can register both domains – with and without a hyphen, in case that they are available. You can redirect the hyphenated i to the non-hyphenated one. It is worth mentioning that y'all should not register a proper noun with a hyphen that is identical to a proper name without a hyphen that you lot exercise non own.

iii. Do not use trademarks (on purpose or by accident)

This is something quite of import that you should never forget when you search for a new domain proper name. Even if you lot believe the domain you want includes only common words, whatever of them tin can be a trademark in your field of business and the company that holds the trademark tin can sue you and take the domain. All ICANN-accredited registrar companies follow ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) and when you register a new domain, you accept this policy as a part of the registrar understanding. While registering a domain with a trademark may exist an honest fault, many people register such domains in bad religion. Regardless of the reason, the trademark holder tin can file a complaint with an arbitration center or a court in accordance with the UDRP.

Although country-code TLDs are not governed by ICANN, many local registries have adopted similar policies to avoid registrations in bad faith. You will have grounds to dispute such a legal merits just if your domain was registered before the trademark.

If you want to avert such legal issues, you should exercise some inquiry and brand sure that any words y'all want to use in your domain name are not registered trademarks. Fifty-fifty if you pay a trademark attorney to do the research for you, you volition spend much less time and money than if you take to be engaged in legal battles.

You tin can cheque for registered trademarks in the following databases:

https://www.uspto.gov/trademark
https://euipo.europa.european union/ohimportal/en/search-availability
https://www3.wipo.int/branddb/en/

The World Intellectual Property Arrangement (WIPO) is a United Nations agency that resolves transboundary IP-related disputes. They have already resolved more than l,000 domain dispute cases following the WIPO-initiated Uniform Domain Proper name Dispute Resolution Policy. Whatever organization or individual can file a complaint that a given domain has been registered in bad organized religion. A panel of impartial and experienced persons is assigned to each case. The registrar of record, the domain owner and the complainant are required to provide any documentation requested by the console in due fourth dimension. Once a determination is reached, either the domain possessor volition proceed the domain, or the registrar will accept to transfer the domain to the complainant immediately.

An interesting fact

Tesla.com was registered in 1992 by Stu Grossman. Tesla Motors, Inc. acquired the domain for $eleven million in 2016. Despite the potential trademark conflict, the company could non file a complaint as the domain was registered long before the visitor was founded.

four. Do not employ hard to spell words

If your domain is hard to spell, well-nigh likely very few people will have their take chances and try to type it. Yous tin see why otorhinolaryngologist.com is non registered, simply many domains that include "ENT" (Ears, olfactory organ, throat) exist. This is not necessarily related to the length of the domain – syzygy.com is an example of a short, but hard to spell domain.

You can easily cheque if the domain y'all want to register will be piece of cake to use. Tell the name y'all accept called to a few friends, either face to face or on the telephone, and ask them to spell information technology dorsum or send information technology to you via text/IM/electronic mail. If they give you the right domain, and so anybody should be able to spell it correctly. If not, you should consider changing the name to something easier. Later on all, a domain should not only represent your brand, simply should also be easy enough for your customers to think it and to enter it in their spider web browser.

5. Do not apply homophones

Homophones are words that accept the same pronunciation as other words, simply have unlike significant and spelling. A couple of examples are correct/write and break/brake. Unless information technology is very articulate what your domain proper name should be, such words are likely to misfile your site visitors. You should avoid them if possible, or you should annals two domain names, 1 with each word, and then redirect one to the other. This way, you volition be certain that no matter which word people type, they will end upwards on your website.

Always think twice earlier yous register a domain name.

This is probably the best place to remind y'all to always double-check how your domain looks and sounds. If you use capital letters for some words, you may miss something inappropriate that will not go well with your business. A few popular examples of inappropriate domains are Speedofart.com (Speed of Fine art), Itscrap.com (It Scrap), and Penisland.com (Pen Island), but you will find quite a lot of such domains if you practice a quick lookup online.

6. Do not register a very long domain

Long domain names can be clever every bit you can use a whole phrase or even a sentence. Ane such instance is momthisishowtwitterworks.com. In the general case, however, long domains are difficult to recollect. If a visitor clicks a link and ends up on your site, they will see the whole domain in lower-case letters and with no spaces, as this is how all spider web browsers display domain names in their address bar. With no distinction between the words, long domains are hard to read, and then it is likely that visitors will simply not bother to read and to call back them.

Using a long domain is not a expert marketing practice either. Digital signatures and business cards usually have limited space for a website URL, then a long one will look too stretched or will be wrapped on two lines, which won't look very professional person.

The longest domain name, with a full of 77 characters: TheOfficialAbsoluteLongestDomainNameRegisteredOnTheWorldWideWeb.International

Other examples of real websites:

Yidianliangdiansandiansidianwudianliudianqidianbadianjiudianshi.com

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.great britain

Iamtheproudownerofthelongestlongestlongestdomainnameinthisworld.com

Curious about Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ? Visit the website to find out how to pronounce the name of this Welsh hamlet.

7. Check if a .com/.net equivalent exists

If you want to launch a niche website and one of the new generic TLDs is the most suitable for information technology, it is likely that you will get for it. JohnDoe.lawyer, for example, is easy to remember and tells your customers that yous offering legal services. The aforementioned is valid if you lot desire to launch a local website – it is simply natural that you will register a name with the local country-code extension.

In either case, yous should not forget to double-check if the same name is not already registered with the .com or .net TLD. This is important as many people tend to add one of these 2 extensions if they are not certain about the exact domain name they should type. This way, they may go to JohnDoe.com instead of JohnDoe.lawyer or JohnDoe.ca and you volition lose precious organic traffic and potential customers. There is too a risk that you may have legal issues if you want to use the same proper noun, but with a dissimilar extension.

If you lot want to register a .com or a .net domain, you should withal check if the other one exists. If this is the instance, people trying to accomplish your website may end upwardly on the competitor's site by mistake.

8. Check the domain registration history

Domain names are registered for a specific period of fourth dimension (at least one yr) and if they are not renewed, they expire and get deleted past the corresponding registry system i.due east. they are released to the public puddle and anybody can register them as new. If you register such a domain, you will probably inherit whatever history it had earlier information technology was deleted. In the platonic case, it might accept been a popular domain with decent corporeality of traffic, links from respectable websites, etc. In fact, such links and popularity may be the reason a particular domain proper name is quite expensive on the secondary market.

Sometimes, however, you will come beyond a name that may have been used for something illegal – scam/phishing pages, illegal trade, spreading malware, etc. It may have been the subject of a trademark dispute or a lawsuit and information technology may accept been left to elapse on purpose. In such case, your site may announced every bit blacklisted past certain browsers or services, visitors may get warnings, and search engines may not list the domain or may rank information technology poorly. This is why it is very important to bank check if the domain y'all want to register has had any history. If y'all decide not to do that, it may have negative consequences for your website.

nine. Check any sometime content the domain might have displayed

If the domain yous desire to buy has been registered in the past and has been deleted at some point, or if you want to buy an existing name, you lot tin can employ web.archive.org to encounter what content that domain has shown through the years (if whatever). This is a very useful tool that generates snapshots of millions of websites every fourth dimension it detects a major change. Depending on the site, the available snapshots tin be a few per day or one per year, and they tin can give you a good idea what the website was almost in the past.

This check is not related to the history of the domain, but to the content it used to open. The perfect domain for your site may have opened legal content, and may have a clean record since its registration date. However, this content may have been completely unlike from the i you want to add to your website, or information technology may accept been somehow inappropriate. As a upshot, using the seemingly good domain can backfire. The domain may still be mentioned hither and there, or in that location may be links to it from inappropriate sites. As a outcome, the reputation of your site may be hurt as you lot may beginning getting traffic from unwanted websites, or you may starting time receiving queries from people who are looking for the sometime content, wasting your time and filling up your mailbox or alive chat queue. A quick historical check of the content tin save y'all the headache.

Go a glimpse into the past. The portal is very easy to employ and allows y'all to browse over 500 billion pages saved over time.

10. Cheque if similar domains exist

A lot of skillful domains have already been registered, so you may have to be more creative to find an highly-seasoned domain for your site. Registering a domain that will exist like to an existing domain, especially a competitor'south one, will only confuse your visitors. Adding "the", "a", a hyphen or any other modest change will not brand much of a departure and anybody who wants to get to your site is likely to terminate up on the competitor'south i. If the other website is much older than yours, information technology is also likely that you will become a lot of negative comments as people will remember you are trying to steal some of the traffic the other site generates past using an almost identical domain. They will not care if you lot registered a similar domain past chance, and not intentionally.

In determination

Your domain proper name tin can be as important every bit your website content. It volition be 1 of the start things people will run into and one of the things they will associate your site and your business with. If the domain name you choose is very long, hard to spell, or has had bad history, it is very likely to touch on your website negatively.

This is why you should spend some time doing enquiry and you should put some thought into choosing the best possible domain for your website. One that will exist unique and appealing to visitors and will distinguish your site from your competitors' sites.

Choosing a good domain is the first stride towards success and we hope that our commodity will assist y'all brand the right choice. As always, choosing a popular TLD may exist your best choice, as these TLDs are popular for a reason. Learn which TLDs are the most pop and which you should avoid at:

If you take already made your mind and are set up to register your domain name, you should check our domain registration toll list. ICDSoft employs a Fair Pricing Policy for domain proper noun registrations, and we offering domains without making profit.