How do you choose a domain name for a site?

Picking a domain for a site is an important, difficult, but interesting task. How do you think up a name that says what you do, reads easily and sticks in the memory? That is what today's article is about.

Sites come in all kinds — personal business card sites, corporate sites, online shops, large news portals and gaming platforms. And for every site it matters a great deal what you call it.

It rarely happens that a domain name for a site comes to mind on its own; it usually takes anything from a few days to a few weeks of hard brainstorming before a good, resonant and precise name appears.

Say you want to make a personal page. Then your first name and/or surname will be the best domain name for the site. But if you are picking a domain name for a company's site, the algorithm is somewhat different.

When we were choosing a domain name for our hosting, we settled on the .biz domain.

With that domain we managed to convey in the name both the field we work in — hosting (host) — and our focus on a particular segment of customers, that is, customers with business sites. The result was the domain name host4.biz, which reads as "host for biz", and that is reflected in our company's motto — Hosting for business.

The domain zone

There are many domain zones, new ones keep appearing, and anyone who wants to choose a suitable domain name for their site can find an option to suit them.

• A thematic domain zone (.gallery, .game, .cafe, .yoga ) reflects a company's line of work well. The .cafe domain suits a café perfectly, for instance, and if you want to tell everybody about your club where yoga classes are held, you can choose the .yoga domain.
• National domain zones (.ua, .pl, .cz, .de) suit anyone whose site is aimed only at a particular country or region. On top of that, you can pick a domain with the name of a city — .kiev.ua, .berlin or .istanbul, say.
• International domains (.com, .net, .biz, .info) are very popular. They let you avoid tying a site's name to a particular region while still leaving plenty of room for imagination.

So what should you call a site?

A site's name has to sound good, say what you do in your business and be easy to remember.

Meeting all those conditions is not easy, but here is some advice that makes the process less difficult.

Uniqueness and brevity are the two rules of choosing a domain name.

A domain name has to be unique; otherwise you will not be able to register it. Unless, that is, you buy an already registered domain from its owner. But there are pitfalls there too: the owner may ask a high price, and the domain name will already have a "past" — not necessarily a good one.

For example, you want to register a domain name for a site selling Belochka sweets. And you buy the domain name belochka.ua. And then it turns out that this domain name was previously used for a site offering the services of an addiction specialist who brings patients out of delirium tremens. An important and necessary line of work, but it has nothing to do with selling sweets.

The second rule is brevity.

You will agree that reading — let alone remembering — the site name teplyeshapkidlavas.com would be rather difficult. So it is worth making sure that the domain name reads well and easily and is clear to pronounce and to write.

Consider, too, whether the person on the other end will be able to make the domain name out when you dictate it over the phone.

Another very important point is to check, before buying and registering a domain, how similar it is to the names of large, well-known companies. If you register the domain name toshiba.kharkiv.ua, for instance, Toshiba may well take you to court.

And of course you should not call the site of a company engaged in, say, the wholesale supply of meat products roza.com. Visitors who find that site in a search engine are hardly expecting sausage and pork shoulder instead of rose bushes and flowers.

You have chosen a domain name — what next?

Now the domain name has to be registered.

First of all you have to check the information about the domain through the Whois server — whether it is already taken by someone.

After that, choose the domain registrar you want to buy the domain from and fill in the form. It is advisable to give your real identity details; otherwise it will be hard to prove your rights to the domain. Then pay for the domain.

And that is it — you are the rightful owner of the domain name you chose. You can put a site there, fill it and work in peace.

And our domains and the service for checking them are always at your disposal.

Check, register and enjoy working with the domain you have chosen!