How to Choose the Right Domain Name for Our Online Business
How to choose the right domain name for our online business
When you want to create a business that you are currently running by creating a website, choosing the right domain name as the address for your online shop or information media will require a lot of consideration.
Even though the domain that will be used is not just an address so that the blog can be found, more than that the domain will become a brand where visitors will always remember the blog in question.
Maybe some friends don't just choose a domain name when registering at blogger.com or wordpress.com. Since they intend to create a blog, they already know what title and blog address they will use.
But typical bloggers like that are only a few.
The majority of bloggers who create blogs on average choose a blog domain after being asked questions from the platform they use.
For bloggers who are just starting to blog, at least try to learn from my mistakes and those of most other bloggers when choosing the blog domain to use.
Here are some tips for choosing a domain for your blog/website based on several articles I read and also my experience in finding the best domain for my blog.
#1 People easily remember 2/3 word fragments OR 2/3 words
Do you find it difficult to remember someone's name?
If the answer is yes, maybe when you met, you didn't know the new person. According to a psychology professor at Kansas State University, you forget the name of the person you just met because your level of interest in the new person is still low.
So what does this have to do with choosing a domain?
Assume that the domain you choose is your alternate name in cyberspace. When a visitor comes to your blog and reads the article you wrote, will the visitor be interested in remembering your blog address or will he forget your blog forever?
If the domain is your brand, then so that visitors who come to the blog can easily remember the blog address, it is recommended to use three-word fragments (gresik.co).
Try paying attention to the websites or blogs that you always visit. How many words can there be and why can you remember them easily, without having to use Google to look for the blog/website address?
Websites and blogs that already have traffic of millions of page views at least practice this 2-3 word fragment formula. Examples of good website names: detikcom(de-tik), kompascom (kom-pas), kandra.id (kan-dra), sugengid (su-geng).
I find it easier to remember two to three-word fragments. What about friends?
If the domain name you choose has already been registered by someone else, prepare another unique domain name. Examples of unique domain names that I have found are alewohcom, omteloletblogcom, clinichpcom, juragancipircom, and ma.tt
That's a blog from my friends in the AdSense community. I often wonder how they got such a unique domain name for their blog.
#2 (As much as possible) Choose the most popular TLD .COM or .NET
If friends are still using Blogspot subdomains for blogs that are used to make money from Google AdSense, get ready to be disappointed if one day you want to get the domain you wish to.
Here's why:
Several Indonesian news portals released data on the TLD Domains most used by people a few days ago. The data comes from a press release from Verisign, a global domain name registration and security site.
It was stated in the press release that currently there were 1.3 million domains registered on the Internet in the first quarter of 2017. The total top-level domains registered on the site were 330.6 million domains.
Friends, you must have received information that the most recommended domain to use is a TLD domain with the .COM and .NET extensions.
Take note!
For the .COM TLD domain registration has reached 128.4 million names and .NET 15.2 million names.
So, imagine if you didn't quickly register the desired domain in a short time.
To get the domain I wanted, kandra.id, I had to wait almost 7 years. Why?
Because the .COM and .NET domain extensions for my name are already used by someone else!
Can you imagine how sad I felt?
Moreover, the domain is parked, aka not being used, and if you still want to use the chosen domain, you have to spend up to tens of millions of rupiah in capital.
The domain that you register is like a property investment. Claim first, the buyer will come himself.
The price of buying a domain with the .COM and .NET extensions are very cheap compared to a pack of cigarettes bought every day (if you have friends who smoke, yes).
Especially if there is a .com domain promo which will be available at all times. As given by rumahweb.com (my current 5th domain) and also exabytes.
If managed well, I'm sure the cost of renewing a domain purchased from a promotion provided by the registrar will not make you feel heavy.
#3 Choose a Domain Based on Keyword Research
At least I noticed that several blogger friends used the results of keyword research to determine their blog's domain name.
An example of a good domain name based on keyword research results is the Arrahmahnewscom portal.
The Arrahmahnewscom portal is a news portal that is younger than Arrahmahcom.
Because Arrahmahcom already existed and had quite a lot of visitors from search engines and other channels, it seems like the owner of Arrahmahnewscom took advantage of this.
It's possible (remember, this is just my assumption), that the owner of Arrahmahnews.com researched Arrahmahcom using the SEO tools he has.
When he found out that the amount of traffic from Arrahmahcom was quite significant and the keyword news was an organic channel for getting website traffic, the owner of ArrahmahNewscom immediately checked with a web host company he trusted.
When he discovered that the arrahmahnewscom domain had not been registered, the owner immediately registered the domain.
Choosing a domain after conducting in-depth research on the industry you want to enter is the right step that you must take.
It's just that this step is risky.
#4 Avoid Using Exact Match Domain (EMD)
Exact Match Domain, in Mas Sugeng's words, is a domain that is registered based on the keywords you want to target.
It's also difficult for me to talk about it. Maybe by following Mas Sugeng's explanation, friends can understand.
So to create a successful blog (meaning: traffic of up to hundreds/thousands/millions per day and also earn more income than office workers) one of the OLD tips given by internet marketers is to choose a domain that exactly matches the average search data. average per month keyword planner.
Example:
Friends want to create a blog that sells affiliate hosting products (the commission is quite large) and after doing keyword research on Google AdWords Planner, friends find out that the keyword "cheap free hosting" has an average of 1000 search data per month.
With this data, friends, then go to the selected registrar and register the domain with the name hostingmurahgratis com.
Mas Sugeng suggests that friends avoid choosing the EMD domain (hostingmurahgratis com). The reason Mas Sugeng suggests this is because the EMD domain is categorized as a website/blog with low quality in search results.
In the past, with an EMD domain, a website or blog could appear on the first page of Google without getting a backlink from any site. However, because most EMD domains are categorized as webspam techniques.
And like the rest of us, Google DO NOT LIKE SPAM.
That's why in the article on tips for choosing a domain, Sugeng recommends choosing a domain in the first point. If friends need inspiration for choosing a domain name, please check the Google keyword check article.
In my opinion, cool website names where keywords are included are portal-uangcom, Dapur-uangcom,buatblogger.net, and so on.
#5 Avoid choosing a domain that is registered as a trademark
In my opinion, the risk taken by the owner of Arrahmahnews.com is for trademark reasons.
Until now, I don't know if the arrahmahcom site has registered the Arrahmah brand with IPR because if it were, the Arrahmah site manager could sue the Arrahmahnewscom owner under the trademark protection law.
Maybe the case of using the Netflix.com trademark that occurred in Indonesia is a valuable lesson for friends who are choosing a domain.
I found this case on the Pandi site.
The chronology is as follows:
When the new Indonesian ccTLD domain appeared, there was a registrant who registered the netflix.id domain.
I don't know whether the registrant knows or not that in Indonesia there is a trademark law.
Netflix as the trademark holder with the official address Netflix com feels that this netflix.id domain threatens their business and their customers.
Again, I don't have enough information about whether the domain owner Netflix ID and Netflix, Inc. have ever carried out mediation or not.
In the article, it is stated that the Netflix domain name case has finally entered a court of law. In court, the owner of the netflix.id domain name was asked to give his domain to Netflix com, and Netflix, Inc. as the trademark owner had to provide compensation to the owner of the Netflix id.
It was not stated how much compensation the Netflix ID owner received. Maybe the value is enough to create a new website using the Virtual Private Server hosting package.
#6 Avoid Using Freenome Free Domains (.TK/.GA/.ML)
Who doesn't like free stuff?
I provide a special email to get free ebooks from various websites managed by foreign internet marketers.
The goal:
Make learning.
So, what if the domain is free? Surely many people know how to create a free domain name from the Freenome site.
I have also used a free domain from that site. It's just that I can never seriously manage the free domain.
Why should you avoid free domains? Because you're selling exabytes of domains, right?
No. Because I have the experience of losing a blog that was already getting good traffic during the boom in free domain provider sites with addresses at co.cc.
Sad bro.
It was on the co.cc site that I learned about the custom blog domain Blogspot.
There I studied DNS, IP, and other things related to blogging techniques.
I admit that Freenome itself is an extraordinary existence. There are many of my friends in the AdSense community who use free domains from this site to upgrade their Adsense status from (hosted to non-hosted).
It's just that the worry of losing your domain and blog due to the event that the co.cc domain was banned by Google should be a consideration for friends when using this registrar.
So you could say I support Mas Sugeng's opinion to avoid free domains as much as possible.
#7 Make sure the domain registered is new or a quality domain
It turns out I got a used domain when I took part in the free .NET domain-sharing program from Exabytes Indonesia!
I was also a bit surprised when I found out that the Buatblogger.net domain registered through the GROW Exabytes program was used. When I registered the domainbuatblogger.net, I was nervous because the average search for keywords for bloggers was quite large, up to 1k per month.
With this data, it impossible that no one will register it.
I found the answer after casually typing in the addressbuatblogger.com. The address with the same keyword turned out to be a parked domain at hugedomain. If I had thousands of dollars, maybe I would buy the domain.
After registering at Exabytes, and following all the requirements to get a free domain, I just registered for createdblogger.net. A few days later I received confirmation that I could own the .NET domain that I registered.
Very happy for sure. And I didn't think it could be that successful. I can have a domain with keyword searches of 1k per month for free in the first year plus 5 emails with a special address. In fact, for keywords with tld .COM, this domain is valued at more than 1000 US dollars. If converted into rupiah, around 13 million.
From the start, I didn't check the domain during registration. Although I doubt if this good address can be found.
Thank God, it turns out I got the .NET extension for free. What if I register a parked .COM domain?
Hahaha... I cringe thinking about it.
Thank God, that Buatblogger.net itself has started to be indexed by Google.
For friends who are registering their domain, either in a free domain sharing program or at a registrar that is having a promotion, you should check used domains first.
Is the domain really new or even a used domain? Yes, it's good if it's used as a spam. It's dangerous if it's labeled spam by Google. Maybe it will take a long time for your blog to be indexed by Google.
Conclusion
Domain is another important thing that a blogger must think about when creating a blog apart from choosing a topic for the blog.
When you get an idea for a cool website name, you should immediately register the domain using the .COM or .NET extension.
If you don't use the domain, at least you have invested in good land. I once read somewhere, that a blogger who registered the Sitompul.com domain, earned tens of millions because the famous lawyer Ruhut Sitompul was looking for the domain name.
Final…
I don't have quite as much experience as Mas Sugeng in terms of choosing a domain for a website name. But I hope that my short experience in choosing a domain, which is also accompanied by advice from the blogger master (and also Adsense publisher), Mas Sugeng, can help friends in considering which domain name to register.
NB:
Have an interesting experience when choosing a domain for your blog now. You can share in the comments column.
If you have friends who are still hesitant about buying a TLD domain, try sharing this article.