How I found my new domain name - Including tool tips

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Over the past four weeks, I have been searching for a domain for a new website project I am planning to start.

Actually, the project has already started it's planning phase under a different domain that I already purchased, but I eventually found the niche too wide and then the domain didn't fit anymore.

The process of a domain search is long and boring. It's boring because most good domains are taken without even being used. However, I cannot complain too much about this, as I have some good unused domain names laying around myself.

When searching for a domain you have to start with setting some criteria for how you want the domain to appear. I picked these criteria for my search:

  1. It should clearly describe the niche
  2. It should contain no more than two words put together (this complicates the search a lot)
  3. It should be no more than 15 characters long (this complicates it even more)
  4. It should be available as a username on Twitter (hence the 15 characters), and also available on as many social networks as possible
  5. It should make sense and be readable without the chance of any confusion
  6. It should be brandable
  7. It should not have been in use recently
  8. It must be available as .com

Well, after 4 weeks of daily effort I found my domain. A perfect 10 character domain that fit all the criteria above. Here is how I did it.


Picking the words (# 1, 2 & 5 on the list)

I had 3 version of the main word the domain should contain. Depending on the word this could be nouns, verbs or adjectives.
Then I played around with other words to put either in front or behind those words in order to find a working combination.

A good tool I use to help with this is https://www.leandomainsearch.com/ (as Loes by coincidence blogged about in the middle of my search).

Another tool is http://www.nameboy.com/

But the tool I used the most was the Thesaurus. http://www.thesaurus.com/
This is brilliant for playing around with words and finding words with similar meaning. You'll be surprised what word journeys you are lead into.

When you have found your word combination, check out how it looks. For instance 'whoreads' could be interpreted as both 'who reads' and 'whore ads'. So make sure that you don't end up looking stupid (or arrested).


Checking .com availability (#8 on the list)

To do this you can use the tool here in WA. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/websites/domains

This will give you the availability on .com which is most important and also on .net and .org

But I mostly use https://domainname.shop/ for this search. This is where I have my local domains registered and it gives a quick search on lots of other top-level domains as well.


Checking the previous usage (#7 on the list)

If a good domain is available, it is very likely that it has been in use before and for some reason is abandoned. It is very important to check how it has been used and what traces it has left behind.

I use the Wayback Machine to see if there are previous websites that have used the domain. https://web.archive.org/

If it has been in use lately I need to carefully check out how it has been used before I take the chance of registering it. If it has a recent history I most often don't register the domain.

Domains can be penalized by Google if they are used for spam. If you get stuck with a penalized domain you may never rank no matter what you do. A penalty may stick to the domain even if registered on a new owner.

Another thing to check is if the domain exists on lists of banned email addresses. It's easy to send spam email appearing to be from any domain and a domain name may end up on a blacklist without the owner knowing anything about it and even if the domain is not in use.

There are many ways to check this, but I use http://www.blacklistalert.org/


Branding and social media availability (#4 & 6 on the list)

I like domains that are brandable. That means that you can use the domain consistently across your online presence. That will make you stand out, you will be easy to recognize and it will help you be remembered.

You can check the availability of your domain name as a username on social media here: https://knowem.com


When you (think you) are done

The first thing to do when you have found a domain name is to let it sink in. Put it on a shortlist and evaluate it for a few days while you continue the search.

I had around 5 domain names on my shortlist that was good enough but not brilliant when I found the one I chose.
And I found it playing around on the Thesaurus.

If you decide to go for it, register it as soon as you have decided. Then register profiles and pages on the social media you plan to use as soon as possible. It is annoying to find out after building a page that the Twitter username has been taken.

Good luck with your search.

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Recent Comments

29

Quite a process but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Debbie

Thank you for reading

Hi, Great read - thanks

Thanks for reading

I enjoyed reading about the process you took to choose your domain. :)
~Mark :)

Thanks

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading

No problem.

Wow. This is totally different from training in the lessons here. One is not going to wait for weeks to go on to the next bit, unless they have a very good understanding that the siterubix trial site can be abandoned for transferring the posts to a new site.
Then there's all that deleting and waiting to make sure it's gone from the searches before you can publish again.
I have despaired over all the domain names I've chosen...but forged on.
This is all good for next time!

Remember that this is just an example of how I chose to do this special project. If you are in doubt, go for what the training says.
I have bought domains for various projects for 20 years and have found a set of criteria that works for me.

All posts on a siterubix site can be transferred to the domain you chose to buy, but you may find that your siterubix subdomain is not available as a .com domain.

So the best thing to do is to build a site on siterubix parallel with searching for an available .com domain.

Wow - this post has so much information! I'll have to park this for further reading and reference. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading

Thanks for this great inputs. I definitely include this in my favorites. But I already failed the criteria you mentioned. I have a three-word domain name, it was more than 15 characters. I don't know if it was used before. Is there a way that I can change my registered domains?
All the best

Bien

Three-word combinations may work fine as domain names.
But for this special project, I wanted a two-word domain.
Mor than 15 characters will also work fone for a domain name, but then you have to be creative with the social media names.

And be aware: finding a good domain name with 15 or less characters is extremely difficult.

Domain names can't be changed. You have to register new ones and let the old ones die. And moving live content between domain names is difficult but doable.

Thank you - good info. - Shirley

Thanks

thoughtful and helpful. where was this when I was picking my domain. will definitely keep for future use.
Thank you.

Thanks for reading :)

Thank you for these very great tips. Honestly I hadn't thought about when I bought my domain making sure of it being on twitter with the length. A lot of great advice thank you.

Thank you as well :)

You are welcome

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