So you're at a domain registrar like actnow domains or one of the other thousand of companies that is out there and you are all ready to find a domain name.  But are you really ready?  A domain name can decide the future of your website. A well thought out domain name shall probably help you when it comes to your website. But at the same time, a bad domain name will be bad for your business and your reputation alike. Hence when you find a domain name it should never be a rushed or hurried process. You shouldn't zoom through it quickly but rather take your time to ensure you make the best choice.   How can you be sure to find the absolute perfect domain name for you? 

Given below are some of the tips that will help you find a domain name that is perfect for you.  So before you enter the domain name you want into a domain finder tool consider the following.  It's important that you take your time during your domain name search to find a quality domain name that shall suit you well now and into the future.

1) Revenue or Branding?

This is what you need to be very clear on from the very first. You need to have a clear cut idea on how you are going to use your website. Most webmasters seek revenue from their website, and hence they shall be aiming to find a generic domain name. A generic domain name shall be closely associated with the keywords that they look to rank for. Having the domain name with your keywords list on it, shall help with your ranking process. Google gives a slight advantage to domain names containing their keywords. If all things are equal these domain names shall probably rank high in those keywords very quickly. In case your keywords fall under the low competition keywords classification, it may rank pretty quickly without much efforts from your part.

But in case you want to find a domain name for the branding concept, then the above strategy wont work. When you are aiming for branding, you are not aiming for keywords. You need some sweet and catchy domain name to catch the interest of the people. At the same time, you want the domain name to be memorable too. After all, you are expecting a lot more on returning traffic. If you have a brand, then choose the domain name as the brand name too. When people hear about a brand, then expect the firm to have a branded domain name.

2) Keep It Short Or Long?

This may not be a million dollar question, but its a common one that confuses many a webmaster. There is confusion because they have no idea on how long their domain name should be, or how many words their domain name should contain.

In case its a branded domain name, never go beyond three words. The shorter it is, the sweeter it shall be. Keep that in mind. But when we are thinking about keyword domain names, its not easy to resolve the matter. Sometimes, having more words in the domain name shall be helpful. There may be phrases that shall mean only when all the words are present. An acronym may not make sense to your visitors. But in certain cases, having less words in the domain name shall be helpful. None can give you a fix count of optimum words in your domain name. Its recommended that you do not go beyond five or six words. You do not have want to make it too difficult for your users too. So as to whether you need a long or a short domain, you should be the judge of it.

Searching for and finding a domain name that is right takes time but is worth the effort when you find a good domain name that you like.

Buying a domain name is no simple task. You may have to spend hours to find just the right domain name that is great. Before you register that domain name, make sure that it satisfies everything that is listed below.

1) Simple

Your domain name should obviously be simple and short. There is no point in going for long domain names when are thinking about setting up a brand. How many branded domain names have you see that contains more than three words in their domain name? Most well known brands wont even go beyond a single word. Google, Facebook, and Twitter among others are perfect examples of this. They always keep it simple and restricted to just a single word.

2) Memorable

When you start a branded website, you are not looking to gain new visitors alone. You need new visitors, but at the same time, you need returning visitors too. You need visitors who had already visited to visit your website again. A visitor may visit your website the first time. But he doesn't come back the next time, what's the point of such a visitor? To get returning visitors, you need to make sure that they are able to remember your domain name. You obviously need the domain name to be memorable.

3) Avoid Hyphens

You need to avoid hyphens in your domain name at all cost. Hyphens bring about an unprofessional conduct on to your domain name. A domain name with more than one hyphens is considered as a ground for people to get confused. They may get confused on the number of hyphens and may land on some other website. It may even be a website of one of your competitors. Hyphens break the typical flow of your visitors, and it should be avoided at all cost.

4) Usage of " My " and " The "

When you search for your domain name, there may arises situation where your domain name shall already be registered to some other party. Your domain name registrar shall then provide you with alternate choices like thebrandname.com or mybrandname.com or brandnamethe.com or brandnamemy.com. It shall not be limited to just the COM domain name extension. They may lure you with other domain name extensions like NET, ORG or even a country specific domain name extension.

But the question here is whether you should take such a domain name. In case your brand name do come with the " The ", then its recommended that you opt for such a domain name. When Facebook started, it was called the " The Facebook ", and it did use the same as its domain name. When it dropped the " The " from its brand name, it did the same thing with its domain name too. So unless the word " the " is already present in your brand name, avoid using such a domain name. Otherwise people may soon start to associate your brand name with such a phrase. It may not do well for your reputation and brand name. Hence avoid using such an approach when it comes to buying a domain name.

Tens of thousands of domain names are registered each day through thousands of domain registrars. But only a couple of thousands of domain names are getting expired each day. You obviously need not be an economist to understand that there is indeed a big gap between both the data. But since the domain names are not restricted, most webmasters do not give much importance to such a thought. They shall merely do a bit of keyword research and choose a couple of good primary and secondary keywords. They shall then jump over to their domain registrar to register one or more domain names related to those keywords. They wont probably select a domain name that do includes those keywords that are already selected, or atleast the primary keyword. They search for the domain name. But they find that the COM domain name extension for the domain name is already gone!

This is one common situation that every single webmaster encounters while they try registering for a domain name. The COM domain name extension is not available. You may be able to contact the current owner, but you shall have to shell out a small fortune to get the domain name. That is probably out of question for most people. Most people shall probably not have the funds to buy such a domain name. Even if they have, it may not feel like the right choice for the. So they look again, and see that all the other generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) name extensions and even those country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) domain name extensions are available. What should they do?

No one will be able to provide a pretty straight forward answer to that question. Though most webmasters may recommend to opt for an approach where if you fail to find a domain name with a COM domain name extension, you need to look deeper. They may not encourage buying the rest of the other top level domains, and certainly not when it comes to country specific domain name extensions. But it may not always be the right choice. Let me explain to you why.

In case you are a local brand or a firm with offices restricted to just one country, what's the point of going for a COM or any of those top level domain name extensions? Doesn't it make more sense to go for the domain name extension of that country? And the answer is yes. You should opt for the country specific domain name extension in such a situation. You shall even be able to gain better rankings and traffic from the locals from the local search engines. A COM or any of those top level domain name extension cant work the same.

But in case your website caters to the international community as a whole, or if you are a firm and you can benefit a lot from an international audience, then its recommended that you opt for one of the generic Top Level Domain Name extensions like COM, NET or ORG.