I’ve created sites a couple number of times, and I’ve failed every time. My site wasn’t getting any visitors or generating any traffic and I couldn’t understand why even though I had great UX and everything.
But after deep analysis, I came to know why I failed, it was because I didn’t consider my domain address. Your domain name plays a key role as it is how people find you online.
In a case study, it was mentioned that WooCommerce traffic decreased significantly when they changed their domain name to Woo.com (Understanding Domain Change SEO Impact on Your Traffic).
Just so you don’t fall victim to the same mistake as me, I’m creating this article to mention why your domain name could make or break your online presence. So if you want your site to be successful, keep reading.
If you want your company to look professional and reliable, then you must start with a good website. It must be visually appealing if you want to attract as many new customers as possible.
Once the visual aspect of it is over, then it’s time to move on to the next step, which is selecting the domain name. Lots of people tend to make massive mistakes during this stage.
Take a look here at what are the most common reason why visitors leaves a site:
What they fail to realize is that they need to pick a domain name that depicts everything their brand/organization does in terms of services and products. If you do not do it, then everything you’ve done when it comes to this will be completely pointless.
Speaking of domain names, many are wondering if it’s too expensive to acquire one. Fortunately, the answer is no. There are plenty of affordable domain services suitable for anyone’s budget.
Apart from that, a vast majority of these services come with different amenities to make their services even more stable and enjoyable.
Another critical aspect of this whole process is this one. There are lots of domain extensions, however, the one that’s considered the most important is .com. If you purchase it, practically anyone essential to your business will perceive it as credible.
On the other hand, that may not be the situation with other, less-known extensions, like .people, .info, and other similar names. Of course, no one can forbid you to choose them, however, if you want to leave a great impression, then you should steer clear of them.
Since .com is generally very popular, there are other options that you can resort to, that are almost as equally efficient, such as .org. (although this one is mostly used by non-profit organizations) or .net.
This is also an element that can make or break your online presence, meaning that if you take the wrong approach, your domain name is not going to stick with people.
To put it simply, you need to opt for a name that’s relatively short, easy to remember, and spell. If you fail to include any of the previously mentioned factors, you’re doing to reduce the chances of having a visible website.
The point is to have a domain name that’s going to be memorable and that people can easily bring up in a conversation. If you pick a name that’s too long and that’s loaded with a bunch of complex URLs, people will quickly forget it.
FUN FACT
Symbolics.com is the first ever domain name registered on the Internet in 1985!
Just like you would utilize the same logo across every social media platform, site, and many other places, well, you should do the same with your domain name. There are several different reasons why this is so pivotal, and these are the most essential ones:
In other words, the name that you’ll be using for your website must be the same as the one that’s employed for your social media platforms. Otherwise, people may think that they are looking at two completely different brands.
Those who are planning on blasting off their websites should always keep SEO in mind because that’s something that can undoubtedly impact the online presence.
One of the surefire ways to ensure your website’s visibility is boosted is by incorporating relevant keywords in your domain name. Even though this may seem simple, during this stage, you must be very careful if you want things to be done properly.
For starters, you must use keywords that make sense to you and your brand. If you want to determine that, then you need to ask yourself whether a particular keyword consists of all the major elements of your company.
This shouldn’t refer only to the present day, but to the future as well. Bear in mind that the domain name (along with its keywords) that you’ll opt for is something that’s supposed to represent your organization for many years to come.
For instance, if you’re planning on launching a bookstore, then it would be advisable to utilize a name like lovely-books.com. This should be done if you’re planning on selling books only.
On the flip side, if your store will sell other items aside from books, then you should avoid putting books as a keyword. Furthermore, if you’re planning on having hyphens, then be sure to employ only one, not more because Google is not a very big fan of those, and you do not want to mess with Google, right?
You may think that domain name isn’t as potent as the title suggests, however, as you can see it can truly make or break things as far as your brand goes, so be sure to carefully go through this guide and implement everything that was advised.