Naming is part of a linguistic design, and a good domain name is an important part of the overall design of a website. A name plays a prominent role when people discover, remember, think, talk, search, or navigate to a website. It establishes a theme for the branding of a website before people even visit it for the first time.
Choosing the perfect domain name is crucial to the survival of your website. A lot of times people get so caught up in the design process that they forget that their domain name will usually be the first thing people see and remember.
Naming your website after your domain may seem obvious, but you'll be surprised to learn that not every website is named after the domain name even when the webmaster owns that domain name.
Naming a website after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they'll think of it by name. If your name is also your URL (web address), they'll automatically know where to go.
Coming up with a good domain name requires a combination of strategy, imagination and good linguistic design practice. Ideally, your domain name should be:
- Short.
- Memorable.
- Easy to pronounce.
- Easy to spell.
- Not too similar to competing domain names.
- Not a violation of someone else’s trademark.
The above can be a good rule. But the characteristic of a good domain name lacks the specifics of criteria. It's necessary to evaluate ideas for names after you thought of them. To come up with a good name, you need to know what type of name is best for you.
In the modern world of the internet, where people automatically turn to the web for information, it pays to have a domain name that reflects your website or business. There are just fewer things for your customers or visitors to remember, and the fewer the better.
Discoverable Or Brandable?
Do you need a discoverable name or a brandable name? If you intend to rely on organic search results for a specific topic, you might want a discoverable name, although it's not necessary since a brandable name can still rank well in search engines. Discoverable names are only necessary for people counting on "type-in" traffic.
Discoverable names are real words and phrases. Common phrases are often registered as well, so it can take time to find one since almost all words in the English dictionary are taken. The trick to a discoverable name is not to be clever but to think of a phrase that other people would likely think of as well and would type in a search engine or navigation bar.
Having decided on your preferred domain name, you’ll need to check whether it is available or whether it has been registered already by someone else. The point is that you have to find one that hasn't yet been registered.
If your marketing plans involve paid search listings and buzz generated by prominent mentions of your website, then you will almost certainly want a brandable name. A brandable name is distinctive, evocative and memorable.
To come up with a brandable name takes creativity. Most great website names are connected to the purpose of the website in an indirect and interesting way. Often they use sensory images or tap into people’s personal experience in some way that it can be distinctive and drive people to them by creating metaphor.
To create something that is a metaphor, you have to have a clear understanding of what makes your website special and interesting. Then you have to find a simpler concept that helps people understand that concept by analogy, usually by imagined sensory experiences. The sensory information used in metaphors makes them vivid and memorable. There's no algorithm for finding a metaphor, but it often involves thinking visually, which should come naturally to web designers.
Your domain name is part and parcel of your business brand. You need to protect your domain name to prevent any unwanted probabilities.