How To Pick A Good Domain Name For An eCommerce Business

What’s common between American media conglomerate Meredith Corporation and Manchester, England based Cat Cafe Store? They both chose powerful domain names to be their online identity. While the former owns www.magazine.store, the latter’s primary website is www.catcafe.store.

Both these addresses are short, relevant, unique, and memorable. The good news is that you can brand your retail store with an equally brilliant domain name. All you need is a creative idea and the power of new domain extensions such as.STORE, which is meant especially for retail and eCommerce.

What’s In a Name?

Well, everything actually. Customers are going to look you up on the Internet before they do any business with you. Your name or online identity is the first point of interaction for your customers. So, it plays an instrumental role in engaging your customers, right from the start.

• It Builds Your Brand

Your web address is the first aspect your user will be exposed to. It’s your chance to make a killer first impression. How do you want to be perceived when they first see your name? Do you want to come across as innovative or classy? What about creative or maybe trustworthy? How about all of these? Choosing a great domain name is your chance to build that first impression and etch your name in your user’s mind. A web address that stands out is remembered and helps a great deal with the brand recall.

• It Builds Credibility

With the ease of access and the variety of options, a majority of online shoppers will explore the web before making a purchase. If your name is not coming up in these searches, you are losing out on business. Google prefers short domain names and websites that stand out (apart from great and relevant content). A short, relevant and unique domain name will therefore work in your favor.

• It Lets You Have A Branded Email

An email id that is relevant and branded automatically established a positive connection with your potential customers. With a branded email id, the chances of your email being read and eliciting an action are higher. A business email id indicates that you take your work seriously and are well invested in it.

Also Read: How to Drive Sales from Cold Email Pitches

Domain Names Are Important – But What Makes A Domain Name Good?

A good domain name can be summed up by the acronym SMS – Simple, Memorable and Short. A domain name is meant to explain who you are, what you do, which industry you belong to. Most importantly, a good domain name is intuitively understood by potential customers. Consider these few factors when making the decision on your domain name:

1. A Domain Name Must Include Your Business Name Or Its Category

Let’s understand this with an example. www.emirates.store uses its brand name in its web address while www.magazine.store uses its business category in its name. While it is great to have your brand name in the web address as it strengthens brand positioning, category names can prove to be keyword-rich and help with SEO boost.

2. A Domain Name Must Be Free of Irrelevant Words, Characters, Alphabets Or Numbers

The simpler the name, it should be easy for your users to remember it. It should be easy to spell and pronounce. Including hyphens or numbers or extra letters to make it look fancy will cost you business. This point is even more crucial because we have moved into an era of voice search. If virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa don’t understand a domain name in the first go, it has failed the Radio Test.

3. A Good Domain Name Should Be Less Than 3 Words

Choose a descriptive domain name, but don’t make it a sentence. Instead of going for www.urbandictionarystore.com, be creative and go for www.urbandictionary.store.

4. A Domain Name Should Not Have Copyrighted Names

If you do not want to get into legal hassles, steer clear of names that are copyrighted by another brand. Search the United States Copyright Office’s online database to ensure that your domain name is safe.

That’s it! None of this is rocket science. All it requires is some serious time and effort and soon you’ll be on your way to registering your powerful domain name. The points we discussed above will help you pick the right name for your online business.