How do you choose a good name for a web site?

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4 Answers

Lily Bradic Profile
Lily Bradic answered

There are several things you need to think about when picking a good name for your website. Here's a short list of things I personally think are important:

  • Something short. Think of all the sites you use regularly — they tend to be one-word names that are easy to spell. For example, there's Blurtit, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Nobody's going to forget how to spell any of those!
  • Something that gives the user an idea of what the site's about. You can be creative with this - puns may be cheesy, but they certainly make things easier to remember!
  • Don't make any quick decisions. Your first idea may end up being your final choice, but it's still good to explore other options. I'd personally make a list, and then ask those in the know what they think. Other people's opinions are important — after all, it's other people who'll be using your website, not you!


Yo Kass Profile
Yo Kass answered

This is a great question, especially because I feel it's really tricky to find a domain name that's available and effective these days.

To give you an answer though, I guess it depends on your target audience and how you intend to drive traffic to your site.

Marketable names

If you are going to rely on word of mouth, brand development and promotion, or marketing - then I'd recommend going for something catchy, memorable, and unique.

You'll want people to remember the name, or at least take an interest in it.

Names like Tumblr, Flickr, 4chan or imgur are examples that come to mind in this category.

Yes, the names might have some association with the product or niche they're focused around (for example imgur is a website where you can share images to social networks), but more than anything else they are memorable and unmistakable.

Search-engine friendly names

If you are going to rely on organic traffic from search engines like Google, you'll have to work out what you can feasibly rank for in the eyes of the big G.

This means studying your competition, picking keywords that people are likely to be searching for, and ones that represent the product or experience you are offering.

This method is also true if you intend to drive traffic to your site using an ad campaign, as you'll need to show a 'display URL' in any text ads and you'll want it to be relevant (you do have some leeway in what URL you show on an ad, but the domain name needs to be the same as the destination).

Very niche sites

If your product or website is likely to only interest a relatively small group of people, then maybe having a name that your niche can relate to might make your website seem more genuine and appealing.

For example, blackhatworld.com isn't a url that would mean very much to anyone outside the SEO community (unless they were literally looking for a black top hat or a smart looking fedora).

By speaking directly to your niche through your url, you can earn a little bit of trust and stand out amongst the crowd.

Derek Alvarez Profile
Derek Alvarez , President, CEO of Ezlifegadgets.com, answered

You will want something that describes what you do.

Something short, no dashes or anything like that.

Something catchy that people can easily spell and remember.

It will take you some time but when you have the right name, you will know it.

Martin Garret Profile
Martin Garret answered

The name of the site really plays a big role in the initial stage of business development. But I wouldn't say that's the most important thing. Now it is much more important to properly configure SEO optimization so that the number of clients grows. Fortunately, we don't have to do it by ourselves. I worked with the SitePie company and can recommend it for sure!

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