In the modern world, there’s barely a thriving business without a web presence. Sure, some local businesses might be winging it with a single social media page, and local market traders might rely on word of mouth, but if you’re looking to build a successful business in most industries you need a website. And the first thing a website needs is a domain.

The domain consists of three parts: All domains start with www, then they need a brandable middle section telling customers who you are. They finish with an extension (think .com, or .org): www.atom.com is our domain.

Choosing a domain is a big decision: there are 350 million domains registered already, and over 1600 extensions to choose from. Oh, and you want to get this right the first time, or you could end up like Elon Musk, shelling out $11 million for Tesla.com, after using Teslamotors.com for many years.

The right domain name:

• Increases trust in your business.
• Helps you build a strong brand around your business.
• Reduces customer acquisition costs.
• Improves customer lifetime value.
• Ensures your business can expand into new markets.

And given that research has shown that 70% of people don’t trust newer domain extensions, your domain can make or break your credibility online.

Every successful business leader needs to know how to choose a domain name. But before we show you how let’s discover the importance of finding the right domain for your business.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Domain Name

77% of consumers think a brand’s domain name is important. Whether you’re launching a new workflow tool or a new fashion outlet, you need a domain. A digital presence isn’t just essential for digital tools — whatever your business model, your domain name is the platform for your online identity. In fact, your domain name is as important as the physical location of a brick-and-mortar store.

Imagine you’re launching a premium fashion boutique: sure, you could choose a seedy back alley location in a cheap district, and make a saving on rent. But few of your customers will find you when they’re shopping on the other side of town, and if they do they’ll certainly struggle to believe in the quality workmanship of your products.

Now imagine a gleaming glass storefront, with customers streaming past and glancing in. Not only will you outpace your competitors because of your convenient location, but your customers will trust that your products are worth a high price tag.

A strong domain name has the same effect in the digital world. Quality online real estate sends a clear message. 

Let’s break down the reasons why choosing the right domain name is so important.

1. User perception and trust

With the increasing complexity of the virtual world and the proliferation of online scams, customers are more cautious than ever when parting with their credit card details. Everyone knows a friend or family member who fell for an online scam, whether that was purchasing flights or paying an energy bill.

Your domain name plays an integral role in assuring potential customers of the legitimacy of your business and inspiring trust over repeat visits. Pairing that strong domain with a professional, high-performing website built by experts like Identixweb Limited further solidifies this credibility. An exact match domain name — one that matches your business name perfectly — and a trustworthy extension like .com ensures users perceive your business as reliable and trustworthy.

2. Brand memorability and recognition

When you’re building a business, you’re building a brand. The connection that customers have to your business, and the values they associate with it, are vital to long-term success. Your domain name plays an important role in memorability and the strength of your brand.

A memorable name means customers will have no trouble finding you online and paying repeat visits. But a domain that doesn’t match your business name, or contains an extension that’s inconsistent with your industry will mean you fade from customers’ memory. It’ll be much harder to build a brand around an imperfect domain name, as you confuse your customers by juggling business name and domain name.

3. Competitive advantage

The perfect domain name gives you a competitive edge over other businesses in your industry. Not only does your brand strengthen customer attachment and enhance customer lifetime value, but you’ll be easier to discover online. This leads to lower customer acquisition costs and ensures that potential customers land on your website before that of your competitors.

4. Long-term asset investment

Just like your business name, your domain name is likely to be with you for as long as your business exists, or at least it should be. Opting for the perfect domain name at this stage saves you from making costly changes down the road.

For example, a non-.com extension might be cheaper to acquire now, but it hurts customer trust and your business may outgrow an alternative extension. Opting for a ccTLD (a country code extension like .de or .nl) will restrict your expansion into new markets, and choosing an unproven extension like .tech could cripple customer acquisition.  

Acquiring a premium domain future-proofs your domain and gives you a long-term asset that lets your business grow. Buying a premium domain name is a little like buying property – in most cases, you’ll be able to sell the domain and make your money back. In some cases, you could even make a profit. 

How to Brainstorm Domain Name Ideas

Before you know how to choose a domain name, it can feel overwhelming. The name you choose will be attached to your brand forever, and it will be central to your identity as your business grows.

So, how can you boil down your business idea into a word or two? You’ll need a few ideas to get the ball rolling, and here’s how to find them.

1. Use a domain name generator

There’s nothing more stifling of creativity than a foreboding blank page. Break through writer’s block with some ideas from a domain name generator. These AI-powered generators take inputs like the type of business you’re launching, the type of names you’re interested in, and even big emotions you want to evoke with your name. Then they use these to suggest creative name ideas, cross-referenced with what’s available to purchase. Use these for inspiration for your own ideas, or make a shortlist of your favorites.

2. Launch a naming contest

You’ve heard of the wisdom of crowds, so why not crowdsource name ideas by launching a naming contest. Build a naming brief to give naming and branding experts an understanding of your business idea and what makes you unique, and let them get to work.

At Atom, we have a thriving community of over 250,000 creatives. A naming contest leverages these naming experts without the expense of a branding agency and provides strong experience-backed name ideas that you can shortlist or tweak into the perfect name. 

3. Consult a naming expert or agency

Naming agencies have substantial expertise when it comes to naming your business, and undertake a thorough approach but most branding agencies name only a few businesses a year.

Naming experts at branding agencies will assist in identifying your unique value proposition and your brand’s identity, and undertake a market analysis to provide a shortlist of strong business names, but they also come with a high price tag.

How to Choose the Perfect Domain Name for Your Business

Now that we’ve established why you shouldn’t settle for a second-rate domain name, and you’ve brainstormed some early name ideas, it’s time to find out how to choose a domain name that will give your business a strong online presence. Here are 8 steps to help you find the perfect domain name.

1. Clearly define your brand identity

Before you can choose a domain name for your business, you need to know what your business is going to be. Not just in the sense of what you’ll do, but in the way you present your business to the world, and connect with your customers on a deeper level.

This is the business of defining brand identity. For example, it’s not enough to have built a game-changing CRM tool. You need to show the businesses you’re marketing to that you understand their values and build a brand tone that creates an emotional connection with your audience. So ask yourself what they want to see: Ethical commitments? Cheeky irreverence? Elite performance?

With an understanding of your business’s values and a brand tone that provides a backdrop for future marketing endeavors, it’ll be clear which shortlisted domain names fit and which don’t. www.happychappy.com might be a strong direction if you’re going for a playful and offbeat brand tone, but if serious service is to be your M.O., your customers won’t take you seriously.

Expert Insight: Build a set of brand guidelines that outline how your brand will operate in the world. You can use our AI brand builder to understand the direction your business will take, and maintain consistency in naming, messaging, and marketing. A set of brand guidelines also brings every stakeholder onto the same page, ensuring a coherent identity that your customers just get.

2. Analyze your competition

Understanding your own brand identity is important, but you can’t choose a domain name in a vacuum. Whatever industry you’re entering, you’ll face fierce competition. A domain name is a balancing act: You need a name that signals your business’s value to customers by leaning on established tropes, while simultaneously standing out from your competitors.

Industry trends are important. Lots of tech startups are opting for .io and .ai extensions, suffixes like -ly are favored for digital tools (such as Grammarly and Calendly), and cute misspellings are popular among emerging businesses. But whether you hitch your wagon to an industry trend or proudly define yourself as an industry leader by bucking those trends is up to you.

3. Keep it short and memorable

When it comes to following, or forgetting, industry trends, the choice is yours. Both can lead to strong, brandable names and distinct market positioning. But when it comes to the length of your name, there’s one rule to follow: cut the character count.

The average domain length is 13 – 14 characters long, but the average length among the top 10,000 most popular sites is 8. Among the top 100, it’s 6 characters long. A shorter name will help customers type into the address bar and find you quickly but don’t sacrifice memorability in search of a shorter name, for example by choosing xpres over express, as it will confuse your customers.

But shorter domains will usually be more expensive to obtain, so consider compound domain names that combine two short words together into a single domain eight to ten letters long.

Expert Insight: If you are going to misspell a word in your domain name, ensure it’s a common and coherent misspelling, such as replacing an i with a y, like ride-hailing service Lyft. Replacing an ‘f’ sound with a ‘ph’ is not a common naming trope, so a domain like ‘PheelGood.com’ will be tough to remember for your customers.

4. Avoid generic domain names

Historically, generic domain names stuffed with relevant keywords have been a popular way for businesses to get a headstart in SEO (search engine optimization). With this in mind, a windshield repair service might opt for carwindowrepair.com, or a local plumber might choose numberonechicagoplumber.com as a domain.

However, generic domains no longer receive a boost in Google’s algorithm, and these bland names are impossible to brand around. Sure, customers know what your business does, but there’s nothing that makes you stand out from every other plumber in Chicago claiming to be the best there is. Avoid generic names, and choose something brandable that’s connected with your key values.

5. Avoid numbers, hyphens, and special characters

Hyphens, special characters, and numbers only serve to overcomplicate your domain name — you’re not choosing a secure password here! Hyphens are easily forgotten, while numbers will confuse your customers about whether they’re spelled out or written as a numeral. Go back to childhood and stick to your ABCs when choosing a domain name

6. Consider premium domains

Premium domains are an elite tier of short, catchy, and brandable domain names that will add tremendous value to your business. You can search and buy premium domains on Atom’s Premium Domain Marketplace and while these domains often require an investment at the outset, they set your business up for long-term success.

Premium domains will combine a historic, trustworthy extension — usually .com — with one or two combined English-language words. Premium domains contain all the ingredients you need for a strong brand and a trustworthy reputation in business. They ensure your customers can remember you, rediscover you online and they ensure you won’t outgrow your domain name as your business expands.

7. Check for trademark conflicts

Before you finalize your domain name, it’s important to check that you’re the only one trying to use that name within your industry. Trademark conflicts can lead to expensive court battles or even more expensive rebrands, and with 6.7 million existing trademark applications (around 40 times the number of words in the English language) it’s likely a few of your preferred domain names are legally protected.

Atom’s Trademark Research Service flags any potential trademark conflicts from a shortlist of domain names, and means you’ll have a name that’s all yours without concern about infringement if you were to expand into other industries or markets.

8. Choose the right domain extension

Lastly, the domain extension you choose is crucial in ensuring customers can easily remember your domain, and place trust and credibility on your business. The extension, or TLD (top-level domain) is the suffix following the web address, it’s the .com in www.atom.com. There are over 1,602 TLD extensions, but exceptionally few have established credibility. A few domains that we don’t recommend are .info, .biz, and .pizza! 

The gold-standard TLD extension is .com, and it’s the extension many customers will assume when they type your web address: if your business is hosted at hotfashion.biz, then whoever owns hotfashion.com will certainly snap up some of your business. A .com extension is the ultimate asset for your domain.

However, strong .com names are usually accompanied by higher price tags, particularly if your sought-after domain is a single English language word. There is a short list of alternative, acceptable domains to consider: .io, .org, and .co are all respected TLD extensions that can provide you with a strong domain, and .ai is gaining traction for artificial intelligence brands.

Where to Purchase Your Domain Name

Once you know how to choose a domain name, you’ll need to register and purchase your domain.

1. Through a domain registrar

If your domain name is not owned by anyone else, you can purchase it through a domain registrar. Owning a domain name is actually more like renting it, and you have to renew your domain every year.

As long as your domain is available to register, this is an inexpensive process and costs between $10 and $60 annually. But most strong, brandable, and memorable domain names have been registered already. In fact, the last three-letter domain name was registered in 1997 and four-letter domains are exclusively owned, too!

Trying to find a great unregistered domain name that fits your business is like searching for a needle in a digital haystack. If you’re looking to give your business the best start in life, you’ll likely turn to a domain marketplace for a domain name.

2. On a premium domain marketplace

Domain marketplaces like Atom provide curated domain names chosen for their strength and brandability. You can search by length, style, and extension, and filter by price, to find a domain that fits your brand.

Atom.com’s premium domain marketplace is curated by naming experts, ensuring that every domain features brandable characteristics perfect for the right business. These names are memorable to customers, and matched with trusted extensions. The whole sale process is facilitated by our customer support team.

3. Through domain auctions

Domain auctions are a particular kind of domain marketplace where domains are sold at auction. That means multiple purchasers bid on domains, and the highest bidder wins. As with all auctions, there’s the possibility for a real bargain, but also the risk that multiple bidders will push up the price.

4. Directly from the current owner

If you know who owns the domain, then you can purchase directly from the owner. Negotiate a price, and the domain can be transferred into your ownership through the existing owner’s registrar.

If you’re purchasing directly, be careful when you transfer funds. When buying digital assets you need the protection of an escrow, a third-party operator who holds your funds until the domain transfer has been completed. Domain marketplaces and auctions will include an escrow service, but this can be organized directly if you’re purchasing off-platform.

5. Using domain brokers

Domain brokers assist in the sale of ultra-premium domains, like those single English word domains and three or four-letter domains. If there’s a particularly valuable domain you have your eye on, then the understanding and negotiating expertise of a broker can help you in the process but domain brokers charge an exceptionally high fee for their services and are only worthwhile in fringe cases.

Most domain purchases are simple, especially when you use a domain marketplace. However high-value domain purchases can be complicated and may be accompanied by social media handles and other assets. Domain brokers can help you navigate these complexities when purchasing an elite domain name.

Atom: The Domain Marketplace for Ambitious Brands

Atom’s curated domain marketplaces are founded on our creative community – the biggest naming community on the planet. Our 250,000+ creatives really are all over the planet, from Australia to the UK to Canada and the US, and they are working 24/7 to dream up powerful business names with matching premium domains.

Our Domain Marketplace allows every new business to find the best online platform for their brand. At Atom, we have a range of services designed to help you find your perfect fit today — let’s find out what’s on offer.

1. Premium domain marketplace

Our premium domain marketplace provides expertly curated domain names at a fixed price, with flexible payment plan options. Every name in the premium domain marketplace is accompanied by a top-tier extension (such as .com, .io, .co, and .org,) and has been selected based on other important factors such as style and brandability. In our premium domain marketplace, you’ll find powerful and affordable domain names for every business.

When purchasing a premium domain, you’ll be able to take advantage of our domain transfer experts to ensure a seamless acquisition, and in-built escrow services to provide safety and security for all parties.

2. Ultra-premium domain marketplace

Our ultra-premium domain marketplace houses the best available domain names in existence. Any choice from this marketplace will provide you with a valuable asset and an eminently discoverable domain name. These are mostly single English-language word domains that will give your business an unbeatable foundation for establishing yourself among your competitors.

Alongside easy domain transfer and escrow services, all ultra-premium purchases include brokerage from our team of domain experts to ensure you get an elite domain name at the best possible price.

3. Naming contests and agency experience

If you’re searching for the perfect business name, a naming contest or fully managed agency experience will provide you with expertly chosen names, as well as logos and business taglines that kickstart your brand in the best possible way.

We have over 250,000 creatives across the world, and over 7 million names have been submitted by Atom creatives. But it doesn’t end there. Our team of experts (who have worked on naming projects for Alibaba, Nestle, Dell, and 50,000 other brands) and their real-data-trained AI assistants comb through every name, picking only the best.

4. Audience testing to validate your name

Starting a business requires a leap of faith, but you shouldn’t gamble with your business name. Our audience testing services provide a source of fine-tuned market research to validate your naming and branding ideas.

Ensure your name and logo align with your business’s values, and fit what your target market wants to see. Audience testing means you can take your business into the world with confidence.

5. Free domain name generator

Coming up with powerful business names is hard creative work. If you’re struggling, our creative business name generator can take your business idea and provide a shortlist of available, brandable domain names. Whether you use these as inspiration for your own name, or choose your favorites from the list, is up to you.

6. Free trademark checker

For your brand to grow freely, you need to have exclusive rights to your business name and accompanying domain. Our free trademark checker searches multiple databases across Europe, Australia, and North America and can flag potential conflicts for your selected name.

Some overlap between your name and another might not be a problem, depending on the industry, region, and target market. However, it’s important to understand all the risks associated with a chosen name.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any remaining questions about how to choose a domain name, you’ll find the answers here.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when choosing a domain name?

The most common domain name mistakes are using unproven extensions, making your domain too long to be memorable and easily typed, and using numbers and hyphens in your domain name.

Knowing how to choose a domain name ensures you won’t make any of these mistakes, and you’ll have a trustworthy, memorable, and brandable domain name for your business.

What is a premium domain, and why should I consider purchasing one for my business?

A premium domain combines a proven extension such as .com or .org with a strong, brandable domain. Together, these elements create a trustworthy, memorable and searchable platform for your business that connects with customers. Premium domains help your business thrive, both online and in the outside world.

Is Atom’s premium domain marketplace a reliable source for domain names?

Yes. Atom’s premium domain marketplace is curated by domain experts (who have worked on naming projects for Alibaba, Nestle, Dell, and 50,000+ other brands) and their real-data-trained AI assistants. You can be sure that every domain has passed the test for strength and brandability, meaning Atom’s premium marketplace is exclusively composed of the most reliable domain names for your business.

How important is the “.com” extension compared to other TLDs (Top-Level Domains)?

A .com extension is the most popular and will give you a respectable and professional domain, but it’s not the only worthwhile extension. The importance of .com will depend on your industry, as other domains such as .ai, .io and .org can be valuable domains for tech startups and other businesses. Nevertheless, .com remains the gold standard extension, and if you’re choosing a non-.com domain check what is hosted at the .com version of your domain, as some customers will undoubtedly end up there by mistake.

How do I ensure that my domain name doesn’t infringe on trademarks or copyrights?

The best way to ensure your domain name doesn’t infringe on any trademarks is to employ a trademark attorney, whose expertise and insights can help to guide your domain choice. Performing a preliminary trademark search is an important first step, and consider searching for alternative spellings or closely related names to ensure your name is fully unique.