How to choose the right domain name for your online store

The brand awareness and popularity depends on the site address. It forms the first impression, influences customer attitudes and plays an important role in promoting, and therefore, shaping your bottom line. However, how to come up with a name for an online store if it seems that all the original and catchy options have been taken apart by competitors?

Read the basic naming rules and mistakes when choosing a domain name. Also, find out where you can get ideas for your site name. Practical recommendations that are easy to implement, and examples of implementation - that's what awaits you in the article.

So let's start with the main requirements for the title.

Basic naming rules

Everyone who comes up with a name for an online store wants it to be correct. However, Anthony Shore, founder of the naming agency Operative Words, notes that this happens very rarely. Correctness is shown only during testing. But in order to minimize the likelihood of failure, you should adhere to the rules:

• focus on the target audience;
• select a name that matches the product and content;
• choose an easy-to-remember name;
• come up with a short word.

Getting into the target audience

When promoting any resource or product, including an online store, the first thing to analyze is the target audience. Agree, the promotion strategies for a brutal man and a young mother will be radically different.

Choose a name that suits the interests of the target audience.

To hit the target, answer the questions:

It is necessary to describe the client's portrait as accurately and in detail as possible. Age, needs, marital status, income, expectations, pet, hobby - everything matters. Here are examples of target audience portraits for different directions:

General recommendations when choosing a name depending on the target audience:

1. for women it is important to use emotional and sensual words, for men - strict and restrained;
2. teenagers love buzzwords, young people prefer stylish and modern options, and middle-aged and older buyers will appreciate calm and neutral names;
3. to attract people with a high level of income, use appropriate markers, for example, "elite", "luxury", and to focus on cheapness, include in the name "cheap", "discounts", "price drop".

Good examples of implementation:

● https://babypro.ua - Babypro. It is immediately clear that the visitor will find children's products at the address. Who will be attracted by the name? Of course, parents;

● www.lamoda.ru - Lamoda. Associations with fashion, and therefore it can be assumed that the name hides an online store of clothes, shoes and accessories. Here you will also find cosmetics and perfumes. Who will the name catch? Stylish, trendy young girls and middle-aged women;

● https://brandforman.ru/ - Brand for man. The link is an online store of cosmetics for men. An excellent solid name for a brutal and courageous audience, showing all the "seriousness of intentions";

● https://elyts.ru - Elyts. Such a name for an online clothing store falls into the top ten: the target audience is stylish, business, fashionable men and women with above-average incomes, who prefer branded items;

● https://deshevo-vsem.com/ - "It's cheap for everyone." According to the name, we can conclude that everything in the online store is at a very ridiculous price, most likely the assortment includes a lot of items. That's right: here you will find clothes, stationery, bed linen, costume jewelry, household chemicals, household goods and other offers. The most important thing for the target audience, which does not bother with a choice, hunts for discounts and low prices, prefers to place a variety of orders in one place.

Compliance with the product and content

It should be clear from the address what you are offering the visitor. And when a person goes to your site, he should see exactly what he expects. It’s bad if you sell women's clothing, and the address is “orchid”. Or building materials, and the name is "Master", just "Master", without specifics. Or you have a large selection of organic food, and the name was chosen "sickness".

Don't be creative, don't try to surprise, and forget about intricate addresses. Try to name the site with a name without double interpretation.

Good examples of implementation:

● https://rozetka.com.ua. It is now Rozetka - an online supermarket that offers almost everything. And before, there was only electronics and technology. And the name spoke resoundingly about it;

● https://allo.ua - online store "Hello". The main category here is smartphones, and only then - appliances, gadgets, goods for children, fishing, home, tourism. And they started with phones and their accessories;

● https://ohotnik.com - "Hunter". You will not find anything other than hunting goods here. And this is clear from the address.

The uniqueness of the name

The name of the project should not coincide with competitors and other existing Internet resources or evoke associations with them. Otherwise, you can lose clients who will go to other sites by mistake, confusing them with yours.

Using a unique name:

• will allow you to create a name that will not be confused with anything, stand out among competitors;
• help to show originality and form a good first impression;
• will protect you from copyright infringement;
• will keep clients.

To avoid awkward situations in the future, write the name in a search engine and see the number of results in the search results. The lower the indicator, the easier it will be to move to the top and the less likely it is to take someone else's name.

Pay attention to whether there are firms, companies, stores with the same name or part of it. If there is a fairly large number, come up with something else.

Memorability

Do you want the site to be remembered and not distorted? Choose a simpler name. You will never miss: you cannot come up with a name that is too simple, but too complex is easy. Why risk it?

Forget about "agricultural machinery", "dneprostroydom", "chemical industrial goods" and the like. Difficult names: neither pronounce, nor remember, nor pronounce normally, but visually they are perceived as a set of letters.

Remember euphony too. This is one of the mandatory requirements. After all, a consonant name for an online store is easier to remember and easier to reproduce both orally and in writing. Through the title, you show what awaits the person. Thus, a health food store is associated with beauty and health, cosmetics - with grooming, jewelry - with sophistication and elegance. Therefore, it is important to create a sense of celebration, security, usefulness in order to evoke positive emotions.

It is important to come up with a name that is light, beautiful, smooth, but even here you should be careful. How do you like the water called Blue Water? And what about Bledina baby food? Or DelhiCotes cat food? And the original name of Chevrolet Aveo - Daewoo Kalos? Maybe it "pours" in pronunciation, but associations do not play into the hands of manufacturers.

Domain name brevity

Short name:

• remember;
• used more often in speech;
• easy to advertise;
• easier to write down.

A recommendation does not mean that you need to come up with a very short domain name. We advise you not to use more than 9 characters in the address, excluding the first level. This is the optimal size that will not be difficult to remember or reproduce.

Examples of successful domains:

• foto.ru is short and reflects the focus
• allo.ua - easy to remember
• dx.com - abbreviation for Deal Extreme

Bad examples:

• modnyjgnomik.by - a complex combination of letters
• happy-cook.shop.by - hard to remember
• kazan.pobeda-63.rf - combo

Sources of ideas for the name of the site

If coming up with a name is difficult and you can't transform ideas into promising proposals, use the following options and examples of names for the site:

Which will make the task easier:

1. Brainstorm. Write down all the options that everyone on the team has. Based on actual location, assortment, association, brand name, owner name, main product name. Delete the completely strange and inappropriate ones, and from the remainder select the successful ideas.
2. Selection of synonyms. Imagine, you have come up with a name, and it is already taken. What to do? Look for synonyms for the word that was supposed to become a name, choose something interesting and reflective of the essence.
3. Name generation services : Brandogenerator.ru, panabee , Lean DomainSearch , Looka . However, they do not always help, and often offer frankly bad options:

We're out of luck, but suddenly you're lucky

If you still can't come up with a suitable name, or you are not sure if it is correct, we recommend a tried-and-true method - use the name of the brand, company, or trade mark.

Major mistakes

Don't make spontaneous decisions. All names, invented on the run or after the inspiration, require a more detailed analysis. Remember, too, that just a word or term you like is a bad option. So you can hardly feel the full potential of a domain name when promoting.

Let's take a look at the common mistakes when creating an address so that you can choose the best name.

Cyrillic domains

We do not recommend using domains written in Cyrillic for several reasons:

• they are not widespread in runet, and the familiar .ru is intuitively added to the company name;
• most CMS do not support Cyrillic, only Latin characters, and therefore many functions on the site, for example, social media widgets or connecting RSS feeds, may be unavailable;
• corporate mail cannot be made in Cyrillic domains: e-mail of the form [email protected] is not allowed;
• difficulties arise when copying: Cyrillic domains turn the link into special characters - http: // xn - B7MaA-jiyxiqsv9onMMfke-p1ai /.

When can you use Cyrillic in your domain? To create a mirror of the site. Then visitors will be able to type in a name in Russian into the search, and the system will automatically redirect them to the main site.

Using numbers

When in doubt, come up with a domain name for a website with or without numbers, give preference to the latter. Addresses without numerical values look more attractive, more consonant, and easier to remember.

The only exception is that the use of numbers is justified if the company is working around the clock. For example, the online flower shop "Flora Fart" accepts orders from 7:00 to 23:00, but delivery is carried out 24 hours a day. Their address looks like this: http://24cvety.ru/.

Using the region for the main domain

We are both in favor of not using regional designations in the primary domain name. If in the future you decide to expand and provide services in all regions or move your business to another area, then you will have to start over.

Tips for choosing a domain zone

The domain structure includes several distinct parts separated by dots. Depending on their number, the level is determined:

The first level is divided into country and general domains. The general group has subgroups: territorial and thematic.
Choosing a territorial domain zone

The zone consists of 2 characters, which indicate work only with residents of a certain country or region:

• .ru - Russia;
• .ua - Ukraine;
• .kz - for Kazakhstan;
• .by - Belarus and so on.

Interesting! The largest country code domains are .cn (China), .de (Germany), .uk (Great Britain), .nl (Netherlands), .ru (Russia).

Largest Country Code Domains for Q3 2018, source

They can also be sub-regional and cover only certain zones, for example:

• .zp.ua - Zaporozhye, Ukraine;
• .kiev.ua - Kiev, Ukraine;
• .spb.ru - St. Petersburg, Russia;
• .kemerovo.ru - Kemerovo region, Russia;
• .rnd.ru - Rostov region, Russia and so on.

Choosing a thematic domain zone

The zone consists of 3 or more symbols and speaks about working with a specific topic or working in some direction, for example:

The most popular and frequently used domains are:

Top Tier 1 Domains for Q3 2018, Source

Combined domain zones

Domains can be collective and show both territorial and thematic affiliation. For instance:

• .net.ua says that the company provides Internet communication services in Ukraine;
• .edu.ua - educational institution in Ukraine;
• .fm.ru - radio broadcasting in Russia;
• .com.by is a general purpose site operating throughout Belarus.

How to determine the zone

It is important to choose a domain that will reveal the region and will fully correspond to the subject of the site. For the right choice, ask only 3 questions:

1. What subsections in the domain will correspond to the business topic?
2. In which country do you operate or where is your target audience located?
3. In which regions of the country is your presence expected?

The answers will help you decide. Collect the domain zone from the territorial and thematic directions. For instance:

• nout.ru is a great option for an online store selling laptops in Russia;
• laminat.dp.ua - for a site offering goods in Ukraine and only in Dnipro;
• rybak.com - for a resource that delivers goods for fishing in the CIS countries;
• brand.ru - for a company operating only in Russia and having a trademark.

Where to buy domains

After you have come up with a domain name, decided on a geographic and thematic zone, you can proceed to registration.

There are no normal free domains. Therefore, you will have to invest in the "business card" of the site. Where to register a domain? There are many services that provide services for buying and registering domains, for example:

• godaddy.com ;
• ukraine.com.ua ;
• reg.ru ...

The registration process on ukraine.com.ua looks like this:

1. Enter your invented domain, click on "Check":
   
2. The system will process the request and show the result: free or taken name
   
   domain is free and will cost $ 8.92
3. Click "Add to cart" - a form for filling out will be displayed:
   
   In the basket, you need to register contact information and enter the received promotional code after payment
4. Click "Activate" - you're done.

By the way, in order to register a domain in the .ua zone, you need to have trademark rights. And for registration in .ru - it is important to just provide a scanned copy of your passport or TIN, if you are a legal entity.

We recommend buying a domain for a long period. For a start, 1 year will be enough. During this time, you will understand whether it will be possible to promote your business. However, keep track of the lease expiration date or use the automatic renewal feature. Otherwise, upon expiration, the domain may be redeemed and you will be left with nothing - another with the same name will not be registered.

To have full rights to manage and use a domain, you must register a technical and administrative contact for your data. For those who do not want to show their contacts and coordinates, you can use the "private registration" service.

Now you know the rules and nuances of creating a domain name and can choose the one that users will like and will quickly remember. Save the checklist with the parameters of the correct website address so that you do not miss and take into account all the important details.

Checklist for a successful domain name

✓ Corresponds to the target audience and its preferences

✓ Matches the product and content on the site

✓ Has a unique name

✓ Easy to remember

✓ Simply reproduced in writing and orally

✓ Fewer characters is better

✓ Does not contain Cyrillic characters

✓ Corresponds to the territorial affiliation (if it is important for the business)

✓ Registered to you