[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/","headline":"5 Things to Remember When Buying a URL & What Makes a Good Domain Name","name":"5 Things to Remember When Buying a URL & What Makes a Good Domain Name","description":"One of the most common mistakes I see when doing site reviews at conferences is issues with urls.\u00a0 It’s not always SEO issues, but issues with the actual domain name.\u00a0 People think what they have makes a good domain name for their site, but the reality is that they are actually hurting themselves by making […]","datePublished":"2013-03-22","dateModified":"2013-03-22","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/author\/adamriemer\/#Person","name":"Adam Riemer","url":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/author\/adamriemer\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fda62f751f2a6c2ec2b079fedff69720852e4a65633212ffb11832454c29160a?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fda62f751f2a6c2ec2b079fedff69720852e4a65633212ffb11832454c29160a?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Adam Riemer Marketing, LLC.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/arm-logo-2.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/arm-logo-2.jpg","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/www.tqlkg.com\/image-2438226-10773787","url":"http:\/\/www.tqlkg.com\/image-2438226-10773787","height":"60","width":"468"},"url":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/","commentCount":"6","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2020-08-19 06:10:31","description":"I always prefer to go with something brandable and easy to remember.  Whatever sounds better and doesn't cause something to question the spelling could be good.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"adamriemer","url":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me"}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2020-08-17 22:49:04","description":"Thank you for your great insight! Your post was very helpful. I am starting a new business involving leadership and life coaching for teens and young adults. The name of the company is Evolution Coaching but evolutioncoaching.com is taken. Is it bad to have .io or .us? I can also get .growth or .life but wasn't sure if these are too tacky or hard to remember. Any suggestions?","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Coach E","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment3","dateCreated":"2013-04-21 06:14:31","description":"Hi Lee,   \n\nNo problem.   There is no difference for SEO unless the url had a previous owner that damaged it.  SEO will be the same.  Just make sure you build quality links to it and write solid and useful copy.  I actually like ing endings because they are easy to say and remember.  Buy them both and test out to see which one people understand easier and what you like more.  \n\nI hope this helps.\n\nAdam","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment4","dateCreated":"2013-04-20 19:11:45","description":"Thanks for replying Adam. My current website is: bestenergystocks.org. I toyed around long enough between .biz, .info and net before going with .org. Of course .com was taken.\n\nI understand what you are saying about branding and people would remember a short name better and not catch the ing or ed or tion at the end. But for seo sakes does it matter? Are you saying 401kinvest.org is better than 401kinvested for branding? I am on the fence tilting one way or the other. I have not figured out yet which one would show better for the keyword 401k investment. That is my hold up. Would Google penalize me if I had 401kinvest.org since it is similar?\n\nBy the way, I found your website twice now by typing in \"for seo use present tense or past keywords in domain name\"\n\nYour top tab that starts with: contact me - hire me and etc... should be  2 fonts bigger because I missed it the first time.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lee","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment5","dateCreated":"2013-04-19 09:17:40","description":"I like both of them.  It's what you feel is easier to say and repeat.  I usually like the past tense domains because they sound better to me, but they have issues with word or mouth and repeating for a lot of people.  It also sounds a lot more brandable to me.  Both look like good urls to me based on their name alone.  I would go for the second one though.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#Comment6","dateCreated":"2013-04-18 22:12:38","description":"...is it better to have 401kinvest.com or 401kinvested?\n\nThey both mean 401k investment when searching on Google.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lee","url":""}}],"about":["Other"],"wordCount":1235,"keywords":["how to buy a url","how to find a url","what makes a good url"],"articleBody":"One of the most common mistakes I see when doing site reviews at conferences is issues with urls.\u00a0 It’s not always SEO issues, but issues with the actual domain name.\u00a0 People think what they have makes a good domain name for their site, but the reality is that they are actually hurting themselves by making common mistakes.\u00a0 Some people can’t find the exact match domain so they break it up with hyphens and others try to be cute by using numbers and misspellings.\u00a0 That is somewhat ok to do when you have an actual brand with hundreds of thousands of fans, but until then you need to think about a few things before you buy your url.\u00a0 Here are 5 things to remember when buying a url or domain name.1.\u00a0 BrandableIf you want to know what makes a good domain name, it doesn’t have to be an exact match.\u00a0 Good domain names are brandable ones that are easy to remember, can easily be printed on handouts and materials like pens, shirts, etc… and ones that can match a fun logo or design once you are ready for one.\u00a0 Instead of worrying about having the keywords in your url, if you do your SEO the right way, you’ll still be able to rank for the terms you want and your site will become a brand that people can remember.\u00a0 By having this memorable url, when they see it in the SERPs, they might choose you instead of someone else because they remember your site and that you provided value to them.\u00a0\u00a0 By building a brand instead of worrying about an exact match domain you can have a lot more success and easily get word of mouth referrals.2.\u00a0 No letters or numbers for wordsThe next issue I see is that people use letters and numbers instead of actual words.\u00a0 Then when we check online if its a live site review, they don’t own the common misspellings and sometimes the urls are still available for the word versions.\u00a0 If you want your brand to have a number in it like 2 instead of too or C instead of see, make sure you buy all misspellings that people would type in and redirect them to the main url.\u00a0 This is part of building your brand.\u00a0 You want to make sure that everyone who hears it can type it in and find your site which is why using letters and numbers is tricky.\u00a0 Some people will say the first word, then 2 as in the number 2 and then dot com and others will just say the name without describing how to type it in or spell it when sharing your url with a friend.\u00a0 That is where you can lose traffic to someone else or just not have that visitor be able to find your site.3.\u00a0 Leave the hyphens out and keep words to a minimumThe next error I see is people using hyphens so they can get every keyword they want in their url.\u00a0 Not only is this ridiculously hard to type in, but who is going to remember it?\u00a0 One person gave me a site with 5 hyphens in it during a live review a while ago and a couple of the words were combined without hyphens.\u00a0 It was one of the longest, keyword stuffed urls I had seen.\u00a0 Not only was he doomed for failure, but the url probably wouldn’t even fit in the SERPs, especially if he would install a blog and set his Permalinks (urls) to be the title of the post or have the keywords in them, nothing would fit and his brand is gone.\u00a0 Try to keep your urls short and simple or at least easy to remember and type in.\u00a0 Don’t use hyphens to try and get every keyword.\u00a0 They just make it harder to remember your domain name and it makes it much harder to type.4.\u00a0 Plural vs. Non Plural and Past TenseOne of my favorite sites to work on unfortunately has one of the worst domain names.\u00a0 I loved the url when I bought it, and still do, but should have asked myself what makes a good domain name first.\u00a0 The problem is that I had a regular present tense version available, but I went for branding forgetting that ed is hard to hear, say and not easy to remember.\u00a0 An example is the word review.\u00a0 If you have reviews then that is easy to remember and sticks out in someone’s head.\u00a0 If you use reviewed it becomes brandable, but harder to remember and hard for people to hear.\u00a0 Whenever I mention the site I actually have to repeat the ending and say something so they get it right.\u00a0 I’m still amazed how many people actually get the url wrong, even when I say it and tell them how it is spelled.\u00a0 Although at the time I thought (and still do think) it was a great name for a site, it is a pain in the butt to get people to figure out the ending.\u00a0 Look at your own domains and think about if it is plural and past or present tense.\u00a0 Then see if the other versions are available and set redirects to them so you can have your brandable domain show up and people can start to remember it.5.\u00a0 Friend test the urlThe last thing I do when I am buying a new url and need to figure out what makes a good domain name is to friend test it.\u00a0 I call about 5 friends and then skype a few after.\u00a0 I tell them the url I bought and ask them to write it down.\u00a0 I then have them read back what they wrote.\u00a0 If less than 8 out of ten get it right, you have a problem.\u00a0 9 out of 10 isn’t bad and 10 out of 10 is awesome.\u00a0 I usually do this after I have bought the urls and variations, mainly because I don’t want to lose one, especially if it is an awesome idea and could be a good domain name.\u00a0 Asking other people to write out the url can also help you find more common misspellings that people may make if someone tells them about your site and lets you know the other ones you may want to buy.\u00a0 Running a friend test can definitely help you to know which one to buy and use for your main site.When you are trying to figure out what makes a good domain name for an Affiliate site, ecommerce site or even a new blog, remember to think about branding so it can be memorable.\u00a0 Try not to go overboard with hyphens because you want every keyword you can think of or an exact match styled domain, and don’t try to be cute with letters and numbers.\u00a0 Then think about how it sounds when you say it and if you have to explain it because of tense or if it is plural or not and no one can write it down correctly when you say it, you probably don’t have a good one.\u00a0 Think about these things when you want to launch your next site and they’ll help you figure out what makes a good domain name or url for your site, blog or ecommerce shop.\u00a0 Feel free to leave your own tips or advice below."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Other","item":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Things to Remember When Buying a URL & What Makes a Good Domain Name","item":"https:\/\/www.adamriemer.me\/other\/5-things-to-remember-when-buying-a-url-what-makes-a-good-domain-name\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]