I buy a lot of domains.
Here are my guidelines for my GUYS when selecting a domain for a niche website.
I have them do almost all of my research for me.
- I want a .com almost always. There will be times when a niche is too competitive to find a reasonable .com and in that case you can find a .org (first) or a .net (if the .org isn’t available).
- I want the main keywords for that niche in the domain. If the niche is “pet insurance,” I want the domain petinsurance.com. If that’s not available, try “bestpetinsurance.com.” If that’s not available, try “petinsurancesecrets.com.” If that’s not available, try something else (maybe petinsuranceworld.com or petinsurancesite.com or something like that.) Or, try putting dashes (-) in between the keywords (like pet-insurance.com)
- I want the shortest domain with my keywords in it first, and then if that’s not possible, add other keywords to it (best, secrets, world, …). If you have to add 2 words to get a good domain, tray adding the dashes to the domain to get a short one.
- Use your brain on this to get the domain that makes the most sense for that niche. For example, BestDogObedienceTraining.com makes sense, but DogObedienceTrainingSecrets.com is better, and DogObedienceTrainingWorld.com isn’t very good. Just try to think of what would be the best for getting someone who is looking for “pet insurance” to click and come to the site. What domain would they be most likely to believe willhave the answer for them.
- Ask me before buying any domain, but try to narrow it down to a single domain. I don’t want to have to sift through multiple domains most of the time. If I don’t like a domain, I’ll let you know.
More of my trainings like this are available as a member of ReplaceMyself.com. This is the training I give to my Filipinos to make my life easier.
@Mike, @Simon – Those are awesome points you make. I hadn’t thought of that before. I’ll have to go back through my domains and make sure I don’t have stuff like that.
John
LOL!
Very funny those domain names with those letters in the wrong places 🙂
Jhon, I would like to know what do you do if your guys buy the wrong domain name. Can you exchange it for another?
cheers!
Alex.
I’ve grown quite fond of using DomainIdeas.com to get good suggestions. Type in your keywords and it spits out coherent suggestions…
hi jonas
thanx for the great tips on domain picking. have a question though…what is the reasoning behind choosing .org over .net? i know there are differing opinions all over the web. and i’m pretty sure i’ve read an opinion to the opposite. just wondering what your reasoning is.
thanx
jw
Very good information about choosing domain names and an excellent caution about inadvertent letter combinations. I don’t understand what the problem is with domain names with dashes. They seem easier to read and understand, but I have seen comments in other blogs that people don’t care for them. Why is that?
hi john. ive been reading your modules and have been learning a lot. i was just wondering, why do you prefer filipinos to work for you?
note:im a filipino myself
Hi John,
What do you think of the .co and .mobi domains.
My interest in the ,co is because the .com and .etc's are taken.
I am interested in the .mobi for local business sites.