How to choose a domain name for your business: a practical guide

Your domain name is the address people type, say on the phone, print on a visiting card and see in every email you send. You will live with it for years, and changing it later means new cards, new signage, redirects and a slow rebuild of everything Google knows about you. It is worth spending an evening getting it right. This guide walks through how to choose one, which ending to pick, and how to register it so that it stays yours.

1. Start with your business name, not keywords

The safest domain is simply your business name: sharmadental.com, phohanoikitchen.com, brightpathtutors.in. It matches your signboard, your Google Business Profile and what customers already call you. When someone hears your name from a friend and types it in, they land on you.

Some owners try to squeeze in keywords, such as best-plumber-pune-cheap.com. This rarely helps. Google ranks pages on their content, links and relevance, not on the words in the domain, and keyword-stuffed domains look untrustworthy to people. If your business name is very common, adding one word of place or trade is fine: kapoorbakerypune.com or nguyenlawhcm.com read naturally and still sound like a brand.

2. The "radio test": easy to say, spell and remember

Imagine telling your domain to someone over a noisy phone line. If you have to spell it out or explain it, it will lose you visitors. Before you buy, check it against this list:

• Short: aim for something you can say in one breath. Fewer than about 15 characters before the dot is comfortable.
• No hyphens: people forget them, and "sharma hyphen dental dot com" is awkward to say.
• No numbers that could be words: is it "4u" or "foryou"? People will guess wrong.
• No double letters at word joins: pressstudio.com is easy to mistype.
• Read it as one word: make sure the joined words don't spell something unintended. Write it in lower case and read it slowly.
• Works across languages: if you serve Vietnamese customers, avoid letters with diacritics in the domain itself. Use the plain spelling, as in phobac rather than a form with accents.

Say it out loud to three people who don't know your business and ask them to type it. If all three get it right, you have a good name.

3. Choose the right ending: .com, .in, .us or .vn

The ending (the top-level domain) tells people, and to some extent Google, where you are and who you serve.

Google's Search Central documentation explains that country-code endings such as .in or .vn are a strong signal that a site targets that country. So a .in domain is a good fit for a Pune clinic, but a poor one for a software company that sells mainly in the USA. If you serve all three countries, a .com with clear location pages on the site usually works best.

Newer endings such as .studio, .shop or .agency are legitimate and Google treats them like any other ending, but customers may still type .com out of habit. If you use one, consider buying the .com too, if it is available, and pointing it at your site.

4. Check before you buy

1. Search the name on Google. Make sure no well-known business, especially one in your trade, already uses it. Similar names confuse customers and can cause legal trouble.
2. Check trademarks. In India you can search the public trademark records; in the USA, the USPTO's trademark search; in Vietnam, the national IP office records. If a registered mark matches your name in your field, choose something else.
3. Check social handles. Matching handles on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or Zalo make you easier to find. They don't have to be identical, but close is better.
4. Look up the domain's history. If the name was registered before, a quick look at an archive service shows what used to be there. A domain that once hosted spam can carry baggage.

5. Register it properly so it stays yours

This is the step most small businesses get wrong, and it can be very costly. We regularly meet owners whose domain was registered by a former web designer, a relative or an employee who has since left. When renewal time comes, nobody can log in.

• Register it in the business's name, with an email address the owner controls, such as a Gmail or company address you will keep for years. Never use a developer's personal email.
• Use a well-known registrar with two-step verification on the account. Turn it on the same day.
• Turn on auto-renew and keep a valid card on file. An expired domain takes your website and your email down together, and an expired name can be picked up by someone else.
• Keep registrar lock on, so the domain can't be moved to another registrar without your approval.
• Turn on privacy protection if your registrar offers it, so your personal phone and home address aren't published in public lookups.
• Write the login down in a safe place: who the registrar is, which account, and when it renews.

If an agency or freelancer is building your site, they can manage the technical settings, but the domain should still be registered to you. Ask for this in writing before work starts.

6. Watch the renewal price, not just the first year

Registrars often advertise a very low price for the first year and a much higher price for renewals. Before you pay, look for the renewal price on the checkout page and compare it across two or three registrars. For a standard .com or .in, the yearly cost is modest; if a renewal looks surprisingly expensive, it is worth shopping around. Avoid add-ons you don't need at checkout, and decide on email and hosting separately. Our guide to what a website costs in India explains which yearly costs are normal.

7. Set up professional email on the same domain

Once you own the domain, use it for email: hello@yourbusiness.com looks far more trustworthy on a quote than a free address. Most email providers will give you a few records to add to your domain's DNS settings. Ask whoever sets up your website to add the authentication records (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) at the same time; they help your emails reach inboxes instead of spam folders.

If you already have a domain you don't like

Don't rush to change it. A working domain with years of history, reviews and links pointing to it has value. If you do move, keep the old domain, renew it every year and set up permanent (301) redirects from every old page to its new equivalent, so customers and Google follow you. This is a standard part of a website redesign, and it is easy to get wrong if done in a hurry.

A quick checklist before you click "buy"

• It matches your business name or is very close to it.
• Three people typed it correctly after hearing it once.
• No hyphens, confusing numbers or accidental words.
• The ending suits the country or countries you serve.
• No clash with an existing trademark or well-known business.
• It is registered to you, with your email, two-step verification, auto-renew and registrar lock.
• You know the renewal price.

If you'd like a second opinion on a shortlist of names, or help connecting a new domain to a website and email, ToBrand can help. Send us your ideas and we'll tell you honestly which one we would pick.