Avoid these 7 Mistakes on Domain Selection and Registration

Many users and webmasters do not avoid the common mistakes in domain selection and registration when they register it from the ICANN-accredited registrars. Each day many websites are created by people of various professions to turn what they think into reality through the use of the Internet and the web hosting industry. All that is right. But what to highlight now is that there are many things to consider while you are selecting or registering a domain for your future online workstation aka a website. Those who do not take care of it register what they think is better for their sites.

They even do not speculate on what types of sites they are building and what are niches suitable for it all. But you need to think before you are registering domain names. There are many things to consider such as:

• What are the common mistakes on domain registration that people forget to avoid?
• Do you know these errors?
• How do avoid these errors?

These are some of the topics that this article covers in this guide for you. The domain name must be readable, meaningful, memorable, short, and compact as much as possible for better user experience and interactions. Every time you need to type this part of the URL of a site if you want to visit it. That’s why don’t be careless to avoid the common mistakes in domain registration. Follow the article till the end and you can learn what to avoid when registering a domain name.

#1-Mistakes on Domain Registration

Users do not plan about what they are going to register as domains. Choose whatever word, keyword, phrase, or key phrase that you like for your future domain but it must be good enough in many aspects of your business if it does not sound in every nook and corner. Don’t register whatever flashes into your mind regardless of your business, niche, or brand. Contemplate what you are going to do for your site and don’t extemporize.

It will be better if the domain name that you are going to register is relevant to or relates to your brand or business. There are many websites with domain names having relevance to their business or service.

Now, you can see how each of the site’s domains relates to what they offer to the customers.

Let’s take another example like Domain.com. This site provides services on domain registration. Ssl.com offers services on SSL. There are many such kinds of websites with relevant domain names to their business, products, or services. And, I think it will be the best option for you if you get an exact match.

However, it is not the only way that you have to go through. Provided that you get such kind of exact matches for your site, it will be a great opportunity. You had better to choose a relevant domain to your site’s niche instead of choosing an irrelevant one.

Under certain conditions, you can choose other alternatives for better brandability of your site if you can’t find an exact match relevant to your product or service.

#2-Mistakes on Domain Selection

Don’t include hyphens and numbers in a domain name as much as possible. Words or phrase with hyphen and number is hard to remember and type. Users can’t type and remember such kinds of words with ease.

Suppose you have a domain like ‘wpblogginghack.org or wpblogginghack.net. Now, don’t include hyphens in the word like ‘wp-blogginghack, wpblogging-hack rather choose the earlier option, namely, wpblogginghack.

Let’s go to another example like ‘selectyour-career.net or selectyour-career.org. Both the words have included hyphens. Here, both the words have a negative impact on users in many aspects. You can’t remember, type or print easily such kind of hyphenated words.

Many users also use numbers while registering domains. This is too not a good option to choose from. Inserting numbers within words make them hard to type, read and spell. You can’t remember such kinds of words. Plain texts are more memorable than those which include numbers. As for my practical experience, I have seen that most famous websites do not include numbers in domains.

Let’s explain this matter, a bit, for more clarity. Assume that you have domains like ‘popular100tips.com, search20.org, reports10.org, etc. You can register such kinds of domains. There is no obstacle. But the weakest point is that users can’t memorize, read, type and print such kinds of domains with ease. Keep in mind that the website you create is for men, not for robots. So, give priority to the user’s intent.

So far, you have understood that words with numbers are hard to memorize, read and type. Users can’t use such types of words with ease. So, exclude numbers from your domains and instead use the plains which do not include numbers. Which ones are best for the user’s intent?

#3-Mistakes on Domain Registration

Do not choose too long word/s for the purpose of the domain. You must have heard that length of a URL is a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm. Most of the popular SEO plugins fix the length of URLs to 76 characters. This is the maximum length.

Most of the websites with domain authority have short domains consisting of less than 18 characters. And, of course, to optimize your site, you need to look at the length of the URL for every post and page. In his respect, shorter domains are preferable to long ones.

Too long words are time-consuming to type and remember. Users always like to use short words. That’s why short and compact domain names are more popular both to the users and marketers who invest, buy and sell domains. To avoid the common mistakes on domain names, choose short and compact words and leave the longer ones for SEO best practices.

Look at the following websites having short domains.

#4-Mistakes to Avoid While Choosing a Domain

To avoid mistakes on the domain, you need to look at the whois record to find out if there existed anything harmful to your would-be domain. There is no guarantee that you’re targeted which is now available for registration and was not used before. Many websites are created and deleted. The websites which are left inactive or deleted have domain names. These domain names are acquired by the registrars or third parties if the registrants do not renew these.

Whois protocol lets you check the whois record of any website like the registration date of the domain, update, expiry, etc. Suppose you want to check the history of a domain that is now available for registration but was registered before. Now, the protocol will show you its details. If anything went wrong with this, you can see it.

Owing to the use of black hat SEO, Google penalized many websites in the past. Some site owners too deleted their sites owing to getting blacklisted. The domains, too, associated with the sites are left and not renewed. Such kinds of domain names are available for registration.

“Choosing a penalized domain which was left before owing to black hat SEO or Google penalty is not recommended for reregistration, as such kind of domain affects your site negatively”.

#5-Mistakes to Avoid when Registering a Domain

Users very often do not look at trademarks while choosing and registering domains. You know that every company big or small has a trademark to distinguish it from others. So, to avoid mistakes in domain selection, you need to check the trademark on it.

There are many social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc. If you want to create a profile on any of these social sites, there is no need to register anything on it. But for a domain name, the matter is totally different because you can’t use any word or name as a domain for your site until it is registered and name servers are updated. To check its social presence, you can check the social name checker tool like Namechk which can show you a number of social platforms.

To avoid disputes on domain names, do not use domains having any trademark relation to the companies who own them. The domain name may be available for registration with a separate TLD but it looks similar to a name or site title like Flikpart.org. Flipkart is a company and its registered domain is flikpart.com but flikpart.org is available for registration. You can register it but for the sake of branding, I do not recommend you to use such kind of name having similarities with others.

There are about 5000 domains in the Whois database and all of them are under trademark disputes. To avoid such kind of conflict, it is a must to check the trademark for a domain.

#6-Mistakes What Not to Include in Domain

Many users do not opt for domain protection but are a blunder. Don’t like to protect your personal information? Of course, it is a must-have. That’s why don’t leave your personal data open for all lest you will be bombarded with junk mail, unwanted calls, and spamming which are very annoying.

If someone asks you what is the most crucial factor or mistakes on domain selection and registration, I think you should say enabling the domain privacy or leaving it unprotected.

Data you enter during registration of a domain submitted to the whois database is publicly accessible. Once your data leaked, it may be manipulated by scammers or third parties may sell your data for commercial gains.

#7-Mistakes not to Include When Registering Domain

What are the mistakes on domain selection in terms of TLD? This is the choosing of a non-suitable top-level domain. There are numerous extensions on domain names. Which one to choose? It is a question and you should consider it. Your first priority will be to choose the best and most popular domain extensions like .com, .org, .net, etc.

Based on the niche of your site, you should choose a top level domain. First of all, you have to determine what type of site you are going to launch. This is so because domain endings are also categorized into various types.

Look at the following extensions to know more:

• .Edu—- for educational sites.
• .Ac—– for academic institutions.
• .Gov—-for governmental sites.

For an educational site, your first priority will be to choose the .edu extension. Whenever a visitor looks at your site’s web address, especially at the domain endings, he can affirm that the site is about education. Choosing an exact TLD is important for you for avoiding mistakes on domain.

Key Takeaways

So far, you have learned the things to avoid while choosing a domain or registering it. In a nutshell, the things that you need to avoid while registering a domain are:

1. domain irrelevant to your site’s service or products.
2. Hyphen
3. Numbers
4. Too long words
5. A penalized domain that was registered and left but is now available for registration.
6. Words with trademarks or social presence.
7. Disabling whoisguard or domain privacy and
8. Choosing unsuitable TLD.