The domain name is the name of your website. It’s the name you give to people when they want to access your website. It’s the URL of your website and has many components. It’s important to choose a good domain name for several reasons.
The Importance Of Selecting A Good Domain Name
You spend a lot of time coming up with a good name for your business. You may use proper nouns, you may even have an acronym, but it’s better to choose a meaningful word or a combination of words to make your business name memorable.
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Your domain name is your online identity, it’s a part of your branding
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It helps customers find you online
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It helps form brand associations in the customer's mind
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Your domain name may also be helpful in SEO
If you’re an established business, you already have a company name and you want to choose that as your domain name. Unfortunately, you may find that some of the Top-Level Domains for that name are already registered.
What is the TLD?
In a domain name, the TLD is the rightmost part of the URL. For example, consider www.companyname.com - here, .com is the Top-Level Domain. It’s always best to purchase your company name with the .com extension in your primary domain name. This is because the .com TLD has been long associated with websites and ecommerce. Most people when looking for your website will type in your company name with the .com TLD. You can assume this happens kind of instinctively for users.
Second-Level Domain
Second-Level Domain refers to that part of the domain URL that’s actually the website name. For instance, in www.google.com, Google is the Second-Level Domain. It comes second in the domain level hierarchy after the extension, so it’s referred to as the Second-Level Domain.
Your Website Name (Second-Level Domain) Tips
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Keep the name short and easy to remember. If you have a recognizable brand name use it
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If not, try to come up with something crisp, neat, and meaningful. For instance, a name like trendybags conveys the idea that you sell fashionable and trendy bags
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You may find that trendybags is already registered with the .com TLD by someone else. In that case, try to think of alternate names
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Avoid using variations of competitor names or variations on popular brand names. You may end up getting caught in trademark and branding violation issues
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Think from the perspective of the customer, think how they will search for the products you sell. Use a word that’s highly relevant to your business and a word that customers will automatically associate with the product
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If you can't get your desired name with .com extension, try to register the name with a Country Code TLD (ccTLD) that you’re doing business in (.us, .uk, .au, .ca etc)
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Register an alternate name with the .com extension, one that still relates to your business
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Then, register the name you want with newer, less used TLDs. There are a large number of new TLDs. Pair the name of your business with a relevant TLD like .travel, .shop. .shoes, .photos, .cafe, .gift etc.
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You can also use these domain names to redirect to your main .com domain name
Buying Your Domain Name from Shopify
Shopify is an ideal ecommerce platform to setup your online store. You can also buy your domain name from Shopify. When you buy through shopify, the domain name is automatically setup and associated with your Shopify store. It’s registered for one year after which you have to renew it.
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On your Shopify admin panel, navigate to Online Store, then Domains
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Click on the Buy New Domain link
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In the Domain name search box, enter the domain name you want (Second-Level domain) and search
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You will get a list of that domain name with available extensions
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Select the domain you want, click on the buy button next to it
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You will get a summary of the purchase details with your personal information (this will show the associated email and details for the Shopify account owner)
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If you want to keep renewing the domain automatically each year before expiry, select the auto renew option
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Some domains come with WHOIS privacy, some don't. If you want WHOIS privacy and this domain doesn’t come with it, you can go back and choose an alternate domain name that comes with this feature
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WHOIS privacy shields your personal contact info in search results for a WHOIS query on your domain
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Finally, click Buy Domain to make the purchase
Your domain name is part of your business identity. It’s the online address for your business and leads customers to your shop. So, it’s important to choose a good domain name and buy it from a reliable source like Shopify. Select a good domain name to avoid needing to change the name later on.
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