Three Tips for Buying a Domain Name	2.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Anand Srinivasan October 12, 2017

Domain names define your business and the product. A great domain name that is memorable makes it easier for your prospective customers to come to your site and buy your products. At the same time, domain names can also demonstrate the authenticity of your website and could impact conversion rates of your visitors. In this article, we will take a look at three important pointers that you must consider before shelling out big bucks for your domain name.

Will a customer trust your business?

It is true that short and brand-worthy domain names do not exist anymore. Those that do are often ‘parked’ by domain squatters who may charge a ridiculously high amount for you to get a hold of them. That does not mean that you should go for cheap alternatives. A domain name acts as a gateway to your website. Unless it can exhibit legitimacy, chances are that prospective customers may choose not to visit your website. It is important for a business owner to survey a handful of their most valuable customers to seek feedback on the domain name before they go ahead and buy it.

Target customer profile and not your product

One of the more common mistakes committed by new businesses is to purchase a domain name that communicates the product being sold. This is not always a bad idea. However, as a startup business, you are likely to pivot more times than you can possibly imagine. Buying a domain name that directly references the product being sold may restrict the scope of your business. For instance, a domain name like cooltshirts.com may only let you know sell one type of product - tshirts that look cool or trendy. If your market moves away from tshirts towards hoodies, your business may fail to capture this evolving trend. On the other hand, targeting your customers provides business owners with an opportunity to pivot or expand the scope of their business to cover products or services that your customer is looking for.

Check out past domain history

Businesses looking to buy a fresh domain that has never been used have to either settle for one that doesn’t exhibit trust or have to pick one that is registered on an obscure new TLD that customers may have trouble coming to terms with. Buying a domain with history can either help or hurt your business prospects. Check out marketplaces like Exchange by Shopify to find domain names that pertain to your industry that already have an established ecommerce store. Regardless of what you plan with your domain name, an existing pipeline of online retail buyers to your site can be lucrative since these are visitors who are ready to buy and will help your business make money.

At the same time, stay away from domain names that have been used in the past for spammy or illegitimate purposes. This includes domain names that have made use of spammy link building or other SEO techniques for which they may have been penalized by Google. Purchasing such a domain name would mean inheriting the bad karma acquired by the previous owner that may make it difficult for your business to overcome.

What other tips would you offer someone who is buying a domain name for the first time? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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