7 Tips for Choosing a Real Estate Domain Name	2.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Jenna Cyprus October 07, 2016

The importance of having a real estate website is immeasurable, but it’s often overlooked. Realtors today often use outdated tactics that involve networking and print advertisements to promote their businesses rather than the power of digital marketing. While there are some timeless tactics, the time has come to evolve.

Building a great real estate website is the most important part of embracing the digital scene. The first step is choosing a domain name. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it refers to the URL for your website, which is often similar to your site’s name. This will stick with your business forever, and your brand will be associated with this name for the life of your site.

As a result, there’s a lot of pressure riding on the name you choose. It needs to be different enough that it will stand out from your competitors, but simple enough that it’ll be easy to remember. The process of choosing a domain name is actually one of the most difficult parts of creating your website, but you have to take the plunge.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing a domain name.

1. Don’t use your name.

A lot of realtors name their businesses after themselves, which is perfectly fine. However, it doesn’t always translate to a good domain name for your business. You want your domain to provide some kind of indication of what you do.

Instead of using your name, try using the name of your area. For example, if you focus on the Houston area, you might try a domain like Houstonhomes.com or Houstonareahouses.com. This is a fairly generic example, but it’s still better than using a name most people won’t recognize.

2. Keep the URL short if possible.

Memorability is the main goal with your domain name, and long URLs make this very difficult. Come up with a few ideas for domain names and then find ways to shorten them and make them catchier.

This is another reason why using your name as a domain could be a problem. If it’s long and complicated, visitors won’t be able to remember it. Choosing shorter and simpler terms is always best here.

3. Make it easy to spell.

This is a vital part of making your URL memorable. Complicated spelling will confuse web visitors and could potentially lead them to a competitor’s site. Additionally, beware of double letters, which can be confusing and easy to forget.

If you’re worried about your domain name being misspelled, then purchase domains with those common misspellings. That way, if a searcher spells the domain name incorrectly, it can automatically redirect the visitor to the correct site and make sure everything goes to the right domain.

4. Using keywords in your domain can slightly help SEO.

Keywords are a very small portion of the SEO algorithm, so don’t put all your eggs in this one basket. However, localized keywords can bring your domain up a couple of rankings. Words like your location, “houses,” “rentals,” “properties,” “condos,” “homes,” “realty” and other relevant terms can use the keyword portion of the SEO algorithm to your advantage.

5. Stick to using .com.

Dot-com extensions are one of the top-level domains on the web. Other extensions like .net, .org, and .us, are typically high ranking, but they’re more geared towards education sites, publishers, and product websites. Extensions that use .com are also easier for visitors to remember.

6. Try not to hyphenate.

Just like complicated spellings will throw off your visitors, so will URLs with hyphens. The best sites don’t use hyphens because it’s difficult to remember where the hyphen goes, and it’s even easier to forget it’s there. It can also reduce your search engine rankings since searchers usually don’t use search terms with hyphens.

7. Check the availability of your chosen domain and buy it.

Once you’ve finally narrowed your domain name, you’ll need to check the availability. Domain checking tools like Instant Domain Search, GoDaddy, Hover, Namecheap, and Register keep a running tab on the domain names currently in use.

Once you’ve been assured that your chosen domain is available, you can purchase it. Don’t forget to purchase similar domains if possible to catch web searchers who spell the domain wrong. Make sure your domain is exactly how you want it before clicking “buy,” since it’s much harder to make a change after everything has been finalized.

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