How to select a high converting domain name for your URL
Since the dawn of the Web, it has become a universal truth agreed upon by all successful internet marketers around the world, that having a great domain name is critical to your success.
A domain name is a small group of words that you’ll buy from a domain registrar and then redirect to the URL of your landing page or lead capture page. (URL = universal redirect link)
Because a URL is the exact online address where a website is hosted and can contain a combination of seemingly meaningless words, letters, numbers, and even random characters like question marks, backslashes, and periods, it’s a great idea to have a short, specific domain name that describes your business, marketing system, product, or service.
If you’re using an online marketing system where everyone is given a similar URL for your landing page, having a domain name that sets you apart from everyone else using the same system is critical to your success.
Therefore, the domain name you buy should be short and simple, and something that will entice a person to click on it when displayed in an email, online advertisement, or from any website where your domain is posted, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.
Buying a domain
As a general rule of thumb, always buy your own name or a version of it.
If your name is John Smith, you may want to shop for JohnSmith.com, JohnSmith.net, or JohnSmith.info.
If they’re not available, you can use variations like WhoIsJohnSmith.com, MeetJohnSmith.com, or PartnerWithJohnSmith.com
Even if you don’t use this domain right away, you’ll certainly want your own name for any personal branding you may create in the future. Of course, you can also use it for your landing page, if you want, depending on the market you’re listing your domain for.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s a great idea to use your own name on a domain, when marketing to your friends, fans, or social media marketplace followers.
The people who follow you and are friends with you on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace and/or any social media platform want to get to know YOU, so using your name or a version of it will create curiosity among your friends, fans and followers, perhaps compelling them to click on your link on your profile page.
When selecting a domain name for online advertising, it’s a great idea to create what’s known as “relevance” by including in your domain name a couple or a few words that appear on your landing page.
Since this is not a social media advertising campaign, using your name is not the best option because most of the time the cold market doesn’t know you yet.
Therefore, it is better to go for more ‘Marketing Savvy’ words in a domain name that is short, sweet and intriguing to your audience.
Again, curiosity is one of the most important factors in convincing people to click on your link. Your ad might even get overlooked, but your domain name might get all the clicks.
A great way to generate some ideas is to create your landing page first, and then buy a domain name that matches some of the most powerful words on the page. Or, buy your domain name first and then make sure to use the words it contains on your landing page at least a few times, most near the top of the page in a Pre-Heading or Heading itself, where it will catch the eye of anyone who clicks on your domain name out of curiosity.
This will also help you get a good “Quality Score” with the search engines, especially Google, if you’re using Google AdWords to drive traffic to your landing page.
Also, stay away from any abbreviations or spellings that are different from your normal spelling, as it will confuse people.
For example, for the word “easy”, do not use “EZ”. (not that I recommend that word as part of your domain; just stay away from abbreviations)
The best domains use words and short phrases that are easy to spell and remember.
A good domain name should make people curious and intrigued and want to see the information on your landing page or website.
Of course, if your Ad is well written and commands attention due to its high placement in Google’s Sponsored Ad Bars, your domain name is important, but what is MOST important is that the searcher, who now becomes a website visitor, finds what they were looking for when they click on your ad. Again, this is called “relevance.”
This also applies to social media domain names. If one of your Facebook friends clicks on your displayed website address (your name.com), but they’re taken to a landing page that doesn’t reflect anything about you and doesn’t show your name, a photo of you, a video or anything about you, chances are they think you’re on the wrong page and most likely aren’t even interested.
You can buy cheap domain names at Go Daddy, if you don’t already have a domain registrar you like. This is the one I use for all my domain registration.
When you visit this website, the first thing you’ll want to do is search for a domain name to see if it’s available.
If so, you will see the available suffixes for the domain you choose, i.e. .com, .net, .org, .us, .biz, .info, etc…
.coms are usually associated with a website where a purchase can be made, ie. the word “commerce”.
.Nets could be used for “commerce” like a dot com, but they are usually associated with a network that would represent the website.
.Info is usually associated with just that, information about someone or something
.org is usually associated with information about an organization
And the list goes on!
Pick the one you want, however, remember that dot com domains generally get the most response, not because you’ll have the best domain name online, but because .com domains were first on the market when the internet was still in its infancy and if people forget your domain is a.net or .biz or .info they will always go to the .com version of your domain.
Keep in mind that a newly registered domain name can take up to 24 hours to become active, so make sure you don’t start marketing it or sharing it with others until you’ve thoroughly tested it to ensure it forwards to your landing page.
Now, after purchasing a domain name, you’ll want to forward it to your website URL.
Forwarding your domain to your URL is similar to having someone call your home phone number, but “forwarded” to your cell or mobile phone.
Forwarding a domain name is the same concept: you choose where your purchased “Domain” is forwarded, in this case, to your URL.
You can even “mask” your domain name, which simply means that when a visitor lands on your site, they won’t see the URL, but rather the domain name you purchased, forwarded, and now want to display in your website’s address bar.
So, here’s how to select a high-converting domain name for your URL and how to make sure your landing page and/or website gets the most traffic possible when you advertise and market online.
Just keep in mind that your domain name marks the beginning of your marketing system or funnel, so make sure it grabs people’s attention, compels them to want to see your business, and is a functional link that takes them directly to your website.