How to choose the perfect domain name for your startup?

Table of contents: 

1. Introduction
2. The explanation of domains
3. 5 tips on choosing the perfect domain name for your startup

1. Reserve more than one TLD!
2. Try alternative Top-level domains!
3. Plan to be global!
4. Create a multilingual name
5. Act fast
6. Conclusion

• Introduction

Startups need different approaches than other businesses. They need to grow dynamically, and if the investors don’t see this they don’t support the company and switch to other promising offers. That’s why even one tiny mistake can lead to total catastrophes in this industry. That means a wrong domain name can be that tiny catalysator too. 

In this article, we will lead you to the world of domain names, and give you practical instructions on how to choose the best for your own startup! Entrepreneurs, attention! This information might be very important for you. 

• The explanation of domains

First, we need to speak about domains, in general. A domain has four separate parts, but only two that you can change, and play with. Let’s analyze a domain name to understand this properly:

For example, there is: “https://www.google.com”

In this case, “https://” is the protocol. It ensures a safe data delivery between the web server and your computer.

“www”. is a subdomain. It is an abbreviation for “World Wide Web”, which indicates that your website is part of the global internet. In the early stages of the internet, it had some meanings, nowadays it is a general truth for every website. And tell you what: you no longer need that to include in your domain name, if you don’t want to. But for SEO reasons, it doesn’t mean anything. It can be your own personal choice to use this habit, or completely forget it.

“Google” is the second-level domain (SLD, in short). It is your option to perfectly tailor it to your own needs. But there are some rules, you need to acknowledge:

• Each SLD needs to be a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 63 characters long.
• They can include hyphens, but mustn’t start with them. 
• They must be registered at domain name registrars, and the ownership of the domain name is yours for just a limited time (Typically 1 to 10 years).

“.com” is the top-level domain (TLD, in short), it was created to categorize websites more easily. That’s why “.gov” is only available for American government entities, or .mil which is exclusively used by the US military. However, in most cases, this categorization completely lost its meaning. Nowadays, you can choose from uncountable TLD options that are all waiting for you to discover. 

• 5 tips on choosing the perfect domain name for your startup

In this part of the article, we will mention five tips that can help you find the best domain name for your startup.

1. Reserve more than one TLD!

There is one more rule that you really need to know about. Although, single-handedly a TLD or a SLD can be used by more than one corporation, the combination of them can be used only by one. So, if your desired SLD+TLD combination is reserved, you can still replace one, and you are good. But only just hypothetically, because companies usually reserve their SLD with most of the available TLDs to not let companies climb on their back. Also, you may get in legal battles, if you do that. So, it’s always the optimal choice to search for something unique.

But to turn this into another dimension: you must reserve more than one TLD!

It is a very crucial step because, at this stage, you are not the biggest fish in the Ocean. You don’t want infinitive legal battles, our companies that want to take advantage of your fame. To ensure that, you need to be sure that this option can not be possible. Of course, you can’t reserve everything, so you only need to try the most popular ones. Just like: “.com”, “.net”, “.io”, or “.tech”.

One more positive aspect of achieving this is now you can segment your potential buyers more precisely. Your tech content can be under the “.tech” domain, but your main website uses the “.com” TLD.

2. Try alternative Top-level domains!

Many entrepreneurs falsely believe that the top-level domain options are relatively small. But the truth is that outside of “.com”, or “.org” there are a bunch of other new-coming options. Startups try to convince their potential buyers with something very innovative because they believe that will be the future. Well, for them it can be a perfect choice to pick an alternative and innovative TLD.

Here is for example “.tech”. A very popular choice of TLD across startuppers, although other users may have barely heard of it. "Aurora.tech", the website of a brand that created self-driving technology, or “flit.tech”, or here is “soar.tech” which is the website of a digital banking platform. But, the truth is there are many more startups that use the “.tech” TLD.

However, there are some country-code domain names that have started to become popular outside their own specific country. For example, “.ai” (the country-specific domain name for Anguilla), “.ly” (Libya), or “.so” (Somalia) are all very popular across startups.

Why? It’s because the target groups of startups are all fans of innovative solutions, and this is one aspect that really makes them smile, and enthusiastic. 

3. Plan to be global!

Country-specific top-level domains (ccTLD) are great! According to some statistics, 38% of all websites use ccTLDs. Moreover, Europe is the ccTLD superpower. Here, more than 60% of all websites use country-specific top-level domains. However, especially after the launch we don’t really recommend to startups to use them. 

Why? Because their main plan is to grow. And even if a “.uk” ccTLD means reliability for a British internet user, that connotation stops in the mind of foreign users. Also, a “.uk” website grabs a higher place on Google’s search page inside the United Kingdom, it gets lower to the list in other countries. 

After you become a superpower of your industry, you can create sub-websites with ccTLDs, but as a first option, it is a no-go zone.

4. Create a multilingual name

Many startup businesses fell into the same trap again and again. Even if they have a very creative name in their local language, the business could not be converted worldwide because of the name.

Let me demonstrate an example. “Covoiturage” was a very effective name for a ridesharing company in France. In France, “covoiturage” means carpooling, so the name stood for itself. However, this business wanted to go outside France, which was almost impossible with this name. One thing that it doesn’t mean anything in other languages, but the main issue was how hard and complex it was to spell and write down. So they needed to change their name to BlaBlaCar, a name which is recognizable, and multilingual. This is what you really need to concentrate on.

Also, it may occur that a word in your local language means something else, maybe an explicit word in other languages. Try to avoid these awkward situations by doing a little research about your preferred name. After you note that it doesn’t contain any negative connotations in other regions, you can reserve that domain name at a domain name registrar.

5. Act fast

And finally, the world of domain names is a really fast-paced world. A statistic pointed out that more than 33 thousand new domains are registered daily across the globe, which means there’s a domain registration every 2.6 seconds!

If you have a great idea, and the domain is still available, you have to act quickly! Luckily, some domain name registrars realized that and enabled you to reserve the preferred domain within just minutes! A domain name registration has never been easier, as with just a few clicks, you not only purchase a domain, but you can pick your dream hosting plan with it.

• Conclusion

In this article, we introduced how the domain system works, and gave some important tips to present, or future entrepreneurs on how to create their perfect domain name for their startups. Believe us: domain names are just a slight part of creating a unicorn startup, but they can really bring your company to the bottom if you do something wrong.