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Are you a local business owner wanting to get your business up and running but don’t know how to choose a domain name for your business?
Or maybe you don’t even know what a domain name is and why you need one?
Well, we have good news – this tutorial is for you!
So, how important is a domain name?
Choosing a domain name for your local business is a lot more important than you may think, and also requires quite a bit of calculated thinking and planning.
A suitable domain name can help your business rank higher in Google search, meaning you’ll gain more popularity online and achieve a sense of online authority from any website visitors and potential customers.
Read more: How to add your local business to Google maps
How to Pick a Domain Name?
In this tutorial, we are going to provide you with all the tips and tricks on how to choose a domain name for your business that best represents your brand to help your local business boost conversions, sales, authority, and presence online.
In addition to this, we are going to guide you through the simple process of buying a domain name through HostPapa, our favorite web hosting and domain website, so you can start operating online.
Let’s get stuck in and show you how to choose the right domain name for your local business!
1. What is a Domain Name?
Before we dive into this tutorial on how to choose a domain name for your business, it’s important we explain what a domain name is and why it’s so important.
Domain names are actually vital components to the infrastructure of the internet.
Essentially, your domain name is a unique name closely associated with your business and brand, and acts as a base to your presence online.
Having the correct domain name is important because your website (and therefore your business and brand) can be found online by someone simply typing in your domain name into their browser’s search bar.
It’s important to note that there are two essential parts of your domain name that we’re going to cover and break down in this how to choose a domain name tutorial.
- The domain name itself.
- The top level domain (TLD).
When thinking of the best domain name for your business, you should also make sure you’re choosing the right TLD, as both are important for establishing a strong online presence and brand.
Let’s talk about how to create your domain name first.
2. How to Choose The Right Domain Name
Ideally, we recommend your domain name to be your business name.
Don’t have a domain name?
Click here to create a domain name with HostPapa.
That’s going to take you to HostPapa’s website (see screengrab).
*The link above is an affiliate link, which means we will get a commission if you upgrade to a paid plan (with no extra cost to you). This helps support our education-based website and we thank you in advance!
There are also plenty of other platforms and domain providers, however, we love and recommend HostPapa for small businesses looking to buy both a domain name and web hosting, as they offer an amazing level of support and their platform is super user-friendly, which is perfect for beginners!
You can read our blog on the Best WordPress hosting for beginners.
Once you’ve arrived at HostPapa:
- Navigate up to and click ‘Domains’.
- Come down to the search bar to search for your ideal domain name.
Remember – this should be your business name.
Every business needs to have a domain name.
For local businesses that don’t already have a domain name (or even a business name), we suggest you take the time to really think about how you can add specific keywords related to both your business, products or services, or the location that you operate in to help you with a name for both your business name and domain name.
If you operate in a specific geographical location, we suggest also adding these keywords to your domain name.
By doing this, it will help your website rank higher in search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing when potential customers are looking and searching for your services or products.
Next, we’re going to continue with this guide on how to pick a domain name and take a look at a local roofing business that operates in Sydney, Australia as an example.
Let’s think about what type of keyword people are searching for on Google for a reliable roofing contractor to fix a leak in their roof.
The main keyword terms people type in to find a roofing contractor in Sydney (our example location) are ‘Roofing repairs Sydney’, ‘Metal roofing Sydney’ or ‘Roofing Specialists’.
Check out our keyword research tutorial here where we dive deeper into how you can successfully do keyword research using four easy methods.
However, let’s get back to this tutorial on how to choose a domain name for your business and continue with our roofing example.
Based on those keyword terms that people are typing in in Sydney to find a roofing business, here are some examples of good business names and domain names for a local roofing business based in Sydney.
From these examples, you can see there are keywords in the business name and domain name.
Adding these keywords into your domain name helps both your domain name and website rank higher on search engines like Google, compared to other domain names that don’t have keywords in the name (see screengrab).
So if you’re a local business, we really recommend that you think about how you can add relevant keywords related to the location, business type, and products or services you offer specific to your business.
However, if you’re an international business and sell products or services globally, we recommend coming up with a unique brand name that doesn’t require a localized or relevant keyword.
Think about popular brands like Nestle, Meta, Wix, Under Armor and Apple.
These examples all have the same thing in common – they’re short, sharp, unique yet simple powerful brand names.
Basically, if you’re looking to grow your business on an international scale, we recommend thinking about a unique and catchy business (and domain name) that will make you stand out.
So the first step is to identify what kind of business you are running – local or international?
This will help you with figuring out how to choose a domain name for your business.
Now that we’ve covered the first part of your domain name, let’s talk about the top-level domain (TLD).
Read more: Top 5 ways to optimize your website for lead generation.
3. How to Choose The Right TLD?
What is the TLD?
The TLD is on the far right-hand side of your domain (see screengrab).
Without getting too technical, the TLD is where you can identify the location in that your business operates.
Basically, for local businesses, the best way to both reassure your customers and rank locally is to select a domain name based on your business location and type.
There are many popular TLDs for local business types and locations.
However, if you’re an international business, you’ll want your TLD to reflect this.
In this case, typically you would use ‘.com’.
However, there are some exceptions, such as if you’re a software business, a not-for-profit organization, or in government (see screengrab).
There are a huge amount of TLDs to choose from (over 1500!) so don’t stress out too much about what you choose for your business.
The main thing to focus on is the location that your business operates in, and choose a TLD based on that.
Read more: Top 10 must-have digital tools for small businesses.
4. How to Buy a Domain Name
For the purpose of this tutorial on how to choose a domain name for your business, we’re going to add a roofing business that will be located in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The name of our business will be called ‘Top roofer Tauranga’, so this will be our domain name.
Now, let’s take a look at our domain name and break it down for you as to why this is a good choice for our business and domain name (see screengrab).
1) ‘Top’ identifies the business.
2) ‘Roofer’ is the keyword associated with the industry.
3) ‘Tauranga’, is the location that the business operates in.
This business is a local business and operates in a region called Tauranga in New Zealand, so our TLD will be ‘.co.nz’, which is the correct TLD for New Zealand.
Click here to learn more about all the different types of TLDs.
Once you’ve chosen your business name (domain name) and appropriate TLD:
- Enter in your domain name and TLD within the search bar on HostPapa (see screengrab).
- Click ‘Search’.
- You should then see a page confirming that your domain has been reserved.
If you do not come to this page, this means your domain has already been taken.
All you need to do is:
- Simply create different versions of your domain name that still include the points listed above until you see the confirmation page.
Once you’ve arrived at the confirmation page, you can choose your billing term.
To do this:
- Click the drop-down menu to select your billing term (see screengrab).
We’re going to keep ‘One year’ selected.
- You’re then able to select other ‘Domain essentials’ if you like.
However, we’re going to untick these options for now.
- Scroll down and add your account, billing and payment information (see screengrab).
- Click ‘Create account’.
And that’s how you can simply choose a domain name and purchase your domain name!
Remember, there are a number of different domain providers you can use to purchase your domain name.
HostPapa is just our preferred provider.
Now that you’ve learned how to pick a domain name and have purchased that domain name, you’re ready to create a website!
We have an abundance of tutorials that guide you through different processes and platforms to create your own stunning website.
Read more: Top 6 FREE website builders for small businesses.
Video Tutorial – How to Choose The Right Domain Name?
However, that brings us to the end of this tutorial on how to choose, identify and purchase a domain name for your local business!
We hope you’ve gained value from this tutorial and are now able to identify good quality domain name ideas to find the best domain name for your business to grow online.
Watch our video guide below for more information!
