Module 2 · 2.1
What makes a good domain name?
Module 2: Choosing a good name · Reading time: 9 minutes
Learning objective: After this lesson you can choose a domain name that is easy to remember, say and type, and that meets the technical rules.
Key concepts: short name, pronounceable, phone test, radio test, hyphens and numbers, brand name, descriptive name, exact-match myth, technical rules for a name
A name has to work away from the screen
You rarely copy a domain name from a link. Much more often, someone hears it: on the phone, on the radio, from a customer who passes it on. Or they read it on a delivery van, a business card or a bread bag. A good name gets through all of those moments without anything going wrong.
That is why a good name comes down to three things: it is easy to remember, easy to say and easy to type. If one of those three is weak, you lose visitors and email without noticing. Someone types the name wrong, ends up nowhere and carries on searching somewhere else.
The phone test and the radio test
A simple way to test a name is the phone test: say the name on the phone to someone who doesn't know it, and ask them to write it down. The radio test is the same check, but you are not allowed to spell: would a listener type the name correctly after hearing it once?
You will quickly notice where things go wrong:
- Sounds you can spell in more than one way. In Dutch that is ei or ij, c or k, dt or t; in English think of ph or f: a listener has to guess.
- Hyphens. You have to say them out loud ("wrights dash bakery"), and people forget them when typing.
- Numbers. If you hear "bakery two go", you don't know whether it is a 2, "two" or "to".
- Double letters where words meet. If you join "cuts" and "salon", you get two s's in a row. When typing, one of them often gets dropped.
- Words that read as something else when joined. If you run separate words together, also read the name as a single word. Sometimes it unexpectedly says something different or something unfortunate.
If you are torn between a name with and without a hyphen or number, you can register both and forward one to the other. Do choose one name that you use everywhere, though.
Short, but not at any cost
Shorter is usually better: less chance of typos and easier to remember. But short names are scarce. Many short words were registered by someone else long ago. A name made of two recognisable words is often better than an artificial abbreviation nobody understands.
A guideline: stay under twenty characters for the part before the extension. Beyond that, a name becomes awkward to say, to copy and to put in an email signature. Think of your email address: info@ in front of a long name fits poorly on a business card.
Brand name or descriptive name?
There are roughly two kinds of names.
- A brand name is your own name or a made-up word: "Wright", or a word you invented yourself. It stands out and you can protect it more easily (lesson 2.3). The downside: nobody knows straight away what you do.
- A descriptive name says what you do: "order bread in Bristol". Visitors get it immediately. The downside: such names look alike, are often long, and it is hard to claim an ordinary description as a trademark.
For Example Bakery a brand name is the obvious choice, such as wrightsbakery.example, possibly supplemented by a descriptive name for a promotion.
The exact-match myth
A persistent idea is that you will rank higher in Google if you put search terms literally in your domain name, a so-called exact-match name. That is why you see names like cheap-cake-order-utrecht. Don't count on it. Search engines mainly look at the content and quality of your site and at who links to you. A name full of search terms is no guarantee of a high ranking, and it soon looks like advertising. So choose a name that suits your business and that people remember.
The technical rules
Besides taste, there are hard rules. A name that does not meet them cannot be registered.
- Each part between two dots (a label) has at most 63 characters; the whole name at most 253 characters. For .nl the name must have at least 2 characters.
- You may use letters, numbers and the hyphen. No spaces, underscores or punctuation. Capital letters make no difference: they are ignored.
- A hyphen may not be at the beginning or the end.
- Two hyphens in the third and fourth positions are reserved for names with special characters (lesson 2.4).
- Letters with accents are possible with some extensions, but not with .nl (lesson 2.4).
You can see how a name is further structured in the DNS course, lesson 1.2. For now this is enough: you only register the name with the extension, such as bakkerijvanderveen.example. You create a subdomain such as www or shop yourself afterwards.
In practice: how it works at WebOké
On https://www.weboke.nl/en/domeinregistratie, under Search domain, you enter a name in the field "Type your domain name…" and click Check. You see whether the name is available or taken, and below that the same name with other extensions. The search field only accepts the letters a to z, numbers and the hyphen. Available or taken is a snapshot: if you wait a week, someone else may beat you to it. Searching works in a similar way at other registrars.
Summary
- A good name is easy to remember, say and type.
- Do the phone test and the radio test: hyphens, numbers, double letters and sounds with two spellings cause mistakes.
- A brand name stands out, a descriptive name is clear straight away; a name full of search terms is no guarantee of a high ranking in Google.
- Technically: at most 63 characters per label, letters, numbers and hyphen, no hyphen at the start or end.
Quiz
Exercise
Exercise A2.1: Testing candidate names. Come up with one, two or three candidate names for yourself or your organisation and enter them, including the extension (for example a .nl or .com name). The Name 1 field is required, Name 2 and Name 3 are optional. Use real extensions; the program does not recognise example extensions such as .example.
For each name, the program checks the technical rules from this lesson and whether the extension exists. It then uses WHOIS to look up whether the name appears to be available or taken.
- Green: all names you entered are technically valid and have an existing extension.
- Orange: a recommendation, for example if a name has more than 20 characters, contains two or more hyphens, or if you entered a subdomain instead of the name itself.
- Red: a name is technically invalid or has no extension or an unknown one.
Available or taken is for information only and never makes the result red. It is a snapshot: always check it yourself with your registrar before you decide anything. Nothing is registered.