One of the very first steps in building your website is finding the right domain name.
Your domain name is like your business’s online address. A good domain name is simple and represents your business well.
To help you find the right domain name, we’ve compiled this guide about domains, why they’re important, and how to choose and set up your new domain name.
What Is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the website address that leads to your specific small business website.
It’s the URL (or uniform resource locator) that people click or type into their web browser to get to your site.
Given that there are over 350 million domains registered to various websites all over the world, choosing the right domain for your business — that’s also available — can be an art form in itself.
It’s a good idea to understand some of the different types of domains before we get started. There are two types: Subdomains and custom domains.
A subdomain is like a secondary domain. These are often offered for free by website builders. For example, a subdomain would look like yourwebsite.durable.co. It’s supported and hosted by Durable, and completely free, but it doesn’t have as much brand strength and credibility as a custom domain.
A custom domain is a primary domain that you purchase and host. An example of a custom domain would be yourwebsite.com.
With Durable, you can create your very own custom domain. Custom domain names are free with every Durable subscription.
Why Small Businesses Need a Custom Domain
Here are four benefits of having a custom domain.
Improved Brand Identity
Having a custom domain improves your business’s brand identity. Your clients expect your website URL to match your business name. Consistency across all platforms is important as a small business.
Boost Credibility
A custom domain boosts credibility. People feel more comfortable working with a business that has their own website URL rather than using a subdomain from a website builder or host.
Easy to Remember
A custom domain is short and simple for customers to remember. And when 5-20% of your website traffic should be direct traffic (traffic your website receives from your URL being typed directly into a browser), you want to make sure your domain name sticks in peoples’ minds.
Optimized for Search
Custom domains are much better for SEO than subdomains. This is because you can fight for your search rankings, rather than having to piggyback off of the website whose second-level domain you’re using.
How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Small Business
Let’s talk about choosing the right domain name for your small business. As we mentioned, finding an affordable and available domain can be challenging.
Let’s walk through our five tips for choosing your custom domain name.
#1. Choose the Right Domain Extension
There are two parts to your main domain: The top-level domain and the second-level domain or domain extension.
If your domain name is yourwebsite.com, the second-level domain is “yourwebsite” and the top-level domain — also known as domain extension — is “.com.”
Some common domain extensions:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .edu
- .gov
However, more options — called generic top-level domains — are becoming available, like:
- .co (our chosen domain extension here at Durable)
- .io
- .ai
- .shop
- .agency
- .biz
- .cool
If available, .com might be your best bet for your domain extension.
However, if you want to get creative, you may want to consider a generic top-level domain — especially if your second-level domain name is more popular and .com is already taken.
#2. Keep Your Domain Name Short
Remember what we said about direct traffic? That percentage can dwindle if potential website visitors have to type a million characters into their website browser. Choosing a domain name that’s short and sweet is the best option.
Look at it this way. businessname.com is much more digestible, memorable, and easy to type than businessnameplusindustryandlocation.com.
Err on the side of caution by choosing a short domain that perfectly fits your business name. The other identifying information can be found once people get to your website.
#3. Avoid Hyphens, Numbers, and Other Unnecessary Characters
If businessname.com isn’t available, we understand the urge to try things like business-name.com or businessnamezipcode.com instead. However, this may make your domain name even more complicated and harder to type.
And what’s worse, people might not realize you have additional characters or numbers in your URL and end up on businessname.com, leaving you in the lurch and potentially working with a competitor instead.
#4. Make Sure It’s Easy to Pronounce
You should be able to say your website URL out loud easily. Whether you’re in a sales meeting, at a networking event, or running a podcast ad, your domain name should be easy to pronounce and understand. You want someone to hear and know how to spell and type in your domain name.
#5. Stay On Brand
Finally, stay on brand. Finding the perfect fit for your domain name is much better than struggling to make one work just to fit the business name you’ve set your heart on.
How to Set Up Your Custom Domain
Once you’ve selected a domain name for your small business, it’s time to purchase and connect it to your website.
Here’s how to set up your small business domain.
Step #1: Find the Right Domain Registrar
Start by looking through hosting packages to find one that works well for you. Consider storage, pricing, security, and scalability.
Some brands pay thousands of dollars each year for their web hosting. But small businesses only need a plan that’s just a few bucks a month.
With Durable, we make this easy for you. We offer hosting and a free custom domain as part of your subscription.
Step #2: Search for Your Preferred Domain Name
Your registrar of choice will have a search section for you to browse for your preferred domain name. You’ll be able to see which options are available versus which options are already taken.
With Durable, once you’ve generated your website with the AI Website Builder, you can search for custom domains:
If it says “Available”, it means it’s yours to take. Click Get it to add to your Durable plan.
Step #3: Purchase Your Domain Name
Next is purchasing your domain name. Keep an eye out for recurring costs as you typically have an annual fee for keeping your domain name registered year after year.
Your domain is free with any Durable subscription.
Step #4: Set Up Your Website Host
Finally, set up your website host.
If you use Durable, we do all of the work for you.
However, with a custom hosting plan, you’ll need to set up your website host, connect it to your website, and choose the right plan.
If you already have an existing domain and want to connect it to your Durable website, you can easily do that. Learn more about connecting your existing domain.
Create Your Small Business Domain with Durable
Setting up a custom domain can often be time-consuming, confusing, and a lot of work.
With Durable, we make it easy. Durable offers free hosting and custom domains with all subscription plans.
Create a website, sign up, search for a custom domain, choose one, and set it live. All within minutes. No playing around with DNS servers or domain registrars needed.
