Here at Strikingly, we believe that every individual has the potential to affect change through his or her unique talents and abilities. Our platform was made to empower and enable people to share their passions with the world through beautiful websites. With our free website builder with custom domain services, we even the playing field for smaller brands and upcoming professionals looking to compete for market share through the digital world.
Everything you need to come up with your very own website is under one roof - website hosting, mobile-responsive templates and an intuitive website editor for creating customized pages. A free website with custom domain feature is full of potential for digital marketing success. Strikingly allows you to customize your co-brand free domain or get a personalized one through its platform. The only thing that’s left for you to do is to choose your domain name wisely. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
1. Go for a .com domain
Wherever possible, it’s better to choose a .com domain over other extensions (e.g. .net, .org, .edu, .biz). It makes your website name easier to remember because people always assume your address ends with .com. If the name you want in .com is taken, it’s better to choose a different name or ask the current owner if they are willing to sell it to you, although this might cost you extra.
2. There are exceptions to tip no. 1
If there’s one reason not to go for a .com domain, it would be if you’re building a website for an exclusively local brand and you want to directly target a country-specific market. In this case, you might want to go with country code top level domains (ccTLD) such as .de, .au, etc. It’s not always advisable to go this route if you see a possibility of expanding overseas in the future but if you’re really decided on staying local, country domains would work.
3. Select a name that is brandable
A brandable name is easy to remember, easy to pronounce and may not mean anything specific. For example, YouTube or Google were not considered dictionary words when they were made. You also want to choose a name that sounds reliable and trustworthy.
Having said that, it’s also important to keep your custom domain short so it’s easier to remember. Standard length is no longer than 15 characters excluding the domain extension (.com). Don’t use numbers, underscores or punctuation that will complicate the domain name. Think of the person who will type your address directly to get to your website. Making your name complicated can get people trying to get to your site directed to a different space by accident.
4. Use a thesaurus
Still stuck trying to come up with a good domain name? Before you register a free custom domain website, consult a thesaurus to get even more ideas for naming your website. It will help you come up with synonyms and streamline your choices to the one that sounds just right for your site. You can also use other domain name generators to brainstorm ideas for your custom domain.
5. Check for potential trademark issues
Before you lock in on your potential domain name, do a quick search to check if there is a business that uses the same name. Go through the first and second page search results to see what comes up when you search the name.
6. Be careful about using existing domain names
If you do decide to buy an existing domain name from its owner, be wary about its history and the pages it used to represent. If the domain has featured inappropriate content or has been penalized by search engines in the past, you could be inheriting indexing and reputation issues that your new website may not be ready for. Do a manual check and assess what cached pages it used to contain before you purchase.
