Which domain is better? Which domains are indexed better?
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The main question when choosing is its topic and target audience. It just so happens that, focusing on Russia, there is no need to register, no matter how global and respectable it may seem. And vice versa - a manufacturer of cool 3D printing machines that sells them all over the world is unlikely to want its foreign potential clients to suffer with [Russian Federation]. The rest is nuances. Let's talk about them.
Top-level domains are divided into two groups: territorial-linguistic (uk, ru, рф) and thematic (info, biz, mil). This division is very arbitrary, because no one can stop you from writing about animal breeding on your own website mylittlepi.gs (this, by the way, is South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) or about politics on brexit.soccer.
: great and terrible
There is an opinion that the domain [ com] got its name from common. In general, the idea was short for commercial, but everyone loved the zone so much that it began to be used almost everywhere, and commerce went into biz.
Dotcom (or dotcom - transcribed [ com]) is used mainly to indicate that the site is not tied to a specific territory. They are registered by large companies, established startups, popular services, online stores and others who want to show that their goods are sold to everyone.
And in general, all thematic top-level domains are easier to transfer between registrars or sell to another person. They are not tied to the legislation of a particular country and this process is done without submitting a pile of papers to the office of the responsible office.
: how to please everyone
About the domain zone [ ru] there is practically nothing to say:
- popular and time-tested - included in the top 10 of all zones by the number of sites and in the top 5 among geographical ones;
- suitable for any topic - there are no restrictions on the placement of sites, except those that violate Russian legislation;
- ideal for Russian target audience – [ ru] is known to most Internet users as an identifier of Russian content, and even an element of the symbol of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
There are a number of situations when you still have to use dotcom instead of the established dotcom:
- You don’t want to draw up and submit an application or bother with passport scans whenever you need to change your domain contact information.
- Do you want an easy transfer between . Let’s say the person who registered the domain does not answer the phone or SMS, and the renewal period has almost come to an end. Without this person to extend [ ru] will not work, and you will most likely lose the site.
- You are afraid of the judicial system of the Russian Federation and think that your site will be divided at the request of the local court. [ com] is not under the jurisdiction of Russian authorities, so decide for yourself
[rf]: rise and fall
Let's dig deeper into the myths
- Robots love [ com]
Robots love optimization. It will not be possible to ride to the top on a golden chariot with a standard [ com]. Google states that for their search engine there is no difference between different top level domains - all other things being equal, they all rank the same.
- Need to be trendy: [ com] – not fashionable and no one needs
Yes, you need to be fashionable, but dotcom, like a three-piece suit, never goes out of fashion. A huge number of new zones are appearing and old ones are opening. For example, the recent boom in projects on [ co], which was chosen by 93% of startups from 2013 to 2014. And in 2015, the number of websites of high-tech companies on [ co] amounted to a little more than 450. At the same time, the share of dot-coms is still huge - from 2010 to 2015, more than 20 thousand new companies chose it - 81% of all zones. If this doesn't mean anything to you, here's data from research company DomainTools:
You don’t have to look at the colors of the diagram - it is needed to visually represent the dominance of dot-coms on the Internet.
- [RF] is progressing worse/better than [ ru]
If you follow a few simple rules, then the process of promoting a Cyrillic domain becomes the same as any other. You can read about these rules.
Afterword
The national domain, indicating the linguistic and geographical origin of the content, attracts the user with its relevance. By going to [ ru] or [ RF], the Russian will know that the information received can be applied to him.
On the other side, [ com] more solid, and adding subdomains to it creates a certain “yours/ours” framework, showing that the information is suitable for a person in a specific geographic area.
There is also a third party – legal. We can talk a lot about it: how to choose the right registrar, how the rules of registration in the Russian-language domain zone are interpreted, anonymous registration or providing personal data... But we are talking about SEO.
Many users ask this question, and we tried to systematize the most common questions. Our full recommendations are also set out in the article on choosing a domain.
Hyphenated domain vs. fused?
Example magazin-sobak.ru or magazinsobak.ru
Neither one nor the other. It’s better to come up with a shorter word, for example magazdog.ru, because if you convey the name of the site orally, then anyone will say “go to the site of the dot ru dog store,” and it will not be clear how to type it in the browser, with or without a hyphen. Remember, all other things being equal, the name that is best remembered by the user will be better.
Which domains are indexed faster?
Indexing speed does not depend on the domain name. To speed it up, add your site to Yandex-Webmaster and Google Webmaster Tools.
Free domains vs. paid
Which domain is better: Ru or Рф?
- Often in the browser you can see a link like xn--80arbjktj.xn--p1ai, which is identical to mysite.rf. This is due to the mandatory Punicode encoding, which was introduced so that browsers can understand any alphabet (even Arabic) as a set of Latin letters;
- Users have problems writing the site address in the browser, because... Not everyone knows that you can enter the Cyrillic alphabet. By the way, the speed and quality of indexing of the Russian Federation domain is the same as that of everyone else.
Country domain vs. international
Example Ru or (Com, Net, Info)
If your site does not set itself the goal of capturing the world market, then, all other things being equal, it is better to choose Ru. Many people say that in Yandex Webmaster and Google Webmaster Tools you can specify a region for any domain, but this is true. But Google itself, in its recommendations, says that it is better to register in the zone of the country in which the majority of site users live.
Domain with history vs. new
If you are going to make a website from scratch, or change the content of an old website to a new one, then the old or new domain does not matter. Domain age only plays a role if you are using an old site that has authority among search engines, and its content (or subject matter) does not change, but only added! If you decide to buy an old domain, then carefully look at its history, because... if he was previously banned by search engines, then he will be of little use.
Regional domains vs. National
Example Msk.ru or Ru?
If you are making a website only for Moscow residents, then Msk is better. All other things being equal, for Muscovites, the website cats.msk.ru will be higher in search results than cats.ru.
Still have questions?
If you have not found the answer to your question, then feel free to ask it in the comments field (under the article), we will try to answer your email, and will also post popular questions in this article.
Hello everyone, dear friends, and now about everything in more detail.
Anyone who decides to create a domain name for the first time has questions:
what's happened domain?
Server name?
Website address?
And other similar terms and how they are all related to each other.
Internet browser
Start.
You are not a “newbie” who doesn’t know the theory Internet resources, but definitely a knowledgeable amateur with a certain vision of how the Internet works. Then you understand where the sites are located on the network, on what disk space of the servers and what hosting providers. So you know what it is IP address, and how it relates to domain names. But if you forgot then I will remind you.
Each computer on the network (hosting sites, including) has a personal IP address, which represents an exact set of numbers (for example, 191.158.0.0). And all web resources, to find the desired site on the Internet, and you need to know the exact IP-adress (or domain)
A domain is a unique set of Latin characters that distinguishes an Internet resource from millions of other web pages. In simple terms, this is a set of 2 to 63 unique symbols.
A domain assigns a web page to its “place” on the hosting provider’s server with a unique IP address.
And I note that the same web page and server with an IP address can own several domains!!!
And every time you access a domain in a browser, the DNS service finds a server that matches the request and transfers you to the desired web resource.
A DNS server is a program that converts an IP address to a domain and back...
Domain names are clearer to people than IP addresses because they are easier to remember. But still the full address of the site is URL(a specific address recording system) representing 3 elements:
protocol (http://);
domain (name.ru);
path to the file.
Domain names are multi-level, most often 2 or 3 levels.
I'll notice! Long domains with many levels are very inconvenient to use.
Levels are written from right to left in ascending order. The highest - this end of the domain is called the first-level domain zone, which is classified:
by geography (for example, “RU” - Russia, “UA” - Ukraine, “COM” - international);
by type of activity (“info” - informational, “org” - non-profit)
A second-level domain name is a name that is unique in its group and is purchased from registrars.
Third-level domains are names that are registered by intermediaries (organizations that purchase second-level domains). They look like: name..
Would you like to register a domain yourself?
Need to come up with a unique website name? Do you want your own domain, and not a third-party provider who will impose a bunch of additional services on you later? Then start doing exactly this:
There are many registrar services, but I registered my domains with , the choice should be made independently by everyone. I also recommend taking the domain separately from the hosting, because if each part of your project is registered in your name. In the future, protect yourself from problems with authorship.
Registration on the service is very simple and straightforward, be sure to save all data when registering in a safe place. In order not to lose or forget, it is like your “passport”, sometimes proof of identity is required, i.e. passport scan. But not always, but if you decide to sell the domain in the future, it is better to indicate your real data. After you confirm your registration, log into your personal account by entering your username and password.
Select a tab “DOMAINS” -> REGISTER A DOMAIN
Here you enter the required domain name into the zone, you can immediately enter the domain zone, after you have come up with the domain, click "CHECK". If the domain is free, click "REGISTER" if not, come up with other options, the selection can be done using keywords, which makes the task easier.
Replenish the registrar's wallet in any way convenient for you, but in my opinion I have never been able to register without a commission, so consider it immediately when replenishing the card.
Note! Choose a simple domain, the shorter the better, the zone depends on your project, don’t choose RF. Although it is consonant with Russians, it is very poorly indexed by search robots, so RU has always helped me. Don’t fall for the tricks of a domain for 49 rubles yet. or when registering hosting as a gift, as practice shows, in the second year the price for they take off several times. And if you upgrade your gift domain to a good level, the registrar can sell it for good money, because... he has all the rights to it. Fraudsters there's a lot on the Internet Therefore, check ten times whether you are transferring money.
About ban I’ll add a couple, before purchasing, you should definitely check the domain for problems with search engines, because he could have been banned a long time ago for various manipulations, so we need to raise the history of the name:
First method the most effective - Adurilka Yandex, when adding a domain, if a notification appears that the domain is not allowed to be indexed. Then the new site will not be indexed in Yandex (((But this method is only suitable for registered domains.
Second webarchive, here you can see what happened before at this address and draw conclusions about possible sanctions. You can also restore site content.
The third is checking reverse indexing through services pr-cy.ru And be1.ru and etc.
But if you come across a worthy domain in the topic of the company and a very well-developed link, you can compete for it with search engines, i.e. write in support of Platon Yandex, I think it will end well. In all other cases, it’s faster to find another one and buy it.
Which domain zone should I choose for website promotion and better indexing by search engines? How to find and come up with a short, memorable domain that reflects the essence of your project? What to do if the domain with your company name is already taken? These questions are asked by every person who begins his activity in the web environment.
Everyone should know this before purchasing a domain.
Often, a situation arises when novice businessmen leave the issue of domain registration in the hands of the site developer. Conscientious contractors register a domain in the name of their customer, assigning legal affiliation to him. Unscrupulous contractors register the domain in their name, I understand the technical illiteracy of their customer. What does it mean? This means that after several years of developing your resource, the contractor who has registered the domain in his name can contact the domain name registrar’s office and simply take away the asset that has been accumulated over the years. Be sure to register domain names in your name, indicating correct contact and passport information to avoid similar problems in the future!
Types of domain zones and their pitfalls
Let's return to the main topic. Domain zones are divided into two main groups: thematic (.biz, .tv, .pro) and territorial-linguistic (.ru, .com, .рф). It is much easier to find a short and memorable domain in thematic zones, however, they are more expensive and are purchased, as a rule, by companies whose domains that are consonant with the names of trademarks have already been purchased in the territorial-linguistic zone. Or in niches where a thematic domain zone is the standard, for example, television with a .
There are people and even individual companies that buy domains for the purpose of their subsequent resale or unfair competition. This activity is called cybersquatting. If you manage to find a memorable domain that reflects the essence of your company, it is better to purchase it in several domain zones.
- Firstly, you will avoid problems with cybersquatters.
- Secondly, you can set up redirection from all unused domain zones to the main one. Thus, if you decide to choose a domain zone as the main one, all users who type your website address from or [рф] into the browser line will still end up with .
In technical terms, there is no difference between domain zones. In any case, a site with content useful for users will be included in the search engine index and will be able to take worthy positions in the search results. However, there is a psychological point both on the part of website owners and SEO optimizers, and on the part of users.
Firstly, in the Russian segment of the Internet, domains have a numerical superiority over all others (6 times more [Russian Federation]). It is not surprising that these sites appear more often in search results, hence the opinion that domains are easier to promote, and search engines give preference to them.
Secondly, if 99% of domains in your niche are in the . zone, you are unlikely to inspire confidence in your site visitors by choosing some [.biz]. There are opposite cases in narrow-niche companies that focus on domain memorability. An unusual domain zone helps them stand out among their competitors.
Which domain zone to choose: all the pros and cons
As we said earlier, thematic domains are extremely unpopular in RuNet; we will look at them in more detail in the following articles. Let's consider the 3 most popular territorial and language domain zones, which are chosen by the vast majority of Russian webmasters for their websites: , and [рф].
There is one general rule when choosing a domain name, regardless of its zone: you must understand that for a specific project you are doing this for the first and last time. We will not delve into the intricacies of moving a website from one domain to another, since not a single serious project that has earned a good reputation and position in search engines will risk its assets. In this case, search engines do not guarantee maintaining the resource’s position in the search results. This suggests that you need to approach the choice of a domain name as responsibly as possible, because you are doing it once for a project.
Let's consider the main advantages and disadvantages of domain zones , and [рф].
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Based on the strengths and weaknesses of domain zones, we will consider the main types of sites in which their use would be most appropriate.
Website and domain: 2 boots in a pair
Depending on your Internet project and its goals, you can talk about the advisability of purchasing a particular domain. Let's look at the most popular options for web resources and figure out which domain is best to choose for each of them using examples.
Landing Page
If you want to make a one-page website, the traffic to which will be attracted exclusively from advertising channels, you should not put much effort into choosing a domain. Try to make the domain as easy to remember as possible.
Any of the domain zones is suitable for Landing Page. As a rule, the choice stops at the zones i[rf]. Examples:
- maddrying.rf. This domain has a viral name; the project as a whole relies on promotion on social networks, word of mouth and distribution of an application of the same name. The semantic load combined with the “delicious” name explains the choice of this domain. Agree, it would be much more difficult to convey the emotional background and meaning of the project in English.
- teach-sing.rf. A domain in the [RF] zone with a simple, memorable name that characterizes the essence of the business.
- game2.spasibosb.ru. Domain in the most common zone of RuNet. Interactive one-page game of the Sberbank project.
The domain zone can be used to increase the trust of visitors to the page.
Personal business card website or portfolio
One of the few resource formats where the [RF] zone is popular. The website of a photographer, operator, politician or private electrician goes well with this domain zone. Directly indicating the first and last name in the domain is the best positioning and simultaneous advertising of the person behind the web resource.
There is no taboo on using domains. As a rule, they use individuals whose projects do not have territorial and linguistic restrictions.
A domain zone with a memorable domain available is a completely workable option.
Information blog
We do not recommend using the [рф] domain zone for information web resources. You should not neglect the Russian-speaking audience from abroad, which can be monetized by your project. The best option for a Russian audience would be the domain, for an international audience.
Company, brand website
For a company's corporate website, we recommend choosing domain zones or . The territorial reference rule remains the same. If you plan to work only with a Russian-speaking audience, then your option is , if with an international audience, then .
Corporate mail, correct display of the domain (brand) on all platforms is the minimum that the [RF] zone cannot provide.
Online store
If you are creating an online store, it is unlikely that you will immediately enter international markets, so your main option is this. There are examples where the [рф] zone does an excellent job, solving the problem of making a domain name easy to remember and instantly revealing the meaning of the product, for example, the site pirozhenka.rf (handmade confectionery). This is a narrowly niche site that is promoted through recommendations, content marketing and social media. If you cannot draw an analogy in the strategy for promoting this project with your company, focus your attention on the zone.
Portal, service
Portals and services, as a rule, have a universal principle of operation and do not greatly depend on the territorial-geographical factor. In this case, the zone would be a good choice. Even if you plan to develop only on the Russian market in the near future, foresee in advance the promising multilingual nature of your resource. A job search portal, a foreign language center, an SEO tool - all of them can hypothetically function on the international market. Regional binding can be implemented on subdomains according to Yandex recommendations.
Here are useful services that will help you with verification:
- www.whoishistory.ru
- archive.org/web
- Select a domain based on associations with your niche.
Useful service for selecting associations: wordassociations.net/ru - Try to choose a domain whose name already has requests, but no web resource. For example, the site Poudre.ru appeared much later than the VKontakte group “Women’s Magazine Poudre” and receives traffic thanks to people who search for the VKontakte group in search engines.
The Yandex service will help you in selecting queries: wordstat.yandex.ru - Use domain stores and online auctions. In them, even today you can select a 3, 4 and 5-character domain in the zone for very little money (up to 1000 rubles).
Several domain stores and online auctions:
- www.reg.ru/domain/shop/
- www.nic.ru/info/services/domain-shop/
- www.auctions.godaddy.com
- www.hugedomains.com/index.cfm
- domainnamesales.com
- Try to choose a unique domain that is different from your competitors. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to generate your own branded traffic.
- After purchasing a domain, try to immediately reserve CNC addresses on social networks before scammers do this and demand money for transferring the address of a domain similar to yours.
If a domain was bought by a cybersquatter, it means someone else needs it.
Unfortunately, today all normal domain names in the RU zone are taken. Cybersquatters have done their best, buying domains back in the 2000s for cheap, and offering them today at exorbitant prices.
The role of the domain today is more important than ever, because the first thing that customers will see in the address bar of the browser will be the URL or domain of the site. A domain is the tip of the iceberg, it’s like a sign in an offline store. People are greeted by their clothes, and if this domain is something like “abrakadabraabrakadabra”, then there is a high probability that it will simply not be remembered, because the more complex the domain, the worse. Although there are many sites on domains that would never occur to a sane person, such sites sometimes do a good job, bring in customers and traffic, and arouse interest among the audience. But today we will not talk about this. In this article, we’ll talk about how to choose a domain for a website without resorting to the expensive services of cybersquatters, without buying it on an exchange, and without incurring additional expenses. Ideally we should choose an unoccupied, beautiful and sonorous domain for the site, buying it for 99-199 rubles. at the domain name registrar. Such a domain will provide the project with additional PR, audience and sales. So, a list of 10 simple and practical rules for creating the right domain is given below. Stock up on popcorn)
Rule #1 – use the correct domain extension
When opening a restaurant, the first priority is PLACE, PLACE and PLACE again. When choosing a domain for a project in Russia, this is domain zone RU, RU and RU again.
In our country, it so happened historically that people in Russia are accustomed to adding the ending “dot ru” to the end of the domain: “mail dot ru”, “yandex dot ru”, etc. When we hear some name of a website or company, without knowing how to spell it, we intuitively type it into the browser with this ending. I recommend not breaking this tradition and not using other domain zones, no matter what domains in them are free.
For example, the .SU zone may have a lot of beautiful names, but it is not suitable. Imagine an abstract example. You have a company selling metal doors, say Orion LLC, you want the name of your website to be the same as the name of your company. You discover that the domain in the .RU zone, the domain “orion.ru” was already taken about 20 years ago, and all variants and combinations of the name with the .RU zone are also not available. And lo and behold! What do you see? There is a free domain in the adjacent zone.SU “orion.su”, which seems to be waiting for you to register and use it (the example is conditional, because both domains are occupied). You rush to register it and make a website on it. Right? Error! Don’t fall for this bait, people are looking for orion.ru in the old fashioned way, not orion.su, so traffic to the first site is guaranteed, but you will vegetate. It will be bad if your competitor appears on this site, which, as you find out, has the same name as you. And it will be even worse if a competitor has been on the market for 20 years, has registered a trademark for his company, and has registered a similar name-domain on the Internet. I think there is no need to say what problems are provided for you. By the way, a real example, the startup skazhimneda.com and skazhimneda.ru are 2 completely different sites.
I also do not recommend using the well-known zones COM, NET, ORG, BIZ, PRO and others. Firstly, the cost of a domain in them is higher, and secondly, Yandex quickly indexes sites made in our native RU zone. There is a feeling that registrars do not know how to make money and are introducing new domain zones. I am skeptical about the new domain zones that have popped up like mushrooms after rain: ONLINE, NAME, CLUB, TRAVEL, MOSCOW, GURU, there is even a BEER and VODKA zone)) I won’t even list them all, since they are not of interest. So my first principle is: always use the zoneRU, RUonce againRU!
Rule #2 – use the correct letters in the name
If we are talking about the RU zone, then we use English letters that have a Russian translation or that have a Russian meaning. For example, the word “sweet table” can be written in different ways on the Internet. In the first case it will be “candybar”, and in the second case it will be “sladstol”.
Not all letters are read and perceived correctly. I divided all 26 letters of the English alphabet into 2 groups - good and not so good.
The following are considered good letters: a, b, d, e, h, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, z.
Not very good: c, f, g, i, j, q, w, x, y.
Good letters are letters that we both hear and write. Such letters make up good words: “mama”, “papa”, “dog”, “buterbrod”, “more”, etc. This is ideal. And with not very good letters, sometimes a number of problems arise in terms of incorrect spelling.
Lyrics about Russian letters. There are Russian letters that in English consist of two letters: “Ya” - “YA”, “Ch” - “CH”, “Sh” - “SH”. There is nothing bad in them, but nothing very good either, because... Instead of one letter, you need to write two. If the target audience or users who accidentally stray onto the site are literate, then there can be no mistake. But even now, in the 21st century, not everyone can cope with this task 100%, therefore, other things being equal, of the two names, the one that does not contain these letters has an advantage.
Don’t write “C”, “F” and “Sch” at all!
There are double spellings of letters that you should try to avoid. The letter “C” - in English it is also “TZ”, “C”, and in some cases even “Z”. If you write “cyplenok”, then it can be read as “chicken” or “kicken”. The word "caplya" can be translated both "heron" and "drop", the latter has a completely different meaning. A classic of the genre is the word “flowers”, which has 3 spellings: “tzvety”, “cvety”, “zvety”. The letters “Ш” and “Ш” can be written in English as “SH” or “SCH”, and the letter “Ф” as “ZH”, “DJ” or simply “G”. Therefore, when coming up with a domain name, there is a rule: do not write “C”, “F” and “SH” at all!
There are less ambiguous letters, but they also should not be used - these are “Y”, “F”, “Y”, because there is no unique letter for them. The letter "F" can be written either "F" or "PH". Compare 2 completely different domains - sfera.ru and sphera.ru (2 different sites, are they not confused?), more often you can confuse “foto” or “photo”. The letter “Y” is both “i” (laskovyi) and “yo” (yogurt). Therefore, I do not recommend using names that end in “YY”, “IY”, because... they can be written in different ways. The word “sweet” will be both “sladkiy” and “sladkii”. Similar to “YE”: laskovye and laskovie. In short, there are many options and by choosing such endings, you only complicate life not only for your clients, but also for yourself. If you still want complexity, then register all possible options. But ideally, it is better to use only good letters, ignoring letters with double spelling.
Rule #3 – do not use hyphens, numbers, city names
There is nothing wrong with a hyphen, and it is good only in one case - if you have 2 very long words and you need to space them out so that there is a visually clear, intuitive URL entered into the browser bar. If these are short or medium words, then the hyphen is not necessary. If your competitor has a domain without a hyphen, and you have a domain with a hyphen, then you, as they say, will be “feeding your competitor” in your advertising, since it will eat up your traffic. A mistake that the company free-lance.ru once made when they registered a domain with a hyphen, while their competitors freelance.ru already had one without a hyphen. Ideally, you need a one-word domain, and thereby you kill two birds with one stone: firstly, one word is better than two for perception, it has fewer characters and is faster to write, and secondly, you solve the issue with the hyphen - its no need to write.
Some people use numbers in the domain name to emphasize belonging to a particular region, for example “sumka69.ru” - bags in Tver, simply for identification, such as “9seo.ru”, while others simply put the number “1” at the end , emphasizing its superiority - “ogo1.ru”. I don't recommend using numbers in your domain name at all. For example, on a tablet or smartphone, when selecting numbers on the virtual keyboard, you need to change the letter mode to numbers and signs, which is inconvenient and requires an additional action. Another minus is that if you write your region, for example “sumka69.ru”, then when expanding your business, for example, from Tver to Moscow, you will not be very comfortable, because users may think that this is some kind of regional site. And who will remember about another blog that was 9 or 8? Therefore, we must abandon numbers. There are indeed winning options with numbers, but there are not many of them. Basically, these are short names, for example, “10i.ru”, “e5.ru”, “5ka.ru”, which look advantageous and are well remembered from the use of numbers.
The numbers are good if you want to be IN THIS AND ONLY THIS region, for example, in the case of the same “sumka69.ru” - the owner initially sets himself the goal of doing business only in Tver and nowhere else, but there can be no talk of any expansion into the regions. Same with the city. If you set the task of creating a regional project or a city website, then the name of the city in the domain is best: vesdmitrov.ru, indubna.ru, forum.tvercity.ru. In other cases, writing a city in a domain means, as with numbers, rigidly tying yourself to one place and sawing off the branch on which you are sitting. Believe me, in 5-7 years you will want to expand the horizons of your brainchild “sumka69.ru”, so it is better to choose the right name from the beginning.
Rule #4 – Don’t use a long title of more than 14 characters
The longer the word, the worse. If these are several words (as a rule, there are from 2 to 4 words in the domain), then they must be at least 14 characters without the ending “.ru”. 12 – good, 13 – on the verge, 14 – already bad. Ideally, a domain should consist of 1-2 words, which in total have 8-10 characters. You can try to fit in 5-7. The point is that you will find very few such words, and if you do, they will simply be a meaningless abbreviation. But maybe you’ll be lucky and you’ll pick up a treasure of 5-7 characters that is meaningful to your activity, then, of course, you should quickly register it. Of course, you may be even more successful and buy a good three- or four-letter book for a small amount, but this is not the topic of this article.
Rule #5 – Use Clues or Association Words
SEO gurus say that it is best to stuff keywords into the domain name. You need to insert not one, but two keywords into the domain, then you will have better results in the search engine. There is some truth in this. There are a lot of names that just consist of keywords: kupi-kolyasku.ru, seoblog.ru, kupitdomen.ru, tortnazakaz.ru, etc. I’m not a fan of this method, because the Internet is turning into one kind of “buy”, where everyone is forcing us to buy something. In addition, the uniqueness of the domain is lost. But perhaps you should listen to the guru and insert a couple of keywords into the domain name.
I advise you to use associative words instead of keywords. These are words that people perceive together with some word, preferably if they are positive words that evoke good emotions. For example, with the word “sea” there are associations “a lot”, but also “beach”, “water”, “sand”, “ship”. There are some services for selecting associative words, among which I can recommend sociation.org. You may not find the truth, but you will have fun.
Rule #6 - Don't use a title that doesn't mean anything.
Of course, there are many exceptions here, and they tell us that the name for a project is not the most important success factor. The Internet is actually full of such names, among which you can’t ignore habrahabr.ru. The disadvantage of such abbreviations is that it does not carry some kind of chip, some kind of raisin that can hook people. Therefore, you have no competitive advantage. Well, of course, unless you poured in a couple of million dollars.
Rule #7 – do not use a name close to well-known or competitors
It’s probably not worth saying that if you want to create a long-term project, you need to use a unique domain name that is not consonant with any brand. You should also not register a domain with an error, as cybersquatters do; they have their own game that you shouldn’t play. Register only a name that is fundamentally different from the name of your competitors in order to differentiate yourself from them, and your consumers do not confuse you with anyone else.
Rule #8 – Use the correct abbreviations
If the name consists of two or more words, but these words cannot be written unambiguously, then use the method of correct abbreviations. For example, “stylish kitchens” were transformed not into “stilnyekuhni”, but into “stilkuhni”, “kopeikin’s house” - not “kopeikindom”, but “kopdom”, “sweet table” - this is “sladstol”. Using this principle, you can generally reduce any words to a short domain name. However, there is a fine line where you can shorten a word and where you can’t. It is best to shorten on a consonant, i.e. “kopeik house” has become not “kopeidom”, but “kopdom”, but here common sense must prevail.
By the way, I chose the name of my blog, where I used this abbreviation technique: “ko” - Konstantin, “lash” - Lashko. If you are choosing a domain for a personal blog, then you can also use this simple method. Play with words, twist the letters of your initials.
Rule #9 – Add complementary words
If you really want the domain name to contain some word, but the word has been taken for a long time, then it makes sense to come up with complementary words for this word. For example, you want the name of your store to consist of the word “bags”. Then it makes sense to look for words that can be added to this word. For bags - it can be fashion, shop, handy, trendy, etc. Then you can get the options - fashionbags.ru, bagshop.ru, handybags.ru, trendybags.ru, which you need to check for availability. This example is hypothetical, the main thing is to understand the technique, that you can play with different words that may be suitable for your topic.
Rule #10 – English words go to English, Russian words go to Russian
The most common mistake made when choosing a domain name is combining Russian and English words. For example, you sell strollers, and you need to come up with a name like “buy a stroller”, you realize that the domain “kupi-kolyasku.ru” is already taken, and you decide to register “buy-kolyasku.ru”, i.e. domain consisting of English and Russian words. You shouldn’t do this, because as a result you end up with a useless hybrid of “buy a stroller” - in Russian, and similar nonsense in English. If you come up with a name, then clearly define which words will be used in the meaning - all Russian or all English.
A few more tips when choosing a domain name
- The first principle of naming is to be loud! Try to choose a strong domain name so that it means something, is short, has something that distinguishes you from your competitors and characterizes what you want to do (or are already doing).
- Choose a name so that it sounds good to the ear. Remember that people remember better with their ears than with their eyes. To the question “Where did you buy this handbag?”, you should receive a clear and understandable answer - in such and such an online store. Scroll this question in your head and answer it “I buy from an online store...”.
- Choose a name that lasts for a long time, so that in 3-5 years it will not lose its relevance.
- Use brainstorming. Give the domain name a week to get used to it. If, after the expiration date, it has not lost its relevance and you continue to like it, then you can safely register it.
- If you are in doubt whether to use a hyphen or better without it, then take 2 options and make a redirect.
- Conduct a survey among your friends and family. Tell them some of the best options, what associations does each of them evoke? Which option is best? Get advice on pronunciation and double spelling.
- Put yourself in your clients' shoes and think about how they would write your business's domain name. If errors may occur in the name, it is recommended that all such erroneous names be recorded.
- Keep a list of your competitors before your eyes, be different from them.
I hope that these tips will save you from mistakes when choosing a domain name, and will allow you to register a name that is 100% suitable for your project.
I wish you good luck in choosing the right decision!
P. S. The domains listed in this article are not advertising.