Will they come back?
To be profitable and popular, your website needs returning visitors. Now, the content you provide on your website will have the biggest impact on whether or not people return, but there are other factors as well. One of those factors is your domain name.
Have you ever read an article you really enjoyed or discovered an interesting fact online, and then forgot where you found it? You might try to Google it, but sometimes you just can't find it.
You don’t want this to happen on your website.
You want people to visit your website, be attracted by your brand name, and never forget it. This will make all of your promotional efforts a little easier.
Think about it, if you choose your name well, everything you do will be a little more successful. Pretty exciting, isn't it?
That’s why it’s so important to take the time to choose an excellent name for your business.
In this guide, I will show you:
- Six strategies to make your name more memorable
- Tool to generate more name ideas
- How to check if domain name and social profiles are available
Get out a note taking app or a pen and paper now. Your mind is sure to be full of ideas by the end.
Memorable Domain Name: Yes! It's Achievable With Just a Little Effort
Keep it short and sweet:
Seven is a magic number when it comes to remembering anything.
We know, from the famous research of George A. Miller, that people can reliably remember about seven things at once, give or take two.
In the study, subjects were able to recall a set of five random words about 50 percent of the time.
What does this mean for you?
The domain name should use as few words as possible. If more than five words are used, the domain name will become difficult to remember.
Generally speaking, the fewer words, the better.
Use simple words
Building on the first point, you also want the words themselves to be simple.
The five words memorized in the study were all one-syllable (such as cat, dog, or telephone). When possible, one-syllable words were used instead of more complex words. Fields with more words may be easier than fields with shorter words if the words are simpler.
For example, the domain name antidisestablishmentarianismvolcanologist.com is very difficult to remember, while a name like learnhowtoblog.com might be easier to remember, even though it has 100% more words.
Make it novel
In his book Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer explains that memorization is more of an exercise in creativity than anything else.
We remember novel things. Things that are striking and different from what we normally experience.
For example, I can never remember if I took my allergy medicine. It's hard to recall because it's so mundane, and my brain knows it. We can't remember mundane and unimportant things.
On the other hand, when something is surprising and unique, we tend to remember it.
For example, you may have seen thousands of trees. You walk by without noticing them, but if you see a golden tree, or a tree a hundred stories tall, or a tree growing upside down into the ground, you will never forget it.
Add some element of surprise to your name and people won’t forget it.
Adding Emotion
When we experience strong emotions, we are more likely to remember those moments.
Every American can tell you where they were on 9/11, but most of us have no idea what we were doing on October 11, 2001. Or, for that matter, any other October 11th since then.
Obviously, you want your brand to be associated with positive emotions, and luckily, positive emotions tend to be more memorable. The extent to which emotions influence our memory depends largely on how well our mood matches the emotion of the event.
Try to include words that evoke strong emotions when read aloud or spoken. Use words that are uplifting, satisfying, or awe-inspiring to create positive associations with your brand.
Append to existing memory
One of the best ways to remember something new is to connect it to an old memory.
This is the basis of the Memory Palace Technique or the Positional Method.
In simple terms, this technique involves mentally walking through a familiar place and placing the things you need to remember in different places in the space. For example, you can easily memorize a long list of random numbers by mentally walking through your house and placing large, physical numbers in different places.
What does this have to do with your domain name?
You can tie your website name to something that people already have in their memory. This can be as simple as adding a familiar term to the domain name or tying it to an existing concept.
This will help people quickly identify your website content and remember it.
Reduce fat
At this point, you may have successfully created a memorable name, but I have one last piece of advice for you: cut out the extraneous parts!
Remove unnecessary words from your domain name. Unnecessary words clutter your domain name and make it harder to remember.
For example, remove any stop words like “to,” “of,” and “for.” People are likely to forget these terms and get frustrated when trying to recall your website’s domain name.
Generate large lists using name generator
Now that you have the terms and a list of potential names, it’s time to generate a larger list of potential names.
Why create a huge list of potential names? Because the best way to find good domain names is to come up with a lot of them.
Don't rush to pick your favorites yet. Make your list of potential candidates.
With this list in hand, you can use the following tools to come up with more potential name ideas:
- Business Name Generator – Add extra random terms to your domain name to find available names.
Run your thoughts through these tools and come up with as many names as possible.
Check availability of desired name
Once you have a final list of potential names, you can check which ones are available.
Namecheap has an availability checker on the homepage that includes a link to its bulk domain checker. Use the bulk availability checker to narrow your listings down to just those that are available.
Once you have a list of domains available, you will want to check which of them still have matching social profiles.
Use namcheckr to quickly check the availability of your name on various social networking sites.
Once you've reviewed them, you'll find that there are only a few options left in the initial list. Now all you need to do is pick your favorite, register the domain, and claim the social profiles.
You may like to read: 6 Best Domain Name Suggestion Generators for New Domain Extensions
in conclusion
Many webmasters rush through the domain name selection process in the excitement of launching a new website. Once you pick a domain name, you're committed to it for the long haul.
Slowly follow each of the above suggestions. Make a list of as many names as you can—no name is too many! Then, weed out the names that don’t work, leaving you with just a few killer names to pick from.
This process requires a significant investment of time, but you’ll thank yourself when your visitors come back again and again and compliment you on your fantastic name.
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