Factors to consider before you buy a domain name

Before you buy a domain name, a lot of factors should be considered right from the domain perspective to the acquisition and monetary perspective. When you buy a domain name, you have it’s ownership for the next 12 months implicating it’s very vital to buy a domain name you are contented with and not make errors during it’s purchase.

Before buying a website domain name you have to make sure it’s available. There are a couple of free domain name search tools on the internet that will help you check for available domain names. Alternatively, you can check for available domains from domain registrars since most of them already have these tools. You can try Namecheap, i always refer to is as the best site to purchase domain names and i host most of my domains with them. They also offer affordable domain name registration services with nothing like hidden fees.

Also Read: Where to buy a domain (Beginners)

Consider these before you buy a domain name

Listed below are some of the most important factors you should always consider before you buy a domain name / register a domain name. They will not only help you make the best choice for a domain name, but will come handy in terms of SEO, expenses and safety. Put all these factors in consideration before you buy your domain name.

1 – Uniqueness

You have to buy a domain name that is unique. Try to come up with a domain name that is not similar to any domain name out there or else you might find a hard time ranking on search engine or rather end up sharing traffic with sites that have similar names. This means before you buy a domain name, first try and do a search for the name and it’s similar TLDs (Top Level Domains), if the match is high then i recommend you don’t go with that particular name but if the match is low you can settle for it.

Lastly, you might buy a domain name that is unique but question is how are you going to maintain it’s uniqueness? Most big companies register all the similar TLDs related to their domains. If your domain is tutorialfaq.com, you may decide to register tutorialfaq.net, tutorialfa.net, ttorialfaq.com and so on depending on your budget. This ensures that no other person can buy a domain name that is similar to yours but rather short of letters.

2 – TLD (Top Level Domain)

The most common and widely used TLD at the moment is .com. TLDs are important when it comes to geographical targeting hence, a very key aspect if you are planning to buy a domain name. A ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) like .ug, .co.uk, .us and so on mainly target users of a particular geographical region or location. If you are planning to target the whole world then you should not settle for a ccTLD but that doesn’t mean people from other countries won’t be able to find your website on search engines, of course they will just that it will be hard for your website to be filtered among the top search results for users who are not in your location. If you are targeting a country, a ccTLD can even help you rank better in your country hence, i recommend you buy a domain name that has a ccTLD.

3 – Registrar

There are very many domain resellers and registrars lately but i recommend you only buy a domain name from registrars who are accredited by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). You can only risk to buy a domain name from a domain reseller if you are sure they will manage your domain well or if you them well. I managed to write down a list of the cheapest domain registrars who will register for you your domain at a pocket friendly price. These registrars are also accredited by ICANN hence, you can trust their services.

The reason as to why am saying you should not buy a domain name from registrars who are not accredited by ICANN is you might end up losing all your visitors and traffic in case they decide to hold your domain. Very many registrars out there want to make money off website hosting and they usually register domain names for you but in case you wish to switch hosts, they might decide to hold your domain and deny you access to it. Once that is done, you can only wait for the domain to expire and register it again after 60 days from expiry. If you run a busy website then chances are you will lose all your traffic and visitors. An ICANN accredited domain registrar will register a domain for you and give you it’s full ownership, a dashboard that lets you change nameservers whenever you want. They will also transfer ownership of the domain with great ease whenever you wish to.

4 – Price

No one wants to buy a domain name that is expensive, most of us want to register cheap domain names. And besides, there is no use paying much money for a domain name yet another registrar is going to register it for you cheaply. When i talk about price, i mean right from the real domain fee to the hidden charges incurred during the transaction. Most domain registrars don’t charge any hidden fees but GoDaddy does it a lot and many have complained about it. Check out these cheapest domain registrars in detail if you need to get a domain name at a cheap price or rather check out the summary below:

Of all the domain registrars above, i would go with Namecheap any day then maybe GoDaddy. They both offer cheap domain names and web hosting.

5 – Validity

Is the domain name you are planning to buy valid? Invalid domain names have special characters in them or rather have invalid TLDs. Consider this point to a less extent only if you know how to buy a domain name or if you have ever done it before but if you are a newbie who is planning to buy their first domain then i suggest you pay special attention to this. If your domain name is invalid then you cant register it either implicating you can only buy a domain name that is valid.

6 – Memory and Length

Your domain should be short and easy to remember. If you buy a domain name that is hard to remember then you might find a hard time getting more of direct traffic but if visitors remember your name they can easily visit your website directly from their browser. Unfortunately, most short domains have already been taken up on the internet but still not all have been registered, you can still find a couple of short domain names out there depending on the name you wish to register.

Most important of all, make sure you provide correct domain name registration information or else the registrar might hold it. It’s ICANN’s requirement to use real and correct contact addresses while registering domains. If you are planning to buy a domain name then the factors above should help you make the best decision for a domain name. They will help you pay less, deal with registrars you can trust, get you a short and easy to remember unique domain name, a valid domain and a TLD that will help your website rank well on search engines. Now that you have all these points in mind, i suggest you also learn how to register a domain name.

Also Read: How to Buy Domain from GoDaddy