Although it was over twenty-five years ago, it seems like it was only yesterday that Bill Gates appeared on David Letterman’s show to explain the miracle of the internet and how it’d revolutionize the world. And even though Letterman mocked Gates when he introduced online audio, fast to today, Gates has been proven absolutely correct, seeing that our lives are practically run online. 

The internet is an established arm of the global markets, and businesses everywhere are looking to capitalize on the bundle of opportunities it avails by introducing more incredible features to their domains and web pages. 

But, even as dominating online has become a necessity for businesses, one important tool that can help you win the online sprint is getting a premium domain for your business. 

How To Get Premium Domain Names in Three Steps 

1. Get Brandable Domain Names 

For your domain name to be successful, it needs to be easily brandable. This is because 77% of your customers unknowingly consider your brand’s influence before making their purchasing decision. 

Brandable names are creative, uncommon, and catchy. And premium domain names are among the most brandable domain names out there, as they provide your brand with an identity to grow into and form the core element that sustains your company. 

This is why businesses with the most potent brand names like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google also have strong domains because strong brands back their domain names. 

So how can you get a domain that is brandable and impactful: 

• Craft Captivating Words: Craft words that express the essence of the products and identities of your brand. Great examples like Google and Yahoo meet this criterion.
• Use Popular Words: Dictionaries and thesauruses can be a great source of ideas for common words that suit your brand. Think about brands like Twitter, Target, and Tinder. These businesses injected their unique meanings into common words.
• Use Abbreviated Words: One way to come up with a catchy domain name is to shorten complex words. While Microsoft is a fantastic brand name, it’s, in fact, shortened from the words “Microcomputer software,” and Instagram was created from “Instant Camera and Telegram.”
• Use a Reliable Domain Name Generator: Feel free to use a domain name generator to generate creative, memorable domain name ideas based on your specified keywords and brand values.

2. Keep Your Domain Names as Short as Possible  

Besides brandable names, the other unsaid code for digital product names is to keep your names short and simple. As we’ve seen, online and digital products provide convenience, accessibility, and finesse to customers. 

Also, short domain names are very functional as they have the added advantage of being easy to refer to, remember, and search on the internet. These features make domain names succeed faster as they work well with our limited human memory capacity. 

3. Utilize Top-Level Domains (TLDs) 

Top-level domain extensions like “.com,” “.org,” and “.net” are mostly utilized in premium domains. Top-level domains (TLDs) like “.com” and  “.org” have maintained their supremacy despite the fact that the internet world has grown significantly.

According to the Domain Name Association, the number of new domains in recent years has increased by 145% to over 1500 domain extensions. 

And yet, customers naturally assume that any domain names they encounter must operate with either of the aforementioned three domain extensions. Not forgetting that a mistake in the extension can reroute your customers to a competitor’s site. 

It’s also for this reason that Top-level domains are priced more than other regular domain extensions and why every business wants to get their hands on them. But, even then, country-code TLDs like “.co .uk” and fast-rising extensions like “.io” and “.co” can do well.  

Avoid Errors That Can Hinder Your Domains

Again, selecting a premium domain is the easiest approach to being successful on the internet. But to ensure you’re able to achieve this, you must ensure to pick domains that match your brand names and avoid spelling errors, symbols, and numbers.

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This was a guest post written by Grant Polachek. He is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. They are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients such as Nestle, Dell, Nuskin, and AutoNation.