One of the hardest things in life is to name something or someone. When it comes to your website, the task of naming gets even harder. The name should be beautiful, relevant and unique. Unlike the situation where you try to pick a name for a child or a pet, you can’t just take any of the names that you have in mind. You can only choose from available ones.
Choosing the right website title is one of the most important decisions you make. It will work for your image and identity, as well as for SEO, allowing to maximise search engine traffic you receive. An improper name can become an impediment to gathering the right audience. It’s vital to choose your domain name wisely and this would require much thought and consideration.
Some tips and tricks for choosing the right domain name:
1. Use your name.
It’s a good idea to include your last name in your domain even if you aren’t famous yet. People will be looking for your website using your name which will help you show up on higher positions in the search engine rankings. A rare or a common last name could pose a problem, but the solution would be to insert your first name or certain keywords which are relevant for your art.
2. Use keywords for your type of art.
3. Keep it short.
Domain names are limited to 63 characters. Any name of such a length would be unbearably long. Keep it between 5 and 20 characters. According to a study, the average length of the most popular websites have only 6 characters in their name. Names of one or two words are easier for perception and perfectly suitable for a title. So, names like TheSatanicArmyOfDeadmenArtPosters is not O’K for your website, let it be something like SatanicArt or Devil’sPoster.
4. Keep it simple and clear.
While choosing your website title you don’t need to show the maximum creativity as you do in your art. The title shouldn’t be too complicated or extravagant. Avoid unusual and rare words. For example, OedipalComplexArt is not a suitable name as people may know something on Freud’s concepts but be unable to type this in.
If a total stranger can easily recall your website address, you got it right! And you shouldn’t have to spell or explain anything when you say your website name out loud.
5. Avoid numbers and hyphens.
Domain names can contain numbers and hyphens, but it is highly unrecommended to use them in your URL. Google can identify the words separated with a hyphen better, but this would have no impact on your rankings in SEO. A non-hyphenated version with no numbers is easier to type in and find. Numbers and hyphens can only cause confusion and complicate things when it comes to searching for your website. In addition, hyphenated names may be perceived as secondary or even second-rate compared to non-hyphenated variants.
6. Choose the best Top Level Domain (TLD).
Extensions or TLDs are suffixes at the end of web addresses such as .COM, .ORG or .NET. TLD have very little impact on how you show up in Google rankings. However it could definitely help in many ways.
The .COM TLD is one of the earliest and the most popular, but it can be nearly impossible to find a memorable name there, as most are already taken. Solve that problem by choosing a new TLD which will also work for your advantage.
That’s easy: if users search for some art-related information, they will be more willing to click a site with the .ART extension. .ART is a digital dress-code for the world of arts.
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