The Complete Guide to Choosing the Best Domain Name

As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience building websites, I can tell you that picking the right domain name is one of the most critical decisions when starting a new website or rebranding your online presence.

With so many options to choose from, landing on the perfect domain can be overwhelming. But fear not, this comprehensive guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to brainstorm, evaluate, and register the ideal domain name for your business or brand.

Why Your Domain Name Matters

Your domain name is your identity on the internet. It can influence everything from brand recognition and trust, to your search engine rankings and even conversion rates.

According to Moz, domains containing keywords related to the business can result in a boost in organic traffic by 2-10x compared to generic domains.

Not only that, but a short, memorable domain name is much easier to market and share with customers. Data also shows that short domains get, on average, more traffic and conversion rates.

So put thought and time into brainstorming and evaluating your domain name options. This choice will impact your website‘s ability to attract and engage your ideal audience.

How to Brainstorm Domain Name Ideas

Coming up with creative, catchy domain name ideas can be challenging. Here are some proven tips to get the idea juices flowing:

• Leverage relevant keywords – Incorporate keywords related to your niche, product, service, location or brand name. This boosts SEO and memorability.

• Use name generators – Domain name generators provide hundreds of keyword-based suggestions to inspire you. More on the best generators later.

• Make it short – Try to keep it under 15 characters. Shorter is better for engagement and sharing. Data shows 1-word domains get the most traffic.

• Test combinations – Mix and match fragments of words to create new unique combinations. For example, BestHome + Guide could be BestHomeGuide.

• Add prefixes/suffixes – Prefixes like Go, My, Get, or suffixes like Hub, Space, Book, can produce new variants.

• Leverage trends – Using domain extensions like .io and .tech can give a modern feel.

• Ask others – Get feedback from target customers, friends in your industry, or brand experts. Fresh perspectives help.

By mixing and matching different word combinations and fragments, you can come up with dozens of creative domain name ideas to choose from.

Domain Name Best Practices

Before jumping into specific domain generators, let‘s cover some universal best practices to follow when picking a domain name:

• Be brandable – Choose something that aligns with your brand identity and is easily identifiable to your company.

• Make it memorable – Short, catchy, and easy to remember domains have higher engagement and recall.

• Use a popular TLD – Stick with established extensions like .com, .net, .org if possible for better SEO.

• Avoid hyphens – Hyphens can hurt engagement as they are easy to forget. Try to use single words/short phrases.

• Be globally understandable – Ensure the name translates well internationally and is pronounceable.

• Check for trademarks – Do due diligence to ensure you aren‘t infringing on trademarks or existing brands.

Keeping these best practices in mind will ensure you choose a domain name that is effective for promoting your brand and driving website growth.

15 Best Domain Name Generators

Now let‘s dive into the top domain name generators available and how they can help you pick the perfect domain name:

1. Nameboy – Best Overall Domain Generator

Founded in 1999, Nameboy is my personal favorite and the most full-featured domain name generator out there.

With over 3 million entrepreneurs having used the platform, Nameboy is trusted in the industry. Their algorithm combs through 200 domain extensions to find available, relevant suggestions.

Just enter a keyword and Nameboy provides hundreds of domains instantly. It also shows availability and estimated pricing, so you can filter to only available domains.

Nameboy is completely free and easy to use. I appreciate the superspeed of the tool along with niche-specific generators focused on social media, ecommerce, blogs, apps, and more.

2. GoDaddy Domain Name Generator

As the world‘s largest domain registrar, it‘s no surprise GoDaddy offers a domain generator. The tool is directly integrated with their domain search and registration system.

Enter keywords, and GoDaddy will show you relevant, short .com domain recommendations instantly. Filter by extensions, check availability, and even register the domain directly through GoDaddy with ease.

While focused on .com, you can still manually search other extensions as well. For a seamless domain purchase experience, GoDaddy is a go-to option.

3. DomainWheel – Unique Spinning Name Generator

If you want an outside-the-box domain name generator, DomainWheel needs to be on your radar. DomainWheel provides a fun, interactive experience like a virtual prize wheel.

Simply enter a keyword or phrase and spin the wheel. It will then randomly generate hundreds of unique domain name ideas for you to browse. Available domains are marked in green.

You can filter results by length, vowel removal, prefixes, suffixes, plurals, rhymes, and more. If you‘re feeling lucky, take DomainWheel for a spin to get creative suggestions.

4. LeanDomainSearch – Speedy Generator by WordPress

LeanDomainSearch is a domain generator created by Automattic, the makers of WordPress. It‘s designed to be insanely fast at finding available short .com domains.

The minimalist interface makes it easy to find catchy domains that are ready to register. It also checks for matching social media username availability.

As a webmaster using WordPress for 15+ years, I highly recommend LeanDomainSearch, especially if you plan to build your site on WordPress.org or WordPress.com.

5. Shopify – Ecommerce Focused Domain Name Generator

Shopify offers a specialized domain generator catered to ecommerce businesses. It‘s optimized to create brandable, SEO-friendly domain names for online stores.

In addition to checking domain availability, Shopify also provides useful resources like logo maker, business name generator, trademark checker, and more – everything you need to start an ecommerce brand.

6. Bust a Name – Highly Customizable Domain Generator

Bust a Name may look basic, but it‘s incredibly customizable for creating unique domain names tailored to your business.

You can add prefixes, suffixes, combine words, merge names, make plurals, rhymes, synonyms, and much more. There are also bulk domain search tools to check availability of up to 20 domains at once.

For hardcore domainers and name ideation, Bust a Name is a powerful utility in your toolbox. Well worth bookmarking.

7. Wordoid – Domain Name Dictionary

Most domain generators follow a standard approach, but Wordoid shakes things up with a dictionary-style domain searcher.

Simply enter any word or fragment, and Wordoid will show you hundreds of available domain names containing that word or letters.

For example, enter "pet" and you‘ll get petstore.com, petzone.com, petpad.com, etc. It sparks new ideas you‘d likely never think of.

8. Domainr – Domain Name Search and Discovery

Domainr is a leading domain search engine that makes finding available domains easy. It provides a clean layout to explore keyword-based suggestions across tons of extensions like .com, .net, .org, .io, .ai and more.

Domainr is completely free and also shows estimated pricing if you want to purchase premium domains from third party sellers. It‘s a go-to tool for every webmasters domain hunting toolbox.

9. Dot-o-mator – Pronounceable Domain Generator

Most generators focus solely on keywords and combinations. Dot-o-mator takes a pronunciation-first approach to help you find domains that just sound good.

The tool provides options like alliteration, rhymes, syllable mixing and more to create unique pronounceable names. These types of domains tend to be more memorable and engaging.

10. NameStation – Domain Generator + Crowdsourcing

NameStation brings a community approach to domain name ideation. Of course it offers an AI generator to create names. But you can also setup contests to crowdsource naming ideas.

Getting input from real humans on NameStation can help capture creative domain names you hadn‘t considered. Mix automation with human minds for next level results.

11. BrandBucket – Domain Name Marketplace

If you have a larger budget, BrandBucket provides a marketplace of catchy, brandable domain names available for purchase starting at $99.

An expert team handpicks and acquires high-quality domain names to resell, along with allowing you to search their portfolio.

While pricier, BrandBucket is ideal if you want a premium aged domain name to help your brand stand out.

12. Panabee – Branding-Focused Domain Generator

Panabee offers a nicely designed, branding-oriented domain generator experience. I like their logo design, trademarks search, slogan creator, social media checks, and other brand assets.

For startups and businesses wanting to establish a visual identity during the domain selection process, Panabee is worth exploring.

13. Domain Name Generator (Domize)

Domize is an AI-powered domain generator claiming to provide over 20 million domain suggestions optimized for branding, SEO and engagement.

It combines words in new ways along with checking availability across tons of extensions. Worth testing as a newer domain generation tool with a robust database.

14. Wordlab – Domain Name Ideation Tool

For pure creative brainstorming, Wordlab helps you explore combinations of prefix, root, and suffix word fragments to inspire new domain possibilities.

While not a domain checker, it‘s great for sparking initial name ideas during the early ideation process when designing your brand identity and naming.

15. BusinessNameGenerator.com – Business-Focused Domain Brainstorming

As the name suggests, BusinessNameGenerator.com contains an AI tool specifically focused around creating brandable names for businesses and startups across all industries.

In addition to the generator, the site also provides tips for naming your business, validating ideas, and guides for specific industries like tech, clothing, services, etc.

Their business name analyzer also scores your name ideas based on criteria like branding potential, ease of marketing, and emotional impact.

Evaluating and Selecting Domain Ideas

After brainstorming and creating a shortlist of possible domains, here are some key factors to evaluate:

• Memorability – is it catchy, short, and easy to remember? Shorter domains perform better.

• Brand alignment – does it match your company identity or reinforce your positioning?

• Keyword relevance – does it incorporate important keywords for your niche or industry?

• Extension – focus on .com first, then explore .net, .org, .co, etc.

• Easy spelling – avoid confusing spellings or odd pronunciations.

• Trademarks – ensure you aren‘t infringing on any existing brands/trademarks.

• Competitor domains – research competitor domain names and positioning for inspiration.

Getting feedback from others in your target audience is also recommended before making a final domain selection.

Prioritize short, memorable, brandable domains that reinforce your identity. Keyword-rich domains are ideal, but focus on engagement and branding first.

How to Register Your Domain Name

Once you‘ve selected your perfect domain name, it‘s time to officially register it so no one else can take it.

You‘ll need to visit a domain name registrar like GoDaddy, Domain.com, or Namecheap, search for the domain, and complete the purchase process.

Domain registration typically costs between $8.99 – $12.99 per year for common TLDs like .com, .net, .org. I recommend registering your domain for at least 2-3 years upfront for security.

Many web hosting companies like Bluehost also offer free domain registration for the first year when signing up for web hosting.

Overall, register your domain as soon as possible so you can secure your online identity and start developing your new website. Enjoy the process of selecting your new domain name and optimize it to grow your brand!