How to pick the best domain name for your website

Executive overview

Choosing the wrong domain name can hurt your business. Most advice out there is contradictory, and common shortcuts — like switching to a non-.com extension or adding hyphens — cost you customers.

A practical checklist covers what to do, what to avoid, and what to prioritise. The goal is a domain that's short, trustworthy, and balances brand identity with search visibility.

Use a partial-match domain that blends a shortened version of your business name with your top keyword phrase.

The checklist

1. Make it short and memorable — longer names get misremembered or mistyped; cut it as far as possible while keeping it unique.
2. Stick with .com — people default to .com mentally; if your preferred name is taken, tweak the name before switching extensions.
3. Second-choice extensions are .net or .co — avoid trendy TLDs (.shop, .design, .lawyer); users will assume .com and end up on the wrong site.
4. Avoid hyphens — users forget them, land on competitor sites, and hyphens signal spam.
5. Avoid double or triple letters at word boundaries — e.g. coffeeexplosion.com trips people up where the last letter of one word meets the first of the next.
6. Use a partial-match domain — pure branded names (e.g. bostonhops.com) feel legitimate but miss keyword value; exact-match names (e.g. bestpubsinboston.com) feel spammy; a blend (e.g. bhpubboston.com) captures both.