(The Entrepreneur Ridealong) Building A Finance/Banking Site From $0 to $100,000: Picking a Domain
August 11, 2023
Picking My Domain
This recording is about month two, which is how I’ve chosen the domain name. I actually chose the domain even before we had our first video call, but I’ll give you some context on how I made my decision.
What are the most important factors you considered when choosing your domain name for your business?
First of all, is it easy to read? Is it memorable? Can you spell it? Are users likely to write it down with a typo if they hear the name? In my case, the one that I’ve chosen resonates with people. If someone hears the domain name, they will know immediately what it’s about. It’s also difficult to forget and they will know how to spell it.
What are your thoughts on “.com” domains vs. alternative domains?
I’m a big fan of “.coms”. I think that they always have a better resale value. But in my case, since I am working locally in Portugal, “.pt” would be the best option. However, if you could also buy the .com version of your site as well, that would be even better.
Another thing is how brandable the domain name is.
Let’s say that you’re going to build a website about car insurance. If your domain name is carinsurance.com, you have a great domain name, but there is only as much as you can talk about. It’s just going to be related to car insurance, which means that you can’t scale.
To be clear, that domain name is a premium domain, and I would still go ahead with a project like that, but you need to fully understand from the beginning that you’re going to be very limited on what topics you can cover and how big you can bring that project.
So I’d much rather build projects under a brand name that can relate to the specific industry and then just scale for whatever vertical I need. That way, if something doesn’t work, I can pivot that idea and do something else with that domain name.
Is there an optimal domain name length?
Honestly, the shorter, the better. Ideally, it would be one word, but if that’s not possible, a maximum of two words with no special characters would be the best.
What are your thoughts on buying an aged domain name vs a new one?
I’ve had experience with both. When there is some sort of age to a domain name, as long as the metrics make sense, it’s never been used for spam and doesn’t have a negative history, then aged domains usually tend to drive better traction, especially at the beginning. Then it kind of stabilizes.
With a new domain name, it takes time to build authority. And I don’t mean domain authority. It just takes time for Google to trust your website. I’ve seen cases where it takes up to six months to see the needle move, and in other cases, can take up to a year to see big traffic movements. This isn’t the case every time, and there are ways to mitigate this, but if you have a chance, I would go with an aged domain as long as brand-wise and quality-wise it makes sense.
How much would you be willing to spend on your ideal domain name? In other words, how valuable/crucial do you think a premium domain name is when building a content site?
This domain name specifically was quite expensive. We’ve invested roughly €7000 (USD $7500). The reason we’ve done that is because there is true potential within the niche, and the domain name is premium. It’s just one word and everyone understands instantly what it’s about.
So for being premium and having that potential to drive more traction as a brand, I definitely see the value.
But by all means, if you have your own brand and want to buy a brand new domain name, that’s also not a big deal. You just need to take into consideration that it just might take a little longer to build the necessary trust and authority with search engines for you to be able to compete with the bigger websites.
