The kind of difference a name can make to a business is unimaginable. It forms your business’s online identity and is one of the first things your users will notice about you, which makes it all the more important.
The online world is highly perception-driven where names play a very important part. The investment you make towards brand-building activities has a direct impact on the perception of your business in the minds of your users. One of these investments includes buying a fitting domain name for your website.
Today, buying a domain name is easy and often not very expensive. However, with experience, entrepreneurs have realized that a domain name is not just a URL. It is an investment that can do wonders for your business in the long run.
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What are premium domain names?
A premium domain name is one that has a high price point as compared to a regular domain name. When you do a domain name search, you will notice that some names that appear in your results are priced much higher than the rest. If you look closely, you will realize that there are some very specific traits that are common among these premium domain names.
Premium domain names are those that are more meaningful and brandable than others. They are extremely indicative of the business or the industry that they belong to. Due to this feature, they are eyed by many businesses that are willing to pay a premium for these domain names.
Here are some of the characteristics that make domain names premium:
1. They are brandable
The demand for a domain name is directly proportional to its perceived brand value.
For example, www.design.space is extremely indicative and easy to remember. It could be a great investment for a design studio or an architect or any creator for that matter. Therefore, it comes at a premium price.
2. They are short
In the online world, short, simple, and memorable is the key to a great online presence.
Let’s compare www.onlinetherapy.com and www.therapy.online. While the former domain name has the necessary keywords, the latter is short, memorable, easy to communicate, and is keyword-rich all at once.
3. They are great for SEO
When you combine meaningful keywords with industry-specific domain extensions such as .space, .online, or .tech, you are sure to land yourself a keyword-rich domain name.
For example, a domain name such as www.tutorials.online can attract topical backlinks giving your website a great SEO boost.
4. They are relevant
A domain name is exclusive to its owners and no two entities can own the same one.
If you are a business looking for a domain name, you need to make sure you choose one that clearly defines what you offer.
For example, a domain name such as www.construction.site explicitly tells what the business or website might be about.
seoWhat are the benefits of premium domain names?
There’s a lot of brand value that can be derived from premium domain names.
1. Builds a good reputation
When you have a short, simple, and straight-forward domain name, it makes it easier for your customer to remember you.
For example, www.buysmartphonesonline.com could be offering the same thing as www.smartphones.store is. However, the latter is a much better domain name since it’s crisper, simple, and straightforward.
Moreover, when your users click on a domain name and land on a website that offers exactly what your domain name has promised, it increases credibility and establishes a good reputation in the industry.
2. Drives traffic
In SEO, when the anchor text matches with the website address, it boosts the SEO of the page.
Anchor text is the string of words that are highlighted when they are hyperlinked to a web address. When these highlighted words match with the website’s web address, search engines consider the website as authentic and credible and this, in turn, boosts SEO.
The more relevant the anchor text is to the page it is linking to, the better it is for the SEO.
An example would be, the anchor text ‘sneakers store’ hyperlinked to the website www.sneaker.store.
Besides, search engines do not differentiate between domain names based on their extensions. The algorithms only care about high-quality content. However, it’s better to have a keyword-rich domain name than not.
3. Sticks to the user’s mind
Marketers across the world invest in establishing one thing for their brands – top of the mind recall. They try to coin words and establish associations that stick to the minds of their users.
A premium domain name does this rather easily.
For example, if you are an eCommerce website selling toys, www.toy.store is the perfect domain name for you. Now compare this with a domain name such as www.theonlinetoystore.com or www.buytoysonline.com.
You will obviously remember the first option in the long run because It’s short, meaningful, and it’s literally just two words.
The brevity of a domain name also makes it easy to communicate using online as well as offline media.
4. Establishes authority
If you are looking to become a market leader and want to build authority, you can start by getting yourself a category-defining domain name with industry-specific keywords.
Think about it, a website with the domain name such as www.shoes.online or www.spices.store immediately paints a picture in the user’s mind. They tend to become the go-to websites for their respective commodities.
In this manner, a premium domain establishes authority, credibility and also helps with accurate brand positioning.
Conclusion
Buying a domain name is all about knowing what you want for your brand and how you plan to achieve it.
Before purchasing a domain name, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Is it easy to remember?
Is it sounding legitimate and trustworthy?
Is it helping my company stand out from the competition?
Is the domain name reflecting my company’s name and business?
If your choice of domain name happens to check the above boxes, it is definitely worth paying a premium price for it.
Think of it as an investment that has guaranteed returns in the long run.
About the author
Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix (radix.website), the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .ONLINE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/alishashibli) and Twitter (twitter.com/alishashibli).
