How to choose your business domain (and the 6 mistakes that cost you)

Your domain is the only piece of your online presence that's genuinely yours. Someone else controls your social media; you control your domain — as long as you register it properly.

This guide goes straight to the decisions that matter and the mistakes that later cost money or grief.

Decision 1: the extension

For a business operating in the United States, the practical order of preference is simple:

.com is still the default. It's what people type out of habit and the one they mistype least.
.net, .co work when the .com is taken and the name really matters to you.
Themed extensions (.shop, .agency, .services) are fine, especially when they describe what you do and let you use a shorter name.

One important nuance: the extension by itself doesn't rank you better or worse on Google. What does matter is whether people remember your address and type it correctly.

Decision 2: the name

Three criteria, in order of weight:

You can dictate it over the phone. If you have to spell it twice, it's a bad name. This is the most useful test there is and almost nobody runs it.
Short beats descriptive. spartanauto.com wins over thebestshopincharlotte.com.
No hyphens, no numbers. They get lost when spoken and they look less serious.

Decision 3: should I include my city?

It depends on your ambition. If you serve one area and don't plan to leave it, including the city makes the name instantly understandable. If you plan to grow into other states, a domain with a city baked in becomes a straitjacket, and changing it later is expensive.

Rule of thumb: if you've been in the same area more than five years and aren't moving, the city helps.

The 6 mistakes that cost you

1. The domain is registered in your web designer's name. The most expensive mistake on this list. If the relationship breaks down, you lose your address and your email with it. The registration must sit in an account that is yours, with your email and your card. Check whose name yours is under today.

2. Auto-renew is off. Domains expire and get released. There are people who make a living buying expired domains from active businesses and selling them back to you.

3. Leaving your personal details exposed. Domain registration is public. Without privacy protection, your name, address and phone are visible — and the sales calls start.

4. Picking a name that steps on a registered trademark. If your domain is too close to a known brand, you can lose it to a claim, even years later. Before buying, search the name in the USPTO trademark search.

5. Buying the domain and never using it. A domain with no site does nothing for you in search. It's a name reservation, not a presence.

6. Registering only one variant. If your brand can be spelled two obvious ways, register both and redirect one to the other. It's cheap and it stops someone else from cashing in.

What to check before you pay

A short list for the moment of purchase:

The renewal price, not just the first year. Sometimes year one is a promo and renewal triples.
That WHOIS privacy is included at no extra cost.
That you can change DNS freely, in case you move the site later.
That the account is in your name and your email.

Where to register it

You can check your name's availability right on our homepage: the search runs live, and if it's free you register it there, with WHOIS protection included, immediate activation and auto-renewal.

Check if my domain is available →

General guidance on domain registration. The USPTO link is included so you can check trademarks yourself; this is not legal advice. For a specific trademark conflict, consult an attorney.