How can securing the right domain name enhance credibility and sales?
Table of contents:
- Introduction
- What is a domain name?
- Why is it important to choose the right one?
- How can a domain name enhance credibility?
- How can a domain name boost sales?
- How to understand which domain name fits your site’s needs?
- How to measure the success of a domain name?
- Conclusion
1. Introduction
A domain name is a crucial part of a website. It will be your site’s online name and the way your customers and potential buyers will refer to your site. We know a bunch of companies that, even though they work under a different legal name, every customer calls them by their website’s name. This can be either a curse or a blessing. It is great if you find the perfect domain name for your needs, but if you do not, it will have a negative effect on your business.
In this article, we will demonstrate the opposite; how the right domain name can boost your credibility and sales. But let’s start with the basics!
2. What is a domain name?
A domain name is the physical name of a website. It has two parts: the second-level domain (SLD), and the top-level domain (TLD). In the case of Instagram.com, “Instagram” is the SLD, and the “.com” is the domain extension, or the TLD. Both can be used by other companies separately (generally), but one combination can only be used only once.
That’s why, even though you really like “Instagram.com”, you can’t use this domain name for your online business. However, this is a rational choice, it wouldn’t only have copyright issues, but customers would not decide which is the real, or the older website, and which is the copy. A world like this would be the dream world of cheaters.
Domain names can be reserved through domain name registrars. Here, you have the option to choose from a selection of TLD-s, like the most popular “.com”, country-specific TLD-s, like “.uk” (United Kingdom’s), “.de” (Germany’s), or “.us” (United States’s). On top of that, in the last few years, other alternative TLD-s have also generated big hype, like “.ai”, “.io”, or “.am”. If you try to sell something extraordinary, or high-tech we encourage you to look around these alternative options.
In 2025, there will be more than 1591 different TLDs, and even though some are only reserved for governmental, or at least non-business use, it’s still too much.
3. Why is it important to choose the right one?
Credit: Freepik
As we discussed earlier, the domain name is one of the first few aspects visitors hear from your brand. And we know, or at least may have experienced how important the first impression is: dating apps are all built on the power of first impressions, and we all know how a misspelled word inside the introduction worsens the chances of finding a match. This behavior works inside the world of domain names.
If we can’t raise attention, or the visitors can not resonate with our domain name, the chances of leading them through the conversion funnel are relatively low.
There are 33 thousand domain name registrations each day according to a statistic. That means, every 2.61 seconds, there is one less option to choose from. When you create a website, you not only need to exceed your potential buyers’ expectations, but you need to deliver faster decisions than your competitors. That is the case with domain name registration as well.
a. How can a domain name enhance credibility?
Credibility is a real decisive factor of a domain name, most importantly at those websites where you can pay to buy the goods. If you do not trust a website, you won’t give your credit card numbers there.
Of course, there are other indicators of a trustworthy site outside of the domain name, but it is still important to take note of. For example, if you use a traditional TLD, just like “.com”, more people will trust your website. Or, instead of just a “ttps”, if your website has a “https” certification at the start of the web address it will enhance credibility. These can all be set through a domain name registration process.
b. How can a domain name boost sales?
Of course, a so-called trustworthy domain name is not enough to generate sales. A domain name can contribute to the boost of sales but only has limited power. That means that if your website’s interface is poor, or your products are way expensive, a domain name will not gonna save you.
However, it can enhance this behavior. A powerful domain name refers to your niche, or your industry: contains a specific keyword, or matches with your offline brand name.
It also has a cumulated factor: a domain name with a keyword not only attracts more human attention, but Google will also recognize that; and give your site higher places in certain searches. Searches that matter to you the most.
4. How to understand which domain name fits your site’s needs?
Credit: Freepik
There are no perfect technical rules for how to choose a great domain name for your website. That’s why most entrepreneurs decide wrong. The best rule is to make it connected to your industry, and your potential customers. You need to research a bit before the decision, and in this research phase you need to get answers to the following questions:
- What words do your potential buyers write down to the search pages when they want to solve the problem that your product or service solves?
- What are their characteristics? Are they young and ambitious? Or are they rather older and traditional ones?
- What is your goal with your website? To sell products? Or to demonstrate a portfolio? Or to generate hype? All require different approaches.
If you have an answer to all of the above questions, you can be more self-confident in choosing the right domain name for your needs.
5. How to measure the success of a domain name?
Well, it is a hard question. Unfortunately, it is very hard to break your site into pieces, and conclude which part was the most important factor of a purchase. That’s why it is important to phrase goals even before letting customers go up into the website.
Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound – that’s basically the five pillars of SMART goals, a useful way to make your goals effective.
We also encourage you to use website analytics, which can filter out bugs, or other illogical website elements. Sometimes those are the catalysts of an unsuccessful site and not the domain name. If everything else seems OK, you can now bring your suspicions to the domain names.
6. Conclusion
In this article, we introduced you to the world of domain names. We demonstrated its importance and made tips for you on how to choose the right one. Don’t forget that it is way harder to switch domain names than to switch other elements of your site, so make a good call at first. We hope that this article has helped you during this process.