What to do When The Domain You Want is Unavailable
It can be frustrating when you come up with the perfect domain name for your business website or blog only to find that someone beat you to the punch. Your domain name is a core element of your online brand. Here are some tips on how you can work around this issue.
You Can Extend Your Domain
You can make your domain name unique by adding a word. One of the best ways to do this is to include your profession or industry e.g. lushflowers.com or keystonerealty.com. You retain your brand name as you create unique domain names. Similarly, you can add your location to your brand name e.g. lushwatford.com or keystonelondon.com.
You can also add a short prefix to your brand name to get a unique domain name. Short adverbs are quite effective at this, for example, if urbanshirts.com was your preferred domain and it’s unavailable, you can try geturbanshirts.com or tryurbanshirts.com. Both extend your domain while still highlighting your brand name. You can be as creative as you want as long as your domain name doesn’t get too long.
Buy or Monitor The Doman
Not all unavailable domains are in use, some are held by “domain squatters” who register and hold domain names that they believe will be valuable at some point for resale. If you try to load the website with your domain name and it’s for sale, then engage the owner. It might be within your price range.
Even if it isn’t for sale, if it seems largely unused and hasn’t been updated in a while, you can search domain registries for the owner’s email and enquire regarding a possible sale. Alternatively, with domain name monitoring services, you get to monitor an unused, but unavailable, domain so that you get notified when the owner’s registration expires and it becomes available again.
Use a Different TLD or ccTLD
TLD (Top Level Domain) refers to the last bit of a web address, consider the URL: google.com, the “.com” part is the TLD. CCTLDs are top-level domains reserved for countries such as .de for German sites and .co.uk for UK sites. If your domain isn’t available on the .com TLD, you can try out other TLDs such as .net, .biz, or your country’s ccTLD. While the .com TLD is more reputable globally, in some countries, such as Germany, websites using the .de TLD are considered more reputable.
There are countless TLDs to choose from and some may even add much-needed specificity for your domain name. For example, if your website will be offering tons of video content, why not use the .video TLD?
Conclusion
Finding out that your preferred domain name is unavailable shouldn’t be an earth-shattering disappointment. There are ways to get a unique domain name that is almost as good, or even better, than what you initially wanted. You can extend the domain by adding your location, profession, or a short adverb to make it unique and more personalised. You can choose to buy the domain or monitor it to be notified when its current registration expires. Also, you can check out its availability under different TLDs or ccTLDs. In some cases, a different TLD makes your domain name more appealing and more reputable.