How to choose the perfect domain name for your art website
Your name goes ahead of you. Your domain name will go ahead of your art. The power of names affects first impressions more than we realise. And first impressions shape our relationships.
One of the hardest things in life is to name something or someone. When it comes to your website, the task of naming gets even harder. The name should be beautiful, relevant and unique. Unlike the situation where you try to pick a name for a child or a pet, you can’t just take any of the names that you have in mind. You can only choose from available ones.
Choosing the right website title is one of the most important decisions you make. It will work for your image and identity, as well as for SEO, allowing to maximise search engine traffic you receive. An improper name can become an impediment to have the audience get there. It’s vital to choose your domain name wisely and this would require much thought and consideration.
Some tips and tricks for choosing the right domain name:
1. Use your name.
It’s a good idea to include your last name in your domain even if you aren’t famous yet. People will be looking for your website using your name which will help you show up on higher positions in the search engine rankings. A rare or a common last name could pose a problem, but the solution would be to insert your first name or certain keywords which are relevant for your art.
2. Use keywords for your type of art.
- Brainstorm the words related to what you do. Google and other search engines attach great significance to the keywords in a domain name. The appearance of these words in your website title will be helpful as a relevancy signal when people search for things like «sculpture» or «oil painting».
- A lot of domain names are already unavailable, so if you are a textile painter, try a few different versions of keyword combinations like «textile painting», «colorful textiles» or «textile patterns». A great idea may be to combine your name with the type of your art like ClarkeGableClayWorks or JessyNormanSculpture.
3. Keep it short.
Domain names are limited to 63 characters. Any name of such a length would be unbearably long. Keep it between 5 and 20 characters. According to a study, the average length of the most popular websites have only 6 characters in their name. Names of one or two words are easier for perception and perfectly suitable for a title. So, names like TheSatanicArmyOfDeadmenArtPosters is not O’K for your website, let it be something like SatanicArt or Devil’sPoster.
4. Keep it simple and clear.
While choosing your website title you don’t need to show the maximum creativity as you do in your art. The title shouldn’t be too complicated or extravagant. Avoid unusual and rare words. For example, OedipalComplexArt is not a suitable name as people may know something on Freud’s concepts but be unable to type this in.
If a total stranger can easily recall your website address, you got it right! And you shouldn’t have to spell or explain anything when you say your website name out loud.
5. Avoid numbers and hyphens.
Domain names can contain numbers and hyphens, but it is highly unrecommended to use them in your URL. Google can identify the words separated with a hyphen better, but this would have no impact on your rankings in SEO. A non-hyphenated version with no numbers is easier to type in and find. Numbers and hyphens can only cause confusion and complicate things when it comes to searching for your website. In addition, hyphenated names may be perceived as secondary or even second-rate compared to non-hyphenated variants.
6. Choose the best Top Level Domain (TLD).
Extensions or TLDs are suffixes at the end of web addresses such as .COM, .ORG or .NET. TLD has very little impact on how you show up in Google rankings. However it could definitely help in many ways.
The .COM TLD is one of the earliest and the most popular, but it can be nearly impossible to find a memorable name there, as most are already taken. Solve that problem by choosing a new TLD which will also work for your advantage.
- Using the right domain name extension will help you find the best and most beautiful name for your website.
- As some studies show on some metrics the new TLDs were outperforming .COM, but the cost of a campaign on the new TLD was much cheaper. New TLDs can give more AdWords impressions and even better positioning’ according to the same studies.
- You can make you TLD meaningful and industry-specific. The proper TLD in this case would be a relevancy signal for people and search engines and also work for your image and reputation. People will have a better understanding of what you do and – with a proper website name – of what your art is all about.
That’s easy: if users search for some art-related information, they will be more willing to click a site with the .ART extension. .ART is a digital dress-code for the world of arts.