You want to buy a domain and make no mistakes? Then read on!
Buy a domain – mistakes happen quickly
When buying a domain, some things can go wrong. Now you are probably asking yourself, “why is that? I click buy and I have a domain.” You thought wrong!
The domain is not only your ticket to the world of the Internet and its possibilities, but also an essential indicator in the search engine optimization whether your website is valuable or not.
The most common mistakes when buying a domain
When you buy a domain, there are several quality aspects to consider. Not every lack of quality is also a fault but all aspects should be mentioned.
- overlong domain name
- worthless domain ending
- young domain age
- Risk of confusion of the domain
- Domain with umlauts
- Domain with preload
Young domains may not be useful
The domain age is an indication for the search engine of how valuable the domain is. If a domain was registered many years ago, it has more value than a “freshly” registered one. This makes perfect sense, since costs for the domain have also been incurred for the respective period.
But now you do not need to worry if you register your domain again. The domain age is only a small part of the weighting for the search engine. Furthermore, there are considerable costs to buy the domain from a competitor or owner.
So when does an old Internet address make sense? If you have a large budget and are committed to a name that is already taken, it is of course advisable to secure the corresponding address.
Domain endings as a quality factor
Why is one domain extension worth more than another? The explanation is quite simple. If you have already searched for a suitable domain name from a provider, you will quickly find out that in Germany, for example, the .de ending has already been assigned for most domain ideas.
Instead, the provider will have offered you a .info or .eu ending. You have not accessed it? Your luck! For Google the name is the hair in the soup, the main domain ending of the respective country Germany.de America .com or France .fr is always the most important one. Therefore, if you want to get ahead in the search engine, keep your hands off worthless domain endings.
The name of the domain decides
Care should also be taken with the domain name. A too long name ichquetscheallesanunderhalteeinenlangennamen.de or heavily nested domains with more than one hyphen here-were-used-to-many-bindestriche-.de is to be seen as an indication of spamy or easily available domains, just as with a worthless domain ending.
By the way, the fact that hyphens are used between words at all is a German phenomenon that is not found in the USA, for example. So avoid more than one hyphen if possible. If your name is already registered, you should refrain from using musterfirma-gmbh.de, but rather put a descriptive word of your activity behind it like musterfirma-anwalt.de.
Difference instead of desire address
In any case, make sure you have a distinctive e-mail address. There is no point in building your trademark under a descriptive name that the competitor can obtain in a similar form. It is better to choose your company name.
For example, if you secure sample-example.com, then you must also secure sample-muster.de, sample-example.com, sample-muster.com, etc. This will quickly cost you money and will not make you happy. Especially since the other domains would have to be free for this. It is better to choose your brand .de and to optimize the desired keywords for the search engine optimization afterwards via the content.
Umlauts can be harmful
Even if everyone should have a halfway newer browser, which can display umlauts, it is still common practice to choose a name without umlauts. If your company name contains an umlaut like e.g. an ä, then not only secure the ä address, but also the one with ae.
Toxic domains
You have bought your dream domain at an auction and then you have a rude awakening? Before buying a domain, research thoroughly what was done with the domain before you bought it. Was the service or the business conduct possibly harmful. Do you automatically buy a bad reputation? Does the domain have penalties with a search engine? An exact analysis will show you whether the domain is faultless.
Domain provider
Domain providers exist like sand at the sea. The important thing here is not only the sometimes immensely different price, but also what you intend to do with the domain afterwards. If you just want to hoard the domain, then it makes sense to look for the cheapest provider and buy the domain there.
If you want to bring a web project online with the domain, the next aspect is added. How expensive is the web space with this provider? Do you perhaps already have a server on which the domain must move afterwards? Where is the data stored with the respective provider?
Here we have prepared a small overview of the most common providers. It is always worth comparing prices and services!
So, now you should know everything you need to know when buying a domain. We wish you a lot of fun with your internet project and if you have any questions or criticism, we are looking forward to your comment.
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