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Considerations for choosing a domain name

What to consider when choosing domain name

Last updated on: 2025-02-23

Picking relevant TLD(s)

Here are some options to consider when choosing your TLD(s):

  • Use popular TLD(s) (ex: .com, .net, .org, .app, .io)
  • Use a TLD related to where you operate (ex: .fr, .eu, .paris).
  • Use a TLD related to who you are (ex: .me for an individual, .org for a non-profit, or .com for a for-profit).
  • Use a TLD related to what you do (ex: .photo for photographers)
  • Use a TLD as a suffix (often called "domain hack") (ex: Youtube uses "youtu.be" to shorten their URLs)

Note: Some restrictions may apply depending on the TLD, for example:

  • Some TLDs (typically ccTLDs) require the domain name's registrant to have a postal address in a specific country.
  • Some TLDs require that you operate in a specific industry (ex: ".xxx").

Availability

You can easily check for the availability of your desired domain names on a registrar's website, or in the WHOIS database.

If a desired domain is already registered, you may be able to purchase it from its current owner.

If that's not an option, you can always wait/hope to register it after it expires. Some registrars / registries also provide drop-catching or back-order services for this situation. These services are often auction-based.

Additionally, if you believe that you have a legitimate claim for an already-registered domain name (for example if you own the trademark for that name), you can dispute its ownership (cf: UDRP).

Registering additional domain names for security

Common typos and graphically similar names may be registered by malicious actors and used for phishing and typosquatting.

Additionally, it may also be wise to register domain names with ccTLDs in your countries of operation to prevent phishing attempts.

A more cost-efficient approach may be to monitor domain name registrations for sensible domain names that you have registered by you. If a potentially dangerous domain is registered by a 3rd party, you may dispute the ownership of the domain name and prevent any malicious activity.

Registries

For critical services, you may want to ensure the registry that operates your desired TLD is reliable. Registries can make mistakes and you probably don't want an incident to cause downtime for your services. You may want to ensure your nameservers are hosted on different TLDs (that are also operated by different registries).

For example, Amazon uses different TLDs for their nameservers (in February 2025):

  • ns1.amzndns.com.
  • ns1.amzndns.net.
  • ns1.amzndns.org.
  • ns1.amzndns.co.uk.
  • ...

Premium domains

Premium domains can get expensive. Only use them if they're really worth it.

Also a registry may choose to make your domain name premium one day if it's really short or represents a common name.

Trademarks

If you're also picking a brand name, ensure the name is not trademarked in your area(s) of juridisction.

There are official website to search for registered names:

USA Trademark Search UK Trademark Search France Trademark Search