6 Domain Name Myths Every Blogger Should Know

A domain name is one of the crucial things to starting a website. It gives your site identity. 

Hence, before registering a domain name, you must know any domain name myths that may prevent you from getting your preferred site identity.

A lot of times, these myths lead you to choose the wrong domain names. In this post, we’ll discuss some domain name myths.

Domain name myths

You can change domains easily.

When buying domain names, several people are in a rush to get their websites up and running. However, they end up registering a domain name, hoping to change in the future.

Unfortunately, changing or altering your domain name isn’t as easy as it seems. Several challenges will arise.

One such case is your search rankings.

Suppose your website performs highly in the search engines, even with 301 redirections. In that case, it will be difficult to get similar results.

You own the domain name forever. 

Have you seen companies such as GoDaddy and Namecheap auctioning expired domains?

New bloggers and webmasters believe that once registered, that’s it. They have total ownership of the domain name. However, this isn’t the case. 

Domain name registrars require you to renew your domain.

If you don’t, your domain name will end up at domain auction sites, and an aggressive affiliate marketer will grab it at a cheap price and benefit from your link-building efforts. 

Be sure to put in a registrar lock when you purchase your domain. If you are using a domain service such as Namecheap and Godaddy, it is easy to do it with a single click.

A trademark entitles you to register a domain.

Trademark and domain name registration are two distinct issues. As a new blogger, you’d think that since you’ve registered a domain name, you’ve automatically acquired the domain name trademark.

To understand this, look at the registrars for each. ICANN registers domain names, while trademark registrations vary from country to country.

However, verify the trademark before registering a domain name. And when you buy a domain name, consider acquiring the trademark.

You only need a .com domain name to succeed online.

This is the most common myth regarding domain name registration. Many bloggers believe that having a .com extension is the holy grail.

Domain name registrars who price other domain name extensions cheaper than .com have propagated this, fooling new bloggers about the same.

However, looking at some of the most successful websites shows other domain name such as problogger.net.

You’ll realize that to be successful when building an online business, you must start. If you’re planning to run an enterprise and wish to advertise it in your own country, it is ideal to use a country-specific version such as .ke. us, etc.

Avoid dashes in your domain name.

Like the .com domain extension myth, several bloggers never register hyphenated domain names.

The majority consider domain names with dashes as spammy.

Others believe that it hurts their SEO efforts, an issue Google has clarified as a misconception.

The primary reason other domain names do not use the dash when they register their domain names is that it’s difficult to remember by other people.

Your domain name should contain a keyword.

 How often have you searched for a keyword on the web and found top ranking results with no keyword or a related keyword in their domain name?

For instance, looking at the top 10 search results for the search term “keywords” shows that having a keyword-rich domain name doesn’t matter as long as you’ve mastered SEO.

Out of the 10 results, 9 do not have the word keyword in their domain name. Hence, when registering your domain name, don’t put too much weight on having a keyword in your domain.

What should you consider when buying a domain name?

Having highlighted some myths about domain names, what should you consider when registering yours?

There is wisdom in crowds, and having a .com domain means you should consider it. It’s the default domain extension.

Hence you can purchase it and redirect it to your preferred domain extension.

However, it’s also possible to ignore it as long as you’ve got a lot of cash to spend on branding.

Dashes are to be avoided from a user-friendliness perspective.

Hyphenated domain names are hard to pronounce and can be hard to promote through word of mouth. The same case applies to using numbers in your domain name.

The main thing to consider is your ability to engage your target audience and convince them to use your name regardless of extension.

Then you could have a domain name in the leet domain, and an Icelandic domain extension and your hungry fans will remain loyal to it.

From an SEO standpoint, we always recommend it to include your principal money keywords within the domain name.

There are many myths associated with domain names, but it is important not to get lost in these myths and avoid the myths when you choose a domain name.

If you know of any domain name myth, please tell us about it.