Domain names are always an underestimated part of the affiliate marketing success journey. But can you go without it? Not really. It’s a crucial part of your brand, and the whole business model might greatly benefit from it. Vice versa, if you don’t write your homework, you can miss a great opportunity to make money online with an affiliate business.
What are the benefits of great domain names?
There are two things in life people can’t seem to agree on: the best way to grill a good steak and how you should go about picking the right domain name. However, finding an ideal domain is crucial for most businesses, as it is one of the first interactions customers have with your company. When users arrive at your website, they will decide whether they’ve found what they were searching for. But which are the main advantages of a good domain name?
- Credibility - domains that have been thought about carefully are more credible to the general user than those which are not.
- Focus - while it’s not mandatory to use an affiliate marketing keyword, it’s a good idea to have something that reminds customers of your website and your business. For example, “Sandyreviews.com” might indicate that you’re doing reviews, or “TechBunny.blog” is a good signal you’re blogging about tech.
- Higher market reach - a good domain name will let you expand by reaching more international customers and generating a greater number of leads.
- Brand value - the domain name is a crucial part of your business strategy and can potentially add a lot of brand value. After all, you can use your name in your logo and on all pages throughout your website, plus all your social media accounts.
- More traffic - if you spend enough effort to choose a great domain name, you may benefit from increased traffic, as you will easily become a recognizable name.
How to choose a domain name?
Selecting the ideal name for your domain might not be that easy. Why? Because no one knows “the secret sauce.” Each affiliate marketer has found their way. Knowing how to choose a domain name for a blog might be totally different than picking something for a website with a strong landing page and many product reviews. Still, there are some good tactics that have proven to work, and we’ll show you some of them.

Length
By far, length plays the most critical role when deciding which domain name to choose. We’ve seen many websites that promote 8 characters as an ideal length. It might be the case in some cases, as many of the most popular websites have between 5-10 characters. However, don’t take it as a 100% certain rule. Fourhourworkweek has 15 and is still relevant. So don’t take it too far.
Still, we’d suggest 3 things:
- If possible, keep your domain name short.
- Don’t use intentional misspellings.
- Avoid immediate letter succession if you use more than one word in your domain name.
Branding
Branding is one of the most undervalued elements of your domain name, especially for an affiliate website. However, branding is not just a fancy word. It gives meaning and a sense of completeness.
Your domain name appears on banners, flyers, social media profiles, and everything you can think of. Even your logo depends on that name. So spend enough time finding a good one, and ensure you’ll give it value.
Location
If you have an affiliate business that is based in a specific location, it is crucial to keep that in mind when choosing a domain name. You may want to consider adding a word that indicates your target market in the domain name, such as HealthyVienna. Another strong point to consider is swapping the standard ".com" domain suffix with a country one - like ".at," for example. This will give potential customers an indication of where your business is located.
An example is Hoststar. While the hosting provider originates from Switzerland, Hoststar.at is very popular with Austrian clients since they know this service is made for them.
5 quick tips for finding the right domain name for your affiliate website
Instead of wild guessing, why don’t we look at some quick tips that will help you give your affiliate a fancy name that will attract new customers?
Find a proper name in the domain register
Before you decide on a name for your affiliate business, it's worth checking to see if the domain name is available. You might be surprised to find that some of the names you thought of are already taken. That's why it's worth doing a bit of research before settling on a name. With a little bit of effort, you can find a unique and engaging name for your business to help you stand out from the crowd. Hoststar lets you check domain names for free and find relevant extensions.
Create a memorable name
You don't have to make a domain name that looks very professional. It's a common myth. Instead, you can try and make one that sounds good and is easy to remember. For example, "Amazon" is an easy-to-remember name that lets you associate with the rainforest and the marketplace. So don't be afraid to get creative when choosing a domain name for your website!
Don’t follow the trend
While you may be tempted by trends (who isn’t), it’s not a very sensible decision to name your domain after something that sounds fancy today. A term that sounds fashionable right now might be obsolete tomorrow, and then you’ll have to either die down with the name or re-brand - both of which sacrifice web traffic and potential sales.
Stop craving .COM
We admit it can raise many eyebrows, but you won’t miss out on a lot of traffic by avoiding the sacred “dot-com” extension. But why? We can start with 3 reasons:
- Most great names are taken - we’ve been told that you cannot run a successful website, unlike it is “domainname.com.” As a result, the most exciting names are taken. If you pass on the “dot-com”, you might find many good domain name ideas.
- Domains are expensive - yes, another problem is those investors who treat Internet like “real estate”. This happened during the Dot-com Bubble when everyone was trying to make money out of the Internet. As a result, you might find many good unused domain names. However, you should spend big to get access to them.
- Affiliate websites are not exactly commercial - the “.com” extension refers to “commercial,” and affiliate websites are not commercial. And while you do profit when someone clicks on your links and registers with a service, you still can’t consider affiliate marketing as a commercial website where people buy stuff. Instead, it's more like a blog.
Common myth: Domain extension is important for SEO.
While “.com” extension provides some authority to the website, there is no evidence that it directly impacts SEO.
Consider your target audience’s location
If you want to run a successful affiliate website, you should consider the location of your audience. While everyone prefers as many potential leads as possible, you need to focus on a specific niche and a specific group. After that, you can add a location-based name to your domain name to make your website more relevant to your audience. This way, you can ensure that your website is tailored to your target market, and you can maximize your chances of generating leads and sales.
3 Must-Avoid Things
When picking a domain name for your affiliate website, there are a few things you should not do at any cost.
- Superlative adjectives - adding superlative adjectives can ruin your website’s credibility and make it sound fishy. Avoid using “best”, “strongest”, “most”, and others. It’s even a recommendation from Google themselves.
- Special signs - if you use dashes or numbers in your domain name, it’s possible that your visitors might forget your website, or write it incorrectly.
- Brand stealing - you need to show originality, as you might face severe consequence if you try to steal a trademark. You not only lose credibility, but you can get sued for your attempts.
Picking the right domain name for your affiliate website is crucial. But even if you don’t have that edge idea or your craved name is taken, you can still work your way round.
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