5 Big Mistakes People Make When Picking a Domain

I've probably bought around 30 domains in my life. Most of them are still sitting in some registrar account, quietly renewing every year for projects I never finished. A few I regretted almost immediately. One I still can't spell correctly on the first try.

The strange thing about domains is that picking one feels small at the time, but it sticks around. It ends up in your email, on your CV, on your website, in business conversations. People type it, say it, share it. And changing it later is harder than you'd expect.

So before you buy the "perfect" name that came to you in the shower this morning, let me save you some trouble.

1. It's way too long

At one point, I bought the-best-handmade-coffee-roasters-guide.com because I thought it would help with SEO.

It didn't.

What it actually did was make everything awkward. Saying it out loud felt clumsy and a little unprofessional.

Long domains fail a simple test: if you tell someone the name once, can they type it correctly without asking again? Usually not.

2. Using too many dashes and numbers

coffee-world-24.com. Please don't do this.

I get why people pick names like this — the cleaner version is taken, and the registrar suggests adding a dash or a number as an easy fix. But that "easy fix" creates a bigger problem.

Here's what usually happens:

• People forget where the dash goes
• You keep having to explain the name
• Your email address starts to feel less professional
• Some visitors land on the wrong version

A domain should be easy to remember and easy to type. If the clean version isn't available, pick a different name entirely.

3. Ignoring the extension

In most cases, .com is still the strongest choice.

Yes, .io, .dev, or .xyz can work — I've used them too. But the issue isn't whether they work technically. It's what people expect. When someone hears a website name, most of them type .com without thinking.

So if your site is mysite.io, some people will first try mysite.com. If that address belongs to someone else, you're losing traffic without realizing it.

4. Choosing a name based on a trend

Every few years, the internet gets obsessed with a new word.

First it was "NFT." Then everything became "AI." Tomorrow it'll be something else.

The problem is simple: trends change fast. Your domain doesn't.

I know someone who built their brand around a hot word at the time. The project itself was decent, but the name aged badly — and once that happened, the whole brand started to feel outdated.

Names built on clear ideas, simple words, or clean invented words age much better than names built on hype.

5. Not checking if the name already belongs to someone

This is one of the biggest mistakes people make.

Just because a domain is available doesn't mean the name is safe to use. A brand can already hold trademark rights to that name, even if the domain itself is free. That means you could buy it, build on it, and later be forced to stop using it.

A few minutes of checking can save you from a much bigger problem later:

• Search the exact name on Google
• Check trademark databases — USPTO, EUIPO, WIPO, or your local registry
• See if the social media handles are taken
• Search GitHub too, especially for product or tool names

How I actually pick a domain now

After making enough bad choices, my process is simple:

For a small side project, this might sound like overkill. But trust me — it's much better to spend a little more time choosing the right name now than to spend years stuck with one you don't really like.

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Pick something clear, simple, and easy to live with. You'll probably be using it longer than you think.