You came up with a great business idea, thought of a few catchy business names, went to buy the domain, and boom… it’s taken. Sounds familiar?
Finding the perfect domain name for your startup can be a tedious task. Most of the good brand names have been already registered and there are hundreds of top-level domains to choose from. So where do you begin when you are trying to bring your new business idea to life?
An increasing number of small businesses launch directly on social media platforms for multiple reasons: it’s free, quick, convenient, and there’s no risk.
Unfortunately, this won’t work for everybody, especially when you need to set up an e-commerce store that is legit and credible. Having your own domain name allows you to launch a website and use @yourdomain.com in your email address.
Most of the good brand names have been already registered and there are hundreds of top-level domains to choose from.
We previously shared our own experience buying premium domains (and selling premium domains), however, this might not be the fastest route for someone without much seed capital.
Below are 4 free online tools that will help you take your domain hunt to the next level.
Before You Begin
Here are quick tips to keep in mind:
- A perfect domain contains fewer than 6 characters
- A memorable domain is easy to pronounce
- A great domain ends in .com
1. Search Specific Letter Combinations
Update: this tool is no longer working since 2021.
Short Domain Search offers an advanced feature with drop-downs to select precise letter combinations.
In addition to specific letters, you can choose “vowel” or “consonant” buckets for more flexibility, and parse through hundreds of domains in minutes.
The website has some downsides: it shows 25 results at a time, there is no way to automatically remove registered domains, and you might stumble upon false positives.
2. Use Keyword Name Generators
Update: this tool is no longer working since 2020.
Impossibility lets you combine a keyword of your choice (or any letter combination) with random English nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
You can pick the length of these words and whether you want to add them before or after your keyword.
The tool will only display a clean list of available domains that match your criteria (or let you to get more results if not happy).
3. Find Domains Across TLD’s
Domainr allows you to find available domains in real-time across the most relevant top-level domains.
The benefit is that the website highlights which domains are for sale and provides links to the marketplace where they are being sold.
You can also see which domains are parked or sold at a premium rate in a matter of seconds.
4. Snag Deleted and Expired Domains
Expired Domains is a robust tool with advanced search filters to look through the hundreds of domains that get deleted every day.
You can search using letter patterns (i.e.: CVCV or VCVC), length, dictionary word in multiple languages (including word count), backlinks, global monthly searches, AdWords competition, etc.
The website also keeps record of expired, caught, and pending delete domains, which means you can monitor what’s dropping soon.
Note that you will need to create a free account to unlock all the reports and advanced filters – but this is highly suggested.
Make sure to combine the above tools to help you find the right domain for your new business.
The good news is that there are plenty of brandable available domains out there. Finding them requires patience, conducting proper research, and getting crafty, but it’s definitely possible.
Good luck with your search! 🤩