Pick a .com extension. In most cases, .com is the best choice. This is because .com is the standard, the norm. Most users assume a company’s website will end with .com; after all, 75% of all websites have a .com extension.
Be memorable. Users must be able to easily remember your domain name/brand. As Ashley Friedlein, CEO and Co-founder of Econsultancy, said, “Brand is the sum total of how someone perceives a particular organization.” You can only have a lasting influence on how people perceive you if they actually remember you.
Be relevant. Words have implicit meanings and connotations; do a little research to ensure that your domain name communicates your desired message. Here is a quick and easy way to test a domain name: go to Amazon Mechanical Turk and run a survey with at least 100 people. Just provide your domain name (nothing else) and ask users to guess the purpose of the company. The responses you receive should provide valuable insight into any implicit meanings your domain may connote.
Easy to spell. Your domain name must be easy to spell. Avoid commonly misspelled words, intentional misspellings and hyphens. If you purchase a domain name with numerals, say 1widget.com, also purchase the domain name with the number spelled out – onewidget.com.
Sound authoritative. Your domain name should sound like a trustworthy authority. As this research brief puts it, users “demonstrate a clear preference now for credibility and trustworthiness in a domain name.” Remember Margaret Thatcher’s advice: “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” Avoid choosing a domain such as bestwidget.com.
Shorter is better. Keep your domain name short; 1 or 2 words is best. The top 100,000 websites, on average, have nine characters in their domain names.
Be unique. One of your marketing goals should be to build a distinct brand that stands out from your competitors. Start by choosing a unique and distinctive domain name. Names like YourDiscountInsuranceStore.com sound generic and unremarkable compared to names such as Google.com, Yahoo.com and Zazzle.com which sound unique.
Sourced from: searchenginejournal.com/how-your-domain-name-will-impact-seo-social-media-marketing/