How to choose a domain name that still works in five years

Your domain is the one piece of your online identity you will live with longest, and changing it later costs you links, email and trust. Spend ten extra minutes choosing well.

Keep it short, sayable and spellable

• If someone hears it once, can they type it without asking 'how do you spell that?'

• Avoid hyphens and numbers — they get dropped or misheard.

• Avoid doubled letters across words (pen island, anyone).

Brandable beats exact-match keyword

A brandable name (like a made-up word) grows with you and can own any topic. A keyword-stuffed name (cheap-web-hosting-london) looks dated, limits you, and rarely ranks better than it used to.

Pick a trusted extension

• .com — still the default for trust and recall; get it if you can.

• .org / .net — fine, understood, mature.

• .io / .dev / .app — recognised in tech circles, weaker for general audiences.

• New generic extensions — usable, but some are treated as spam by users and filters.

Check before you fall in love

Confirm it is available, check the WHOIS for a history of spam or drops, and make sure you can get the matching handle on the platforms you use.

Protect the one you choose

• Turn on auto-renew so it never expires by accident.

• Enable registrar lock and two-factor authentication.

• Grab obvious typos or the neighbouring extension if you are building a brand.

• Consider privacy protection on the registrant contact.

Once you have the name, point it at your hosting and set up business email on it the same day, so it looks established from the start.