AI Domain Name Finder: find an available domain for your business

How to choose a good domain name

Your domain is the address people type, say out loud and put on your van, your receipts and your social pages. A good one is easy to remember and hard to get wrong.

• Keep it short. Two or three words at most. Every extra letter is a chance to mistype it.
• Make it easy to say and spell. If you have to spell it out on the phone, people will get it wrong. Avoid words with several spellings.
• Match your business name. Customers look for the name on your sign. If that is taken, add what you do or where you are (sunnybakerynairobi.com).
• Skip hyphens and numbers. They are hard to say and easy to forget, and "sunny-bakery" loses visitors to "sunnybakery".
• Check the name is really yours to use. A name close to a well-known brand can bring a legal letter and a forced change later.
• Think about your social pages. The same name on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp Business makes you easier to find.

.com, your country's ending, or a new one?

.com is the ending people guess first, anywhere in the world. It suits a business that sells online or beyond its home country.

Your country's ending (.co.ke, .co.uk, .com.br, .fr and so on) tells customers at once that you are local, and it is often easier to get the short name you want. For a shop, a clinic or a trade that serves one town or country, it is usually the better choice.

Newer endings such as .store, .shop and .online can say what you do, but they are less familiar, so people may still type .com. If you can, take the .com and your country's ending together and point both at the same website.

The .com is taken: what now?

• Add a word that says what you do or where: sunnybakerycakes.com, sunnybakerynairobi.com.
• Try your country's ending: the name may be free there.
• Look at the name ideas above: each one comes with the domains that are still available.
• Avoid a close misspelling of someone else's domain: their customers will keep landing on it, and yours on theirs.

A taken domain is sometimes offered for sale by its owner. That can cost hundreds or thousands, so it is only worth it when the name is truly central to your business.

Domain, hosting and website: what is the difference?

The domain is your address (sunnybakery.co.ke). The hosting is where the website lives, so that it opens whenever someone visits. The website is what people see: your pages, your pictures, your prices and the way they can reach you.

On AI Web Maker you build and preview your website first, on a free preview address. When you are happy with it, you go live for $119 a year of hosting, with every tool built in, and the domain you chose is registered then (the domain itself is paid separately). Your website appears on your domain, secure with https.

How this finder checks a domain

For each ending we ask the registry that runs it, through its public records (RDAP), and look for the domain's name servers. A domain with no record at its registry is available. A few country registries do not publish their records: there, a domain that shows no sign of use is marked "probably available", and the checkout confirms it before anything is paid. We never contact the domain's owner or reserve a name you look up.

Already have a website? The AI Website SEO Checker shows how Google sees it, in about 30 seconds.